Ron Schnell

17385 SW 13th St
Pembroke Pines, Florida
United States of America 33029 		Cell Phone: 954 682 7822
E-Mail: ronnie at driver-aces.com

Summary
OS internals expert, with 21 years of experience programming all of the major kernels. Has worked at all of the major UNIX "manufacturers" on kernel development teams. First at AT&T Bell Laboratories for UNIX System V, Releases 3.2 and 4.0, then at IBM on A/IX PS/2 and A/IX 370, then at Sun Microsystems on Solaris 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, and 2.5.1. Wrote over 100 UNIX device drivers as principal of Driver Aces, Inc., a company that specializes in UNIX device drivers for hardware vendors and OS manufacturers. Wrote large, 175,000 line system for start-up Mailcall.com, a service to manage e-mail over the phone using text-to-speech. Led large engineering teams and architected large software projects. Was on staff at and performed important research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, and Syracuse University. Lectures regularly at Syracuse University.



Professional Experience
The Technical Committee (www.thetc.org) May 2005 - Present

General Manager for The Technical Committee in Bellevue/Redmond, Washington.

Equifax (www.equifax.com) April 2002 - January 2005

Vice President, and Head of software development, network relations, new product development, and data enhancement delivery technology for the Internet Marketing division of Equifax, a 105-year-old company. Wrote code to manage, analyze, grow, and repair very large databases. Responsible for Architecting software products, B-to-B processes, and assigning personnel. Responsible for long-term planning for strategy and expenditures. Interfaces with key people at vendors, clients, and service providers. Created partnerships and was liaison with companies including AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Headed team that coordinated data enhancement of client databases, and delivers enhanced data to those clients. Implements processes, quality controls, project planning and client interfaces by technical staff. Chairperson of committee that makes decisions on types of marketing accepted, approval for types of clients/messages, and responses to complaints.

Driver Aces, Inc. (www.driver-aces.com) February 1994 - January 2003

President of corporation specializing in developing device drivers for the UNIX operating system. Performed project design, project management, driver design, driver authoring, driver testing, customer contact, sales, and staff management. Customers include Sun Microsystems, IBM, Digital Equipment, SCO, Lucent Technologies, and others. Drivers were for high-speed networking devices, including fast ethernet, token-ring, and fiber-optic, SCSI devices, RAID controllers, serial devices, parallel devices, and pseudo-devices.

Voice and Wireless, Corp. February 2000 - February 2002

As Senior Vice President and CTO, responsible for all technology decisions and all software coding for a microcap Internet public company which acquired Mail Call, Inc. in 2000. Made product decisions, architected and wrote product enhancements, and recommended technology direction. Oversaw acquisitions of other technology companies. Participated in due diligence for potential acquisitions, and interfaced with other potential buyers of technology.

Mail Call, Inc (www.mailcall.com) May 1997 - February 2002

Founder of corporation providing a service to business consumers, allowing them to retrieve and manage their E-Mail over the phone. Wrote all 175,000 lines of code, performed project design, project management, and testing. Did much of the marketing to consumers, set up relationships with ISP, long distance companies, local phone companies, wireless phone companies, debit card companies, hardware manufacturers. Did all web page development, and database creation/administration. Implemented exit strategy by negotiating buyout by Voice and Wireless Corp.

Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com) January 1992 - June 1995 (except below)

Member of the Kernel Development group, Peripherals Engineering group, Multiprocessor group, and Device Driver group. Responsible for various programming and testing on Solaris 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, and 2.5.1. Wrote kernel and driver code for Solaris x86, Sparc, and PowerPC. Performed bug-fixing, authoring of system software, kernel enhancement, and device driver authoring for high-performance network and serial drivers. Responsible for development of device driver porting kit. Wrote a book entitled Solaris 2.1 Guide to Porting SVR4.0 Device Drivers for x86. Worked with Independent Hardware Vendors on getting device drivers ported to Solaris. Re-wrote existing network drivers to improve network performance and to add multiprocessor/multithreaded functionality.

