About Me

Bio

At age sixteen, I dreamed of starting a software company and selling it or taking it public. This was back when neither Apple nor Microsoft were household names.

I set a goal of retiring by twenty-five; I missed it, but only by five years. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to work for Steve Jobs, and to sell one of my start-ups.

After traveling through Europe and taking up music, I returned to computers with another start-up.

I currently work at Google on the Mac version of the Chrome browser.

Education

  • B.S. and M.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.

Career

  • Author of NoteBook, an award-winning note-taking and organizing application for NeXTSTEP, macOS, and iOS.
  • Created the technology that became the Internet Foundation Classes, the underpinnings of the Swing Java toolkit.
  • Started five companies, including Netcode, which was we sold to Netscape.
  • Other companies I’ve worked for: NeXT Computer, Netscape, and Google.

Press

  • Featured in NeXTWORLD Magazine, Time Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.
  • Profiled by LAWeekly.

Awards & Achievements

  • App of the Year from NeXTWORLD Magazine for NoteBook.
  • Best Utility from NeXTWORLD Magazine for Engage!
  • Best Educational Product from MacWorld UK for NoteBook.
  • Featured in the Computer History Museum’s oral history collection, a program that records and preserves the firsthand recollections of computing pioneers from around the world.
  • Full member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.