20+-year-old Misconceptions re-concepted

[howeird]

Around 1991-2 I was a tech support guy for an HP Labs group which promoted university research projects by donating equipment. One of the projects was at CMU, which was working on the Mach operating system (think Unix without an AT&T copyright). Rick Rashid was the head of that project. The HP person who was liaison with Rashid pronounced his name Rah-sheed, accent on the final syllable,  giving me the impression the man was from India. Just as I was getting familiar with his project & grad students, he quit to go to Microsoft. We were told he was taking over the Windows NT group.

Tonight I met him in person for the first time, at a Computer History Museum event in which he was interviewed by a NYT writer. Turns out his name is pronounced Rash-id, (rhymes with placid) accent on the first syllable, he's from Iowa, and he left CMU to create and head Microsoft Research, an organization which had not existed at that time. When I asked him after the interview about the NT rumor, he said "someone already had that job", as if that was an answer. At that time heads of departments at MSFT changed from time to time, and it would not have been out of character for Bill Gates to replace someone whose program was failing with someone from the outside. But anyway, three misconceptions blown right out of the water.

He's a very upbeat guy, articulate and enthusiastic about the future of tech. It was an entertaining interview, but I was distracted by my misconceptions.

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Nothing to mention about work, except Automation Guy gave a demo of the GUI he has developed.

Lunchtime I drove to Santana Row, hoping to get my nails done, but the place I went to didn't have anyone available. They thought they did, but by the time it was clear they didn't, it was too late to go elsewhere.

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Plans for tomorrow:
Try for a manicure again.
Maybe go to Foothill for the Kepler update.

Comments

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Google David Cutler

[howeird]

Interesting. There was a Dave Cutler in the Mountain View area in the 80s who attended ba.singles events regularly. He had a DEC Vax and a T-1 line in his apartment, but the NT guy does not look like the same one. Looking at the NT guy's timeline, and knowing from working at MSFT his reputation for being difficult to manage, it would have made perfect sense in 1991 (he had been there since 1988) to replace him with a more personable OS guru, which Rashid definitely is.