Brian Jones, President, HRSI
On any given day Brian Jones can be almost anywhere in the world. Traveling extensively for clients since he founded the company in 1994, he's built components and systems including embedded Windows CE device drivers, mainframe middleware, developer tools and recently .Net and Java application server components.
Starting with TRS-80s back when they were rare then moving to mainframes, PCs, UNIX systems and the like (including his ancient "personal" AS/400) he's had plenty of opportunities to learn that all operating systems and hardware have their good and bad points, no operating system is perfect, and no language is right for everything. Pragmatism trumps religion in developing software.
If you've taken classes in analysis, design, or programming from Learning Tree International you may have had him as an instructor, even if your class was in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Toronto, or any of many cities around the world.
Staying current in technology is a second full-time job. Memberships in the International Game Developer's Association, IEEE Computer Society and Association of Computing Machinery immerse him with the news from the cutting edge of games through the cutting edge of research. Game Developer magazine is always looked forward to because game companies have the courage to document post-mortems of what they shipped!
He also maintains and runs an open-source presence/game server at Nameless MUCK and is the admin and Chief Wizard of Redwall MUCK, an authorized world in the Brian Jacques popular juvenile fiction universe, one of the few G-rated online social systems.
In teaching business analysts and helping young teens learn to program online he's finally learned how to not speak geek. There is a time to be technical -- but it isn't all the time.
A huge benefit of traveling to work on many projects was having the chance to meet fellow passionate developers who he now has the pleasure to include on his team.
David Holz, Research and Development, HRSI
The universe is full of interesting problems. David Holz enjoys creating solutions to them.
In twenty years of building software he's run the gamut from the aerospace and automotive industries, to distributed application servers, to Commodore 64 game programming.
He understands that staying current in technology is crucial, but so is understanding the reality of warts and limitations lurking beneath the silver bullet promises. Adding or changing a layer in a project could make it much easier to work with... or could bog it down in a battle with the details. But how can you know in advance? That's where a full range of experience comes into play.
David's current "interesting problem" is getting software done on time and on budget without getting the details wrong or missing the point. When you've already built a lot of software, building value becomes far more interesting. He is working on using practical AI techniques to reduce developer workload. Reducing effort reduces time spent, and since the software tracks and checks the details, programmers can work more with the problem instead of with problems in their code.
Not restricted to the world of software, David is an accomplished musician, well traveled, and a tackler of personal challenges large and small. You might even encounter him at various Commodore 64 conventions.
Andy Smith, Administration, HRSI
Andy’s the nuts and bolts member of the crew… Literally! Gopher, secretary, mailman and more, Andy can be counted on to accomplish a wide array of hands-on tasks with procuring, assembling, repairing and maintaining the hardware as well as systems maintenance.
Andy’s first experience with computers started with Heath-kit home built "computers" that more resembled a calculator back in the 70’s. He started his high-school’s computer club and helped to instruct the teacher on how to make the class computers work. He has a wide background ranging from micro-controllers to mainframes, and he is adept in UNIX and Windows systems.
More than just your typical Geek, Andy specializes in customer service and help desk, patiently resolving technical problems both for in-house staff and for customers. Patient and tenacious, Andy helps keep office operations smooth and running.
