Josh’s computing career started in the fifth grade, when his mother brought home a TRS-80 Model 1 for the weekend. Josh commandeered the equipment and set himself to the task of learning BASIC that weekend. When the computer was mysteriously repossessed under maternal authority, Josh simply resorted to writing programs similar to the legendary “Pong” and biorhythms long-hand, on legal pads. Later, when the computer was restored to Josh’s possession, he “fat-fingered” and debugged the programs. Still hiding in a closet somewhere is a plastic bag of cassettes teeming with stored information -- his ”Trash-80” didn’t use floppies. “I’m sure the bits have rotted by now, and I’m sure I could write equivalent programs in a few minutes these days, but I just can’t bear the thought of throwing those [tapes] away,” he confesses, uncovering that tendency among techies to compulsively squirrel away every little “bit”.

In high school Josh upgraded to a Commodore 64 and an Apple II. His was a prolific coder and eventually he started his own company to publish software. The goal of the company was to publish quality, educational software, which the market was lacking at the time. Josh’s parents, both educational psychologists, had years of combined experience in designing instructional materials. Josh took it upon himself to turn their concepts into code, and the result was some pretty innovative software. Most noteworthy among the company’s projects was a series of programs that allowed severely physically and mentally disabled children to interact with computers. According to Josh, “It was pretty neat watching these kids make things happen on the computer screen when their entire range of motion was raising an eyebrow.

College consisted of three short years at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where Josh graduated with a perfect GPA. In 1988, Josh joined the Advanced Simulation Unit of BBN (Bolt Beranek & Newman, now part of GTE) where he researched and created war games, artificial intelligence, virtual worlds and other advanced graphics software. In 1996, Josh signed on as a consultant for Lockheed (the big fish that swallowed up both Loral and BBN Advanced Simulation). It was during this year that he wrote the game code to “bootstrap” his company, Kaon Interactive, Inc.

Moving up the ladder of success was not without its trials for Josh. His most haunting technical snafu came in seventh grade when the power went out and Josh lost a program he’d been writing on his Apple II. So, what lessons did he cull from this disaster? First, save early; save often. Second, make backups regularly. Next, if your computer crashes and some work is lost, remain calm. “It won’t take that long to get back to where you were before the crash, and the result will generally be superior to what you lost,” advises Josh.

Finally, with Big Projects (capital “b”, capital “p”), it’s important to throw away your entire source tree every couple of years. “It’s okay to go back to your original source to glean good algorithms and such, but don’t constrain yourself to the original design.”

This last lesson was especially valuable during the defense contract work Josh did for BBN. “The simulation we built for the original SIMNET [Simulation Network] program, which linked virtual reality tank simulators, provided artificially intelligent bad guys to fight against and AI good guys to fight alongside. That evolved over about a decade and had gotten completely out of control.” Convincing a huge government client (like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to dispose of their original design was a real challenge for Josh and his colleagues. “If I have something that is functioning, why should I pay for a re-write?” is the mindset of most project financiers. Fortunately, a forward-thinking Navy commander backed the experiment. The result was superior software architecture with the same functionality of the old program. “We created a really amazing piece of software,” he beams.

At Kaon Interactive, Inc. , Josh has written code, overseen projects and set the research agenda. The company’s primary product is a web browser plugin - essentially a programmable game engine. Somewhat different from other 3-D viewer plugins, Kaon’s product works with an interpreter that allows you to give objects complex interactive behavior. It also supports multi-user applications. “It’s pretty much what VRML always wanted to be, but failed to achieve. And the plugin is only 350K and it screams!”

Today, mentors and role models have left Josh’s career path unshadowed. “My ego is too big to allow me to view anyone as a role model. It’s a character flaw.” However, some name-dropping did reveal a deep admiration for the gurus of programming: Richard Stallman (Emacs), Linus Torvald (Linux), Donald Knuth (TeX), James Clark (Expat). Josh would be far from insulted if, someday, future programmers included his name in a similar list of luminaries.

For now, Josh feels content with his success. Having reached a peak in his career, he is devoting more time now to developing other parts of his character. Free time involves tinkering at the piano or saxophone, mowing the lawn, hanging out with his girlfriend and her son, and reading for pleasure (“nothing to do with computers, though, except for Dr. Dobbs”). He continues to be active in his community, sitting on the zoning board of appeals, handling finances for the local rescue squad and serving on the local arts association (of which he is a former president). “I’m not an artist, but I can run a meeting,” he admits.

We look forward to seeing what the next five years bring for Josh S., whose accomplishments impress and inspire. For this reason, he has earned the rank of Nerd of the Week, programmer of distinction!