DaBeaz LLC is David Beazley.

My story...

I am originally from Denver, Colorado which is where I spent my formative years. In college, I spent a lot of time roaming around various places in the west including New Mexico, Utah, and Oregon. However, I have since adopted Chicago as my favorite place to work and live (even though the skiing still leaves a lot to be desired).

I've never been much of a "joiner" or one who follows the crowd. If anything, I've always tended to just do my own thing---which is usually whatever I happen to be curious about at the time.

Computers

I've been programming computers for about 30 years. My first encounter with a computer was in elementary school when I took a computer course down at the local community college. I distinctly remember learning to write programs on punch cards that were most likely fed to some sort of IBM 360. Shortly after that I moved up to my first personal computer---an Ohio Scientific Superboard II system with a whopping 8K of RAM. I pretty much lived on that machine for the better part of 3 years until I upgraded to an Apple 2--at which point I lived on that machine instead. Most of that time was spent figuring out how it worked, programming video games, and dissecting the operating system. I learned a lot about computers back then--especially with regard to assembly language programming and reverse engineering.

Dave's first computer

From 1986-1987, I ran a popular dial-up BBS in the Denver area that specialized in public domain software for the Apple 2 and Amiga computers. These kids these days---they don't know anything about dialing up at 1200 baud or chatting with the sysop.

In college, I initially thought I would study computer science, but found the classes to be rather uninspiring. So, I decided to study math and physics instead. I eventually went on to receive a masters degree in math where I ended up specializing in numerical analysis with a mix of physics classes thrown in for fun. I didn't get back into computers until I got the opportunity to program the 1024 processor Connection Machine 5 supercomputer down at Los Alamos. This machine was just sadistic enough to suit my tastes I think. At that time, these machines were fairly new and unproven---thus, there weren't really any rules on how to program them.

The Connection Machine 5

These days, I've moved beyond the insanity of the supercomputing world to focus on dynamic languages such as Python where everything is more fun and interesting.

Academic Career

In 1990, I was fortunate to get an internship position at Los Alamos National Laboratory. For the next eight years, I worked part-time in the Theoretical Physics division while pursuing my Ph.D. In 1998, I received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah and was hired as a big-shot tenure-track professor at the University of Chicago. In this job, I suppose I achieved a certain amount of notoriety (for instance, I even won a prestigious NSF Career Award). However, I have to admit that I never really clicked with all of the ins and outs of academic politics. Frankly, I found that I'd much rather just be working on my own little coding projects than worrying about that stuff. In 2005, I left the University to take a bit of break and start working on the next big thing.

• My Academic Publications.

Activities

In my spare time, I like to play music, ride my bike, and downhill ski (weather and time permitting). In 2003, I decided to learn how to play jazz piano. After many classes and private lessons, I found myself playing with Jazz Conspiracy in venues around the city. Considering that I couldn't play piano at all when I started, this whole experience was an almost surreal ride. Although my main interest has been jazz piano, my most insane adventure so far might be the short stint in which I played keyboards/synth in an ill-fated No Doubt tribute band.

Dave rocking out. Er, that's Dave over on the far right.

Consulting

I sometimes work as a consultant on outside software projects. However, I am only likely to consider projects that are highly unusual or interesting. My professional CV is available here.

Some random trivia

• I once visited the birthplace of Lawrence Welk and Graceland on the same road-trip---even though a check of the map indicates that this must have been highly improbable (and of rather questionable sanity).
• I once took last place in a programming contest.
• I also once got an F in the same subject I would later go on to study in college (math). Okay, maybe I should have spent more time on homework and less time on the computer.
• I can juggle 4 balls, but would someday like to master 5.
• I have never used PowerPoint.
• I have exactly 0 online friends---take that MySpace and Facebook!
• I killed my TV in 1998 and haven't missed it one damn bit.
• I watched the attacks of September 11, 2001, live in Beijing, China. The only other thing on TV (in English) at the same time was "Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me".
• I cheated certain death and survived my flight into O'Hare airport on January 1, 2000.
• Yes, I have chili lights hanging in my apartment.