Robin Capper recently tagged me in his article entitled:
There are two schools of thought on this. One is that readers just want the facts about the products. Hence I rarely include anecdotes about trying to find cough syrup in France or other personal experiences. The other is that a person's blog should reflect his personality. Readers want to feel like they are hanging out with the author. To date, I have mostly stuck with the former, but this posting will reflect the latter. So here goes:
In 1978 I almost lost my college academic scholarship for writing a Trojan Horse program that simulated the Multics login session and captured the user's password. Luckily I had already turned in my program to the Computer Administration department (as a sample of something bad that could happen) before it was unscrupulously used by a fellow student who got his hands on it.
I wrote the original CGM driver for the HOOPS graphics system. Prior to working for Ithaca software, I had no experience with computer graphics, C, or the PC (I was a Multics/Unix guy). But other than that, I was perfect for the job. Cornell graduates Carl Bass, Jeff Kowalski, Brian Mathews, and Milt Capsimalis taught me most of what I know about 3D graphics. As Milt used to say "I taught Scott everything he knows. I just didn't teach him everything I know."
I was the guy who had to break it to the AutoCAD R14 development team, mostly Unix programmers, that we weren't going to support Unix anymore - only Windows. Most of the developers did not know me yet, since Ithaca Software had only recently been acquired by Autodesk. I started the conversation with "Hi. I am Scott Sheppard, and I am a Unix programmer..." I think some developers burned me in effigy.
Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass, and I share the same birthday. He is a few years older, so my turn to be CEO does not come up for a few years.
Teaching a class at Autodesk University 2006 was my debut at public speaking. The public speaking thing takes some getting used to. It is not my strength. Typing is so much easier. This probably puts a crimp in that CEO plan.
I am now tagging John Cronin and Melanie Stone Perry. Owen Wengerd was probably right when he pointed out this 5 things deal "sounds suspiciously like bloggers patting each other on the back." I admit that this posting has nothing to suggest that DWF goes beyond the paper.
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