About the Author

I first started writing software and using the Internet (or ARPAnet as it was known back then) in my teens back in the mid-1970’s – nearly 40 years ago. I love high–tech, and I’m passionate about my work.

After graduating from UC Santa Barbara in 1979, I went to work at the Rand Corporation, where I continued my involvement with Unix, C, and the Internet. During the 1980s, I moved back to Silicon Valley, where I specialized in low–level operating systems (OS) work, performance tuning, and network–oriented applications. I managed a group that did one of the first ports of Unix to a microprocessor, and developed a high–performance XNS–based network stack. I also wrote several 3-D scientific animation systems and a gate array placement package.

In the early 1990s, I began working with real–time systems. I wrote a custom real–time OS that was used in the US Navy’s F-18 aircraft. I developed real–time applications that were used in spacecraft and associated ground support systems, including a system called the Stellar Compass that measures vehicle attitude using digital images of stars. That software has flown to the Moon, to Mars three times, and to a comet and back. I was also the principal architect and designer of the ground system and various flight software components for one of the world’s first commercial imaging satellites.

I was very enthusiastic about managed languages when I first heard about them, and about Java in particular. One of the first large–scale things I developed with Java was an audio conferencing system. I helped architect and build several large–scale Java–based data–intensive web sites and web applications, including one that was designed to be deployed to and used by 20 million set–top boxes to provide the Internet over TV. My last Java–based project was building a document–management–oriented filesystem; I am the primary inventor of several related patents.

I went to work for Microsoft in late 1999. My first project there was to develop a comprehensive architecture to deliver MSN content via TV–oriented middleware platforms such as WebTV using C#, ASP.NET, and SQL Server. A few years later, after completing development of the initial system, I moved to the Microsoft Technology Center, where I began working with and advising some of Microsoft’s largest customers regarding the .NET and SQL Server–oriented aspects of their system architectures.

Recurring themes in my career have been a focus on performance and reliability. The software development process is another long–time interest of mine, because I’ve seen first–hand how much of an impact it can have on the success or failure of a project.

In December 2006, my family and I left the intensity of Silicon Valley and moved to beautiful New Zealand, where we currently live. My hobbies include ham radio (callsign ZL2HAM), tracking asteroids, and photography.