Opinionated, particularly on subjects I love (bridge, software design, William Blake, history, economics, ...), rather competent, often helpful, often given to flaming. Searching Google Groups for the thousands of usenet posts I've made over the years will give a pretty accurate picture of me (in particular, it will be bafflingly complex and contradictory;-), but you may also want to see http://www.aleax.it (in both English and Italian) -- it's been quite a while since I last edited that, but, that might change. Better-updates is my Google Profile, http://www.google.com/profiles/aleaxit (in English).
Current interests include Python, Agile Programming, Design Patterns, Linux, agile development, several bridge issues (Kaplan-Sheinwold, card play, statistical and combinatorial analysis of bridge-related issues, ...), a few historical ones (late Roman Republic most of all), some economics issues (particularly, these days, behavioral economics and asymmetric-information economics), high-quality movies, technical management of software development, statistics, data mining, Google App Engine, business intelligence, and more.
I currently work as Senior Staff Engineer (Partner Solutions / Business Intelligence) for Google. On my homepage you'll find copies of several (old-ish) Python-related articles and presentations I've written; many videos of my presentations can be found by searching for my name on Google Video, much else (interviews, PDFs, &c) by just searching Google. I have also written a few questions and thousands of answers on Stack Overflow, see http://stackoverflow.com/users/95810/alex-martelli . You can write me at aleaxit@gmail.com (can't guarantee I'll answer!-). The Python books I've written for O'Reilly are available online as part of O'Reilly's "Safari" service, http://my.safaribooksonline.com/ -- subscribing to Safari costs money, but the first two weeks are free, so, I suggest you give it a try, as a cheap but convenient way to read my books:-).