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[Plug] Planning noon time speaker at Drexel "jon maddog hall" - Topic
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Date: October 21 1999
Time: Noon
Sponsor: Avenue of the Technology
Auditorium: TBD
Topic: From Hell to Eternity or "We never had it so good".
So you "suffer" from only having 32 Megabytes of main memory in your
PC? Your disk drive is so small it can only hold 15 or twenty MPEG-3
songs? Your graphics card is so old that it only does 1024x768 at
256 colors? You gripe to your parents because your 100 MHZ pentium
system will only allow you to recompile your computer project fifteen or
twenty times a day?
Listen as a Drexel Alumni speaks of the days before Computer Science,
in the days of "Computer Black Magic", when (and if) you spoke of a
Megabyte of main memory, it cost over a hundred thousand dollars (and
that was when a hundred thousand dollars meant something). The days
when getting one compile a day meant that you were doing well.
Hear how modern day PCs and the Linux Operating System will
revolutionize the teaching of computer science.
The talk at the DECUS LUG will be:
Freedom's Just Another Word for DECUS
With all the hype around "Free Software" and "Open Source", the
speaker will be pointing out that DECUS was there first, and often
with the most. Join in a retrospect of free software and DECUS,
along with where Linux could take DECUS into the future.
Jon "maddog" Hall's Bio:
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director, Linux International
Director of Linux Evangelism, VA Linux Systems
Jon "maddog" Hall is the Executive Director of Linux International
(www.li.org), a non-profit vendor organization dedicated to the promotion
of the Linux Operating System. His salary is graciously paid by VA Linux
Systems (www.valinux.com), where he holds the title of "Director of Linux
Evangelism".
Jon is active in promoting the Linux operating system. Linux is a freely
distributable re-implementation of the UNIX operating system.
Previous to this job, Jon joined the UNIX group at Digital Equipment
Corporation in 1983. For sixteen years Jon had been an engineer, product
manager, and technical marketing manager for Digital UNIX products. Jon has
received numerous awards for contributions to the UNIX product, including
receiving the first "UNIX Partner's Award", a peer-level award for
dedication
to the UNIX operating system. Jon was instrumental in developing Digital's
(then Compaq's) Linux strategy, and in having Linux ported to the Alpha
system.
Jon also had Digital join Linux International as the first system vendor.
Jon has been in the computer field since 1968, having received
a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in the United
States. Jon founded the Drexel Computer Society in 1969. It was
at Drexel that Jon programmed on a Digital LINC-8 computer (serial
number 3), and Digital's PDP-8 line of computers in assembly language.
He was first employed by AEtna Life and Casualty as a systems
programmer, programming in Basic Assembly Language on IBM MFT, MVT, VS1,
VS2, MVS and VM/CMS systems. Jon then worked on Data Base design for
AEtna. While writing an early version of a relational database for
an online TP system for Aetna, Jon obtained his M.S. in Computer Science
from Renselear Polytechnic Institute.
Jon left AEtna to teach at Hartford State Technical College (HSTC), where he
was quickly promoted to Department Head for Computer Science. At the
same time Jon developed and taught courses in operating system design,
compiler design, database design, systems analysis and design, as well
as several different computer languages. Jon used Digital's PDP 11/70
and PDP 11/34 computer systems at HSTC, along with the RSTS/E and RT-11
operating systems.
Jon left full-time teaching in 1980 to work for Bell Laboratories as a
senior systems administrator for their UNIX systems. He continued to
teach at night for four years at Merrimack College, where he received
an award for teaching excellence.
Jon started his career programming on large IBM mainframes in Basic Assembly
Language, but his career improved dramatically when he was introduced to
Digital's PDP-11 line of computers as chairman of the Computer Science
Department at Hartford State Technical College. There he spent four glorious
years teaching students the value of designing good algorithms, writing good
code, and living an honorable life. He has also been known to enjoy
discussing aspects of computer science over pizza and beer with said
students.
maddog (as his students named him, and as he likes to be called) often
speaks
at local user groups and universities and in his spare time is writing the
business plan for his retirement business:
Maddog's School of Microcomputing and Microbrewing
(R) UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open.
(R) Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
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