TIM
BRENNAN
Tim “Tec Timmy” Brennan is a well-known smart home enthusiast, technical writer, blogger, as well as a YouTube and TikTok creator. He is a serial entrepreneur and has founded several companies during his lifetime.
His current obsessions include this blog oneSmartcrib.com and home theater authority site UniversalRemoteReviews.com.
Articles 240 Published |
Words 850000 Written |
Devices 280 Reviewed |
My Work Story
Almost 30 years ago, I landed my first co-op assignment while attending Northeastern University in Boston. The gig was working as a quality assurance specialist for General Electric over in Lynn, MA.
I worked as part of the technical publications group there, and I was responsible for inspecting the quality of aircraft engine maintenance manuals that could be upwards of 5,000 pages. Sound like fun? LOL. It was for me. I loved the detail-oriented nature of the work. If a warning or step was missing or misplaced in a document, quite literally a plane could fall out of the sky ! No pressure.
After college, my first job was working for a nonprofit called CELT [Center for Educational Leadership & Technology]. This was in 1994, less than a year after the first graphical web browser [Mosaic] was developed by the NCSA. CELT’s mission was to integrate technology in schools. They were one of the first organizations in the U.S. to have a “T1 internet” line. I helped CELT build their web presence by hand-coding in this new markup language called HTML. CELT’s site was probably one of the first 500 sites on the web. Pretty crazy, right?
A couple of buddies and I who worked at CELT figured out that Mosiac was going to be a big deal. This led to me having a hand in founding multiple dot com companies over the next seven years. These included Web Ducks, Inc. (think websites for dummies), Splashmedia Studios, Inc., LookTrade Corporation, and OpenSite Technologies, Inc. OpenSite went on to eventually be sold to Siebel Systems for $542 million. [Yeah, not very long after I gave up all of my stock to my business partners.] No regrets!
After the dot com bubble burst along with my ego, I set my sights on MIT in Cambridge. There I worked in the IT department, both as a technical writer and on the MIT.edu website. It was an amazing experience. MIT is such an inspiring place with so many smart people. My post-MIT career led me to biotech, where I worked at Biogen, did a little stint at Millipore, and now I am at a molecular insights company focused on cancer research in Boston’s Seaport District. Biotech work is rewarding; I feel like I have hand in helping patients fight debilitating diseases.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
You might be thinking: where does the whole blog thing come in? I have always geeked out about electronic gadgets and gizmos. The advent of the smart home just takes that to a whole new level. I was an early adopter of Amazon Alexa, and it just blew me away that I could ask this cylinder device all of these random questions and she would respond immediately with an answer. You can read about my well-documented crush on Alexa in this blog post.
Blogging about smart home tech is a perfect fit for me. I get to explore some of the coolest new devices out there, plus I get to combine my love of writing, research, and the web!
So, in addition to continuing to do the technical writing thing during the day—at night and most weekends—I am blogging about technology. My goal is to make oneSmartcrib a fun, friendly, and helpful resource for all things smart home-related. It has been a labor of love for me so far. I hope you will contact me and let me know how I am doing!
Cheers,
Tim Brennan
[a.k.a. “Tec Timmy”]
On a Personal Note
I grew up on a little dead-end street in Malden, Massachusetts. Malden is a suburb of Boston, just about 20 mins north of the city.
My grandfather who emigrated there from Ireland built the house I grew up in, and I was raised by two amazing and hard-working parents. My dad was the Malden Fire Commissioner and my mom was the beloved secretary at Malden High School. We weren’t very well off, but there were always plenty of gifts under the tree for my sister and I at Christmas-time. Among them were the Lite-Brite, Atari, and a Sony Walkman.
Lite Brite is Awesome
My parents sent my sister and me to private schools, even though they surely couldn’t afford it.
So yeah, I came up in the 80s. If you decide to hang around this blog, you may notice an 80s reference or two. [OK, pretty much every post has an 80s reference, but it’s what I know!]
I’ve been divorced for several years but have two great boys named Christopher and Casey. They are older now and busy with college and life, but they are still my best buds.
Most of my free time these days is spent blogging. But I also like to work out, run, eat tacos, and binge-watch a Netflix series or two.
Here are a few more things I like:
Things I am passionate about:
Things I don’t like:
Things I am good at:
Education
This is where I try to impress you with big words like academic prowess:
1992: Northeastern University | Boston, MA
B.A. in Journalism | Minor in Communication Studies | Diploma received
Prominent Co-op Positions Held: General Electric, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Liberty Mutual Insurance.
1987-1988: Franklin Pierce University | Rindge, NH
Course of Study: Mass Communications
Fun fact: Lived in woods for a week after getting suspended from dorms for throwing an Epic party
1987: Pope John XXIII High School | Diploma Received
Course of Study: College Preparatory