Bill Roome

Bill joined what was then called ``Bell Labs'' after getting a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University (this was a long time ago, in a galaxy far away). An early assignment was to find the source for all the commands for the first commercial release of Unix, and to write procedures to automatically recompile them, using what was then a brand new tool called make. Since then he has worked on:

• A Unix-based project to produce white pages telephone directories (which was cancelled),
• A distributed version of Unix, using micro-kernels (also cancelled),
• SiDBM, an experimental multiprocessor main-memory database machine (which wasn't cancelled, but which was never used either),
• Concurrent C, a parallel programming language based on C and C++ (which is available and is used),
• 3DFS, a time-oriented NFS file server that gives on-line access to old versions of files stored in an optical disk jukebox (available from the CommVault organization, as 3D Archive),
• OdeFS, a file-system interface to the Ode object-oriented database system (available with Ode),
• Columbus, which provides information and navigation services to mobile users, and
• Maps On Us, a map and route server for the Web, which has since been sold to Switchboard.

As to what he's working on now, well, he can't talk about that in public yet.

In an alternate universe, Bill is the Technical Director for the Summit Playhouse, a non-profit community theater in Summit, New Jersey. He has done lighting and sound for (and has occasionally appeared in) a number of shows, including Prelude To A Kiss, Shadowlands, Death Of Salesman, Nunsense, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Man Of La Mancha. He has also rewired the Summit Playhouse's theater, and has generally brought their lighting and sound systems into the 1990's.

When not involved in the above, Bill lives in Berkeley Heights, where he is jointly owned by four cats (Tanya, Natasha, Boris, and Sophia). Each would prefer to be sole owner and get top billing. They are all members of FITOLC (Feline Initiative To Outlaw Laptop Computers).