Below is a timeline of my experience with technology. Lets turn the way back machine to 1982…
1982
- I see TRON and watch it another 52 times on my grandma’s VCR. I’m not sure if it was a bootleg video or not, but at any rate, I’m banned from watching TRON after my 53rd viewing. I’m convinced I want to learn to program…if only I had a computer!
1983
- WarGames comes out and I watch that countless times, again on my grandma’s VCR. Where does she get these great movies? I think it has something to do with my uncle, Larry Coopet, who, among many great achievements, will be part of the original team that develops Photoshop.
- Note – The title ‘WarGames’ uses a mixed-case style familiar to programmers instead of a more traditional style like ‘War Games’ or ‘War-games’. Coincidence?
- Dad buys an Apple //e complete with 128k Extended 80 Column card and duo disk! Also about this time, I become friends with Mark Matthews who has an IBM PC Jr. Mark will go onto write *the* JDBC driver for MySQL.
- I spend the summer writing an arcade game using shape tables. I am first exposed to the consequences of not saving frequently and have to re-type my pixel maps, all in machine code.
1984
- I write my first simple text parser and ‘database’ for a text-based adventure game complete with a graphic splash screen. I reuse that database for a school project that stores information about military nuclear weapons, including MIRV, MARV capabilities. I reuse it again for another school project that stores constellations.
1985
- Santa serves up a 1200 baud modem. I learn the concept of upload/download ratios. I also learn ATDT while writing a homebrew terminal program.
1986
- I order a 65C02 chip upgrade for the //e so I can do mousetext.
1988
- My Apple //e is ancient history. Even though Amiga is sweet, the PCs are taking over! I ditch computers for skateboarding…
1991
- I take a ‘computer’ class in high school for an easy grade and become a teaching assistant. I decide on computer science for my major in college.
1993
- I am in my first year of computer science courses at the University of Minnesota and learn the power of UNIX and Mosaic.
1994
- I begin work at my first ‘real job’, coding and designing websites for Internet 5. I meet Joel Nordell, a fantastic programmer, unix geek and, a rarity among programmers, a talented website designer.
1995
- Joel and I write a web-based forum program, complete with an tag based scripting language for customization.
1996
- We take that scripting language and grow it into a full blown rapid web development tool. Based on simple XML tags, before the term XML is known, we call it Simple Markup Programming Language (SMPL). We start cranking out all sorts of database backed web-apps in record time. Alternative web development on Linux at this time consists of building apps in mod_perl, shell scripting or clunky C/C++ libraries.
1997
- Using our SMPL language, I build SMPLSite, a browser based site management tool for every day users featuring WYSIWYG content editing and remote file management. My work is shown to the head of Imation Internet Studio by a friend and, after a brief interview and salary negotiation, I leave Internet 5 for Imation Internet Studio.
1998
- Having had my fill of DHTML, CSS and Javascript, I become interested in high performance distributed object architectures. Corba, RMI are all the rage as are expensive application server licenses. ATG Dynamo is gaining traction, BEA Weblogic is starting to heat up and Web Sphere is rightfully nicknamed Webs Fear. I leave Imation Internet Studio and join Eliance on the promise of working on a fully distributed, Java based credit card payment processing system.
1999
- I work nearly a year on a homebrew, fault-tolerant, distributed component architecture based on Objectspace Voyager. I work with Matthew Dornquast, Chief Architect and future business partner, and the best development team venture capital can buy in Minnesota.
2000
- Eliance is transformed into Webhelp and shifts focus from payment processing to online customer service. One weekend I write a plugin that allows you to talk to the Webhelp recommendation engine via Yahoo IM. The CEO of Webhelp sees it and the next day the company is marketing/selling it as a product, literally. The promise of a stock option payday is thwarted by the dot com bust.
2001
- Matthew Dornquast, Brian Bispala and I decide its time to start our own software company. Code 42 starts in a small, subletted office in Minneapolis’s warehouse district and soon moves to the opulent grandness of my basement. Think melanin sheets nailed to 2×4 studded basement walls. The dream to one day develop our own software products has started!
2002
- To fund our software product development dream, Code 42 needs some capital. We sign on to design and develop the Sun Country Airlines website, complete with online booking for air, hotels and car rentals. My primary contribution is the site design and layout. It will be my last major website design work as we now have in-house design professionals!
2002-present
- It’s been 8 years since we started in my basement. Code 42 Software, Inc. is now busy developing and supporting our popular backup product, CrashPlan
- We’re located in a very swank downtown Minneapolis office space with a team of fifteen extremely senior architects and designers. We’re proudly 100% financed by our own hard work and dedication.
