Jim Fiori recently presented at Virginia Tech's Association for Computing Machinery Meeting. My oldest son, John, blogged about Jim's GREAT 2 1/2 presentation. Jim's slides are also here.
If I was told, "Dave, you get to pick one person on planet earth to solve the most difficult software performance problem mankind has ever seen, and if this person fails, the earth as we know it burns up in an attosecond."
I know exactly who I would pick: Here's a hint, it would not be Bill Joy, Dave Patterson, Steve Bourne, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Neil Groundwater, Grace Hopper or Bjarne Stroustrup.
No disprespect to those computer legends above, but I would select Jim Fiori. Jim Fiori is a great example of Malcom Gladwell's Outliers primary premise, which is you need to get to 10,000 hours of actual hands on experience, along with selecting the right parents, being born at the right time and finally, being in the right place at the right time - Jim Fiori meets all of these criteria.
Jim Fiori is a Principal Field Technologist at Sun Microsystems and is THE GOD IN SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE TUNING AND PROBLEM SOLVING.
Amen Dave ! Jim is the real deal. AND a UMD grad as well !
Posted by Peter P. on April 09, 2009 at 11:49 AM EDT #