Shane Nay, Class of 1006

CURRENT LOCATION:

San Jose, California

FAMILY LIFE:

Married in 2000 the girl I fell in love with back at Saugus all those many years ago. For some reason, she keeps me around. No kids as yet, we're having too much fun with each other. But the big 3-0 isn't too far down the line, so we're thinking about it.

EDUCATION:

Well, you may recall, I was never very good at keeping track of books, and dates, etc. This followed me later in life. I matriculated to UCLA from SMC, having (I thought) completed the IGETC curiculum. For those who don't know, if you have IGETC you don't have to take 2 years of a foreign language, and many other school requirements.

So, I was at my last semester of SMC, and wondering why I was taking this drama class. I thought it was just for fun, and I was busy with work, so I dropped it. Transfered to UCLA, went merrily about finishing up my course work in mathematics of economics. About a year and a half later, I went in to talk to one of the counselours about going part time, finishing up, etc. Found out..., I had at least another 6 quarters because of IGETC to go, when I thought only one or two quarters.

At that point..., I applied the vast economic training I had acquired during those years. My chosen profession earned X, what I had been doing to support myself while going to college earned Y. Since Y was greater than X..., there wasn't much point.

Anyhow, it was a good choice. I think software engineering is practically the only field in the world where not only do they tolerate people who can't manage to remember what day it is, but reward them.

EMPLOYMENT:

I work at TiVo as a Software Engineer for the last couple years. I work on stuff that I think is fun, but it doesn't make terribly good cocktail party discussion. Mostly I work on performance, making the TiVo box more responsive, faster network performance, etc. For industry folks..., I wrote a post link optimizer for MIPS chips, write mostly C and assembly, and am referred to as a Linux Kernel Engineer. For non-industry folks..., no, Kernel has nothing to do with chicken.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS:

While I chose software as a career, I still really enjoy Economics. Read the "Economist" weekly. Lately I've been getting into Podcasts, there's some really interesting content there to listen to. Church is a big part of our life as well, we are both members of the Church of Christ in Santa Clara.

The last few years I've been into politics, but recently I've given up on the folks in DC of all stripes. Ideologically I'm more of a libertarian than anything else. I usually vote Republican, but with each passing billion of appropriation it's getting harder to justify. We are running huge deficits even counting the current-payer surplus from Social Security. When those accumulated unaccounted for deficits in SS become apparent when our parents retire, I sure wouldn't want to be a holder of a 4% bond. (If a private company did what our government does with pensions, the CFO would tossed in jail, but instead we re-elect them)

Send Shane a note.

Last Updated: November, 2005

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