About this
Of shoes and chips and software hacks is written and produced by Bruce Jacob.
It is a collection of essays and observations, the most valuable of which concern memory systems, computer systems, operating systems, software design, startup companies, and electric guitars … largely because those are the only fields in which the author actually knows something worth saying. The rest is all gibberish, for the most part. Unless any of it makes any sense to you, in which case it’s all quite brilliant and intentionally so.
Here is what the guy looks like, picture taken on the top of a small mountain near Tegernsee (in the German Alps south of Munich).
It was during the ISLPED 2006 conference at Tegernsee that he discovered the Germans, and presumably all other Europeans as well, will climb to the top of the nearest mountain at the drop of a hat. Wearing sport coats and dress shoes. Like you or I would go for a Sunday stroll after church. How cool is that?
Brief Historical Tour
Jacob grew up in Cambridge MA, Columbus OH, Macon GA, and St. Petersburg FL.
He went to college at Harvard, majored in math (and a little astronomy), and played varsity football (woo!).
After teaching high school for a year, he worked as a software developer for two start-up companies in the Boston area: Boston Technology (employee 65 or thereabouts) and Priority Call Management (employee 2, system architect). Both startups thrived — BT is now Comverse; PCM is now uReach.
After creating PCM’s initial product and installing it in the Dallas convention center, he went to grad school at the University of Michigan for a Ph.D. in computer engineering (dissertation research on operating systems, virtual memory, and processor design).
He is now a professor at the University of Maryland, where he does research in computer memory systems, helps design next-generation supercomputers, and builds electric guitars (no, really).
He has written a few books on memory systems … the first (~1000pp) has been called the “memory-systems Bible” and is co-written with Dave Wang and Spencer Ng; the second (~100pp) is an in-depth overview of the topic, including the field’s open issues and future directions.
Link to day job: click here for more detailed bio and contact info.
The Other Bruce Jacob
There is a far more famous (and far cooler) Bruce Jacob out on the net. That one happens to be this one’s dad. If you’re a lawyer, yes, it’s the guy you think it is.
