Developer of software since childhood in the early 80s, making Rich old (wise), weathered (experienced), and a lover of 80s synth pop and electronica. Fortunate to have spent over 25 years doing what he loves, and more amazingly, getting paid to do it. Rich's past work includes a stint in the gaming industry (EA) and working on the vaunted audio recognition technology behind the Shazam application. After years of development mostly behind the scenes on server software, Rich has found new joy in building creative, dynamic, user focused interfaces and experiences for iOS.
Faithful believer that the highest form of software creation is an art — a worthy craft that must be nurtured and pursued. Obsessed with the creation and form of code that exudes its intent without encouragement.
Many moons ago, I watched a TV show called Whiz Kids. It had that kid, Albert, from Little House on the Prairie who graduated from shoveling hay to being a computer nerd helping solve modern day injustices. That show ignited an interest, fostered by an IBM employee who was a parent of one of the kids in my 5th grade class who donated time to teach a small group of kids how to use a computer. Once a week he would cart an original IBM PC to a classroom in the rural Texas elementary school and teach us the intricacies of DOS and how a computer functions.
A year or so later, I received my first computer, an Atari 800XL with a tape drive along with a subscription to Compute! magazine. The obsession had begun.
Entering games in assembly from the Compute! magazines was entertaining and all, but the real fun began when I discovered the world of BBS’s. The local library had a PC XT clone with a 300bps Hayes Modem. A summer spent at the library opened up the world of online communication and the phenomenon known as bulletin board systems. From then on until the pervasiveness of the Internet, my time was spent either programming BBS systems or games, participating in BBS communications, or running my own BBS. From Atari to IBM to Commodore to my precious Amigas, from Basic to Pascal to Modula-2 to C to C++ to Java and finally my beloved Objective-C, every moment not already committed to the normal activities of a teenager or college student was usurped in all things computer.
My hobby led to a career in software development and management, including a stint at Electronic Arts, working on games - the pinnacle of software development geekness. Today, I spend my days leading development teams to build the next popular mobile apps for companies like Fox News and ESPN on the brilliant mobile platform from Apple with iOS. When I'm not exercising my development skills at my day job, most of my non-sleeping hours not dedicated to my children and wonderful wife are spent toiling away at the computer.