|
| Personal background |
|---|
99
PROFESSIONALI am a computer software developer with over twenty years of experience, most of it acquired working in Silicon Valley. There, I worked for Apple Computer (speech recognition R&D), Amdahl (expert systems), Borland International (C compiler), AT&T (voice e-mail), General Magic (telephony), and several high-tech startups.
I have a solid background in object-oriented design and development and am an affecianado of design patterns. I've been a BASIC programmer since 1978, a C programmer since 1983, a C programmer since 1987, and a Java programmer since 1995. I've also done commercial programming in FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, PL/I, and various assembly languages.
I was a college teacher (computer science) for three years in the early 1980's.
Since 1999, I have been working as an independent consultant on Web-centric client/server application design and development projects in Chicago, IL and Austin, TX.
PERSONALI am a conservatory-trained classical guitarist. I enjoy reading science fiction (ala William Gibson) and non-fiction (astronomy, astrophysics, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering). I guess I'm in the right place! I’m a frustrated artist (inherited talent, never fully developed). Occasionally, I indite a work of short-form science fiction prose or poetry. Occasionally, I'm pleased with the result.
I'd like my epitaph to read: "He was right! And look where it got him."
|
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
|---|
| I run the data analysis tool in the background on an HP Pavilion desktop (2.0 GHz Pentium 4, 256 MB RAM). Â I don't notice it's there at all (except for the increase in CPU and cabinet temperature due to running the Pentium at 100% capacity continuously). I think it's a very worthwhile use of the, otherwise wasted, CPU cycles.Attempts to acquire knowledge, insofar as they respect human rights and do the least possible harm to other living things, are always worthwhile. Given our infant life form's track record, raising the level of our knowledge about our environment (terrestrial and extraterrestrial) may be our only chance to survive to maturity.Perhaps, given a few million years, we will evolve (or build) a higher form of intelligence. Meanwhile, I hope there is intelligence superior to ours out there and that it is ready, willing, and able to keep our destructive tendencies firmly in check until we can rid ourselves of them permanently. |
| Your feedback on this profile |
|---|
| Recommend this profile for User of the Day: |
I like this profile |
| Alert administrators to an offensive profile: |
I do not like this profile |
|
|
