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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html lang="en-US">
<head>
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<title>David A. Wheeler's Autobiography</title>
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<img align="left" src="dwheeler2003.jpg" alt="Picture of David A. Wheeler" width="150" height="240">
<font size="+3"><b>David A. Wheeler's Autobiography</b></font><br>
<p>
Well, it's not clear why, but you've decided to
read my autobiogaphy. Well, you've decided to start, anyway.
So without further ado...
<p>
I was born in 1965.
(??? time of day, get an odd factoid from mom).
The place doesn't matter, and in fact, I moved often when I was a kid.
I started playing with electronics and electronic gadgets; but then...
<p>
In 1978 I was first introduced to computers;
I first learned how to program one using BASIC on a teletype, using
a machine with 4K total memory using ferrite cores.
I took to computers like a fish takes to water, and spent almost
every waking moment learning about them and using them.
By 1982 I'd already sold programs I'd written
(an inventory control program, and a set of arcade games).
I also worked in the computing field -- at
first selling computers (which allowed me to learn in detail about a
vast amount of softwre), and later switched to consulting about computers.
<p>
I paid all of my college tuition as I went doing computer-related work.
I developed programs for small businesses,
taught various courses (such as Unix programming),
and helped in research on techniques to improve keyword-based text
search systems.
<p>
I actually stopped going to school full-time for a while to work at
a start-up called "InterPlay", where I maintained a multiuser
role-playing game (Scepter of Goth).
It's hard to explain how different the environment is now compared to then;
the Internet existed, but very few people had access to it.
This game supported up to 16 people at a time
using modem dial-ins, really low-performance computer hardware,
and tricky programming.
Internally, these games are multi-user database engines that required
sufficient performance, low latency, and consistency.
Unfortunately, although the company was meeting its projections to
profitability, the venture capitalists decided to pull the funding
before we achieved it
(a poor decision; they lost nearly all, and there's every reason to
believe they would have made lots of money if they'd just followed the graphs).
So my stock options were worthless. Ah well.
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<td valign="top">
My professional interests are in improving software development practices
for higher-risk software systems (i.e., ones which must be secure, large, and/or
<a href="http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/safety.html">safety-critical</A>).
My specialties include
<a href="https://dwheeler.com/secure-programs">writing secure programs</a>,
vulnerability assessment,
Internet/web standards and technologies,
POSIX, GNU/Linux, and
open source software / free software (OSS/FS).
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table align="center">
<tr><th>Education/Training</th><th>Awards</th></tr>
<tr><td valign="top">
<ul>
<!--
George Mason University (GMU), Certificate for Information Systems Security, 2000<br>
-->
<li>George Mason University (GMU), MS, Computer Science, 1993
<li>GMU, Certificate for Software Systems Engineering, 1993
<!-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Design and Analysis of Distributed Protocols, Summer Session, 1994 -->
<li>Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Software Capability Evaluation (SCE) Training, 1993
<li>GMU, BS, Electronics Engineering, 1987 (granted in 1988);
graduation with distinction
</ul>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<ul>
<li>Computer Science Graduate Honor Roll Award
<li>Ada Programming Contest Award <!-- 1995 -->
<li>Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society
<li>George Washington University Engineering Award
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
<b>Published books:</b>
<ul>
<li><i>Software Inspection: An Industry Best Practice</i> by
David A. Wheeler, Bill Brykczynski, and Reginald N. Meeson, Jr.
(IEEE Computer Society Press)
<li>
<i><a href="https://dwheeler.com/lovelace">Ada 95: The Lovelace Tutorial</a></i> by David A. Wheeler
(Springer-Verlag)
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/secure-programs">
<i>Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO</i></a> by David A. Wheeler
(self-published)
</ul>
<p>
<b>Public/Published articles:</b><br>
Most of my written work is <i>not</i> publicly available.
However, if I can make it publicly available, I try to host it on
<a href="https://dwheeler.com/">my website</a>
or at least reference it there.
Here are some of my publicly-available works, some professional, and
some fun:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/secure-programs/">Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO (information on creating secure software)</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/securing-windows.html">Securing Microsoft Windows (for Home and Small Business Users)</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/scm-security.html">Software Configuration Management (SCM) Security</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html">Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/gpl-compatible.html">Make Your Open Source
Software GPL-Compatible. Or Else</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/scm.html">Comments on Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS) Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/sloc/">More than a Gigabuck: Estimating GNU/Linux’s size</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/program-library/">Linux Program Library HOWTO</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/innovation/innovation.html">The Most Important Software Innovations</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/chess-openings/">A Garden of Chess Openings</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/Fischer_Random_Chess.html">Fischer Random Chess (Chess960)</a>
<li><a href="https://dwheeler.com/fourfours/">The Definitive Four Fours Answer Key</a>
</ul>
<p>
Other personal works of mine include the
<a href="http://www.tldp.org">Linux man pages</a>
for uri(7) and the rewrite of man(7) and mdoc(7).
<p>
<b>Interviews</b><br>
The insatiably curious can see some
interviews of me by
<!-- <a href="http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask.html">Red Hat</a>, -->
<a href="http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-6.html">LinuxSecurity.com</a>,
<a href="essays/under-brim.html">Red Hat</a>,
<a href="http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/04/02/179211.shtml">NewsForge (on proprietary vs. OSS/FS TCO studies)</a>,
<!-- disappeared:
<a href="http://searchEnterpriseLinux.techtarget.com/onlineEventsTranscript/0,289691,sid16_gci523052,00.html">SearchEnterpriseLinux.com</a>, and
-->
and
<!-- was http://www.fosdem.org/interviews/1568.html -->
<a href="essays/fosdem2002-interview.html">FOSDEM 2002</a>.
<p>
<b>Mentions</b><br>
I've been thanked by various folks for my suggestions, such as for
<a href="http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050130002908154">
my XML expertise while participating in the development of the Open Document standard</a>, and
by Eric S. Raymond for contributing "many
perceptive criticisms and some case-study material, especially in the design"
in his book
<a href="http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?btob=&ean=9780131429017&TXT=Y&displayonly=PRF">
The Art of Unix Programming</a>.
<p>
<b>Hobbies/Personal Info</b><br>
My hobbies include chess, singing (bass), and
reading (especially science fiction and fact).
I also play the piano, guitar, tuba, and baritone horn, though
never at the same time.
I live in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC.
I'm a Christian;
<a href="xian.html">more information about Christianity is available</a>.
<p>
<b>Why the middle initial?</b><br>
I always use my middle initial in anything written
(including information on the web), because there are a number of
other David Wheelers.
For example,
David John Wheeler (now deceased) was the creator of the
<a href="http://www.simonshepherd.supanet.com/tea.htm">
Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA)</a> (a somewhat popular encryption algorithm
unencumbered by patents), and is credited with
co-inventing the subroutine.
David E. Wheeler is President of Kineticode,
a content management and software development consulting company
based in Portland, and is the
lead developer for Bricolage (an OSS/FS content management system);
you can contact him using the address "david" at justatheory dot com.
<p>
See
<a href="contactme.html">my contact information</a> if you want
to contact me.
Or,
<a href="https://dwheeler.com">see my personal home page</a>.
</body>
</html>