2009 was an interesting year. Yes, I know that 99.9999% of the people on planet earth will think of the quote, "may you live in interesting times" and incorrectly attribute it to an ancient quote. But as I stated back in August of this year:
The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson writes a very interesting article almost a year ago dispelling the age old myth about the origins of the phrase"May you live in interesting times"
As Mr. Robinson wrote on November 27th, 2008: "May you live in interesting times" is supposed to be an ancient Chinese curse, but I can't find evidence that the saying is Chinese at all, much less that it's ancient. One of the earliest reliable citations seems to be a 1950 short story by the British science-fiction author Eric Frank Russell, writing under the pen name Duncan H. Munro, who quotes the imprecation and then adds: "It isn't a curse any more. It's a blessing."
Near the top of the list in 2009 was a very interesting year as Oracle announced its intent to purchase Sun. I have lots of friends at Oracle. I have long ago accepted that Sun Microsytems will become a very important chapter in the history of computing. It was a great ride with memories I would not trade for the world.
As Chief Technologist for Sun's Global Systems Engineering Software Line Of Business, I had the great opportunity to work and continue to work for James Hollingshead, VP of GSE SW LOB. I had the opportunity to work with customers and partners around the globe for Sun. I also traveled internationally as well in my global role.
In 2010 I am looking forward to many new challenges. It would have been 23 years with Sun Microsystems on May 4th, 2010 - so a change is probably long over due :-) The reason I did not look outside of Sun is because it provided everything that anyone could ask for in a job/career. I had a number of GREAT bosses.
In almost 23 years at Sun I have been in a number of technical leadership positions while working with a broad range of software and hardware technologies. I worked with both commercial and government markets.
I was the "father" of the Mid Atlantic Area Technology Center for Sun. This multi-million dollar Center had over 300 customers through it in just over seven years and had posted world class industry leading benchmarks. The Center won the 1996 World Wide System Engineering Creativity Award. This was in addition to my "day job" and was an all volunteer group of Systems Engineers that provided support at this Center. As Scott McNealy would say, "we kicked butt and we had fun".
I was the leader of a group that created the Software Genius University which had over 760 hours of technical content that was created by Sun's field Systems Engineers (SEs) for Sun's SEs and Sun's Partners.
In 2006 I worked with Dr. David Patterson of UCB to create the MTConnect machine tool standard. MTConnect is revolutionizing the machine tool industry.
In 2010, below are my career thoughts:
In 2010, below are my career thoughts:
1) I want to work for a great company.
2) I want to work with creative, smart and passionate employees.
3) I want to work for a company that is truly making a
difference in the market place and is growing.
4) When John Gage coined the term, "The Network is the
Computer" in 1984, that phrase summarizes my belief where the
most interesting opportunities are today and will be tomorrow.
Cloud Computing is simply the latest manifestation of John's
vision.
5) I want to work for a company that believes in open systems.
2) I want to work with creative, smart and passionate employees.
3) I want to work for a company that is truly making a
difference in the market place and is growing.
4) When John Gage coined the term, "The Network is the
Computer" in 1984, that phrase summarizes my belief where the
most interesting opportunities are today and will be tomorrow.
Cloud Computing is simply the latest manifestation of John's
vision.
5) I want to work for a company that believes in open systems.
6) Most importantly, I want to make a difference.