Harris Computer Corp. (www.harris.com) June 1993 - December 1993

Member of RIOS1 and RIOS2 porting group. Part of team porting System V, Release 4.2ESMP to RS/6000. Wrote device drivers for network cards, ported machine-specific exec() and other system calls, helped in planning for future port to Power PC.

Encore Computer Corp. (www.sun.com) September 1991 - December 1992

Was principal member of technical staff, working on new massively- parallel hardware, developing UMAX V in the kernel development group. Developed device drivers for new memory cards, fixed kernel bugs, worked in a team implementing RPC system, and worked on tcp/ip network code for use on a proprietary network.

NCR (www.ncr.com) June 1991 - September 1991

Worked on porting System V Release 4 to new massively-parallel hardware. Wrote console driver, modified SCSI disk driver, ported filesystem code, and became involved in all aspects of O.S. port.

Secure Online Systems, Inc. March 1990 - June 1991

Founder of a software firm that developed and marketed system management software for UNIX. Wrote new device drivers, kernel modifications, and X-Windows applications, TCP/IP client/server applications, database applications, and screen management routines. Oversaw disbursement of budget. Designed packages, then managed development project. Investigated strategic relationships in order to create channels of distribution. Managed office staff including programming and marketing. Designed and oversaw creation of product brochures.

IBM Corp. (www.ibm.com) September 1988 - February 1990

Worked on AIX/370 and AIX PS/2. Was site lead architect and made many design decisions affecting the end product. Worked on kernel, commands, customer support, and applications. Supervised 15 programmers and testers who reported directly to me. Implemented new device drivers, fixed many bugs, made changes to TCP/IP layer, hired new employees, made OS POSIX compliant, and taught several classes. Also worked on internals of TCF (transparent computing facility) on site at Locus Computing Corporation.

AT&T Bell Laboratories (www.lucent.com) May 1987 - September 1988

Worked on the UNIX project, developing UNIX System V release 4.0, in kernel development group. Developed new "filesystem- independent boot" feature and a new filesystem type; fixed performance, security, and fault types of bugs in UNIX kernel; wrote a new hard disk device driver; oversaw software development contracted out to remote sites; acted as a mentor to new employees; was part of the design and architecture teams dealing with firmware and machine diagnostics; and interacted directly with Sun Microsystems on joint software development.

AT&T Network Systems (www.att.com) January 1987 - May 1987

Project involved image scanning and storage on new-technology equipment, as well as local area and wide area networking, and system programming. Exposure to optical disk systems and microfilm scanning devices was also part of the project.

New York State CASE Center at Syracuse University (case.syr.edu) October 1984 - February 1986

System manager/programmer for state-run profit/education center. Developed an extensive modification to the UNIX kernel which mimicked the TOPS-20 terminal linking system. Also modified many device drivers to fit the CASE Center environment. Rewrote VLSI tools, and performed other system managerial tasks, including security functions, budget allocation and facilities managing.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (www.mit.edu) April 1981 - June 1984

System manager/programmer for eight Vax-11/750s and two 11/780's. Wrote programs for system security, and other managerial programs were written. A user interface between a Vax 11/780 and several types of robotic arms was created in order to build up a new robotics lab at the AI building. Rewrote an MIT-created operating system for the PDP-11, called MINITS.

ITT Dialcom (www.itt.com) June 1979 - June 1982

Independent consultant for security, applications, and systems programming. Developed international teleconferencing software which was later heavily used by ITT, British Telecom, and many government branches. Was in charge of system security, finding and fixing various operating system bugs. Wrote a common terminal interface to the Primos operating system.

New York University (www.nyu.edu) June 1981 - August 1981

Worked under Dr. Jacob Schwartz on developing a mathematics language called SETL on a Vax-11/780. Taught languages to college seniors.




