Name: Bill Day
Title: Technology Evangelist
Company: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Contact Info:
http://www.billday.com
How I arrived at my present job (academic and other influences): I have emersed myself in Java technology for the last 3-4 years, both in graduate school and in industry (Honeywell, Silicon Graphics). I have also written a number of articles for JavaWorld magazine over the last two years, and have spoken frequently on Java-based multimedia and distributed computing. All of these experiences helped me to find my current position.
How I organize my day: Check email and read technical and computing news first thing in the morning. Meetings, meetings, meetings throughout the day. Work on columns and upcoming presentations in the afternoon and into the evenings. When I am traveling, my schedule becomes mostly speaking, visiting customers, and moving on to the next destination. Lots of late night dial-up sessions from the road!
Amount of time spent working daily (at home and office): Probably 10-12 hours on average.
What I do to get myself thinking creatively: Go hiking in the Sierra Nevada or biking in nature preserves near my home with my wife.
My problem-solving strategy: Whiteboard it!
What I do to relieve stress: Hike, bike, and get into the outdoors.
My hero, mentor, or person I most admire and why: The Dalai Lama, for standing for what is right and doing it peacefully. In the end, Tibet will be free and the world will see the value in the peaceful approach that he has espoused for all of these years.
What I do to mentor those who work for me: N/A
How a negative event changed my life in a positive way: After a year of graduate school, I was not finding my heart "in it". I was not sure what to do. When I stepped back and allowed myself to consider that maybe I did not need a PhD after all (something I had planned to achieve for a long time), it freed me to move into industry and start pursuing my real dreams. I love my job with Sun more than anything!
One event or decision in my life I wish I could go back and change: Should have stuck with little league baseball. And maybe should have taken the fifth year of my undergrad scholarship and done some study abroad.
What values are the most important to me and what I value in others: Honesty. This is the foundation for all of my professional and personal commitments. I appreciate it when others are honest with me, and I weigh myself by measuring my honesty in dealings with others.
What inspires, motivates, or gets me excited about my job on a daily basis: I get to work with the technology that I love and in so doing help others realize their dreams (and products)! It is a win-win scenario for me, my employer, and the ISVs and partners with which I work. And at the same time, I get to travel throughout the world, immerse myself however briefly in new cultures, learn new languages, and explore.
Biography: Bill Day is a Technology Evangelist for Sun Microsystems and an ACM Distinguished Lecturer. Bill focuses on consumer and embedded Java technologies for Sun. Before joining Sun, Bill worked as a software engineer at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. Bill's projects at SGI included design and implementation of next generation interfaces for SGI's WebFORCE MediaBase streaming media product and testing of SGI's award winning Cosmo Code Java development environment. Before SGI, Bill worked briefly at the Honeywell Research Center, Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
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Location: www.acm.org/crossroads/dayinlife/bios/bill_day.html