Additional Skills
ADA - since 1981
Assembly - Since 1977*
Basic - Since 1977
C/C++ - Since 1979*
Coldfusion - Since 2002
Fortran - Since 1977
HTML - Since 1992
L.A.M.P. (LAMP) - Since 1999*
Lisp - Since 1981*
Oracle - Since 1997*
Pascal - Since 1981
Perl - Since 1995*
PL/I - Since 1979
Primos - Since 1978
ProC - Since 1997*
Python - Since 1999*
Shellscript - Since 1979
SQL - Since 1997*
TOPS-20 - Since 1983
UNIX (incl. Solaris, Linux, A/IX, Xenix, UnixWare, BSD, SCO, AT&T, HP) - Since 1979*
VM/CMS - Since 1988
VMS - Since 1982

* - Still active
Honors, Awards, and Lectures

  • Advisory Board: Syracuse University - New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Computer Applications and Software Engineering (CASE Center), 2004-Present
  • Advisory Board: Nova Southeastern University - The Graduate School of Computer and Information Science, 2005-Present

  • Lecture: SETL and Pseudo-Parallel SETL Class Lectures, 06/1981
    At the age of 14, lectured to college seniors at New York University, teaching them a new computer programming language. SETL and PPSETL were mathematical-based languages based on set theory and common SET operations. These lectures caused much media attention and television, radio, and newspaper outlets covered the story for several weeks.
  • Lecture: Entrepreneurship: What's Next for the .COM Rollercoaster, 09/2003
    Spoke at Syracuse University on the current state of entrepreneurship in the high tech world. Gave insights into my own experience starting up an Internet firm and getting it sold. Gave examples of other successes and failures during the Internet boom, then crash. Spoke of the current atmosphere and what it takes to get rich in the current, cautious environment. Mandatory for all freshman in EECS.
  • Lecture: Very Large Databases and their Real World Problems, 09/2003
    Spoke at Syracuse University with a colleague on how working with very large databases is different from what one learns in a text book or is taught in a classroom. Gave insight on my experience at Equifax and other large database experiences.
  • Lecture: The History of the Unix Operating System and its Rise to Triumph, 09/2003
    Spoke at Syracuse University on the history of UNIX from the technical standpoint. Spoke of my personal experience working on the kernel for substantially all of the major UNIX-branded operating systems in the late 1980's to mid 1990's.
  • Lecture: A 2004 Assessment of Entrepreneurship on the .COM Rollercoaster, 04/2004
    Spoke at Syracuse University with an updated version of the above talk.
  • Lecture: The Business of E-Mail-Marketing, Spam, and the Current Legislative Environment, 04/2004
    Spoke at Syracuse University on the perceived difference between "spam" and legitimate e-mail marketing. Explained the process of advertising via e-mail, what metrics are used to track results, and the relative success of using e-mail to promote brand awareness and sell products/services.
  • Lecture: .COM Entrepreneurship: Before and After the Google IPO, 9/2004
    Spoke at Syracuse University on how investors and venture capital firms have viewed innovation in the months before the Google IPO, and how that changed after the IPO. Mandatory for all freshman in EECS, as well as seniors who participate in the "senior project", where a product is created and sometimes marketed.
  • Speaking Appearance: E-mail Authentication Summit, 11/2004
    Spoke at the United States Federal Trade Commission's conference center on issues regarding reducing spam and fraudulent e-mail. Discussed various technical proposals, their implementation, testing, and consequences. Open to the general public.
  • Lecture: The Allure and Pitfalls of .COM Entrepreneurship, 4/2006
    Spoke at Syracuse University on the current state of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Talk was aimed towards getting undergraduate computer science and computer engineering students to think in an entrepreneurial way.

  • InformationWeek: Microsoft Signs On for E-Mail Program
  • Fortune Magazine: Top 25 Internet Companies to Watch (Mail Call), 7/1998
  • New York Post, UPI Wire: NYU Offers 14 year old Freshman Admissions, 7/1981



    • Articles Published
  • Popular Home Automation: Talk to Your House, 9/1997
  • Plane and Pilot: Taking Control of Air Traffic Control, 10/2001
  • Mooney Pilot: New York Blackout - An Owner's Personal Experience, 9/2003



    • Personal Information
  • Instrument rated pilot since 1986
  • Arbitrator for the state of Florida, hearing and deciding cases several times a month, usually for the Lemon Law
  • Angel Flight pilot, donating time and aircraft to transport sick and needy for medical treatment or disaster relief
  • Wrote freeware text adventure game that ships with all modern versions of the UNIX Operating System. Try it on your favorite UNIX shell:
    % emacs -batch -l dunnet