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John Walker (programmer)

 

 
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John Walker (programmer)
 
 
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John Walker (born ca. 1950) is a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 programmer
Programmer

A programmer is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software....
 and a co-founder of the computer-aided design
Computer-aided design

Computer-Aided Design is the use of computer technology to aid in the design and particularly the drafting of a part or product, including entire buildings....
 software company Autodesk
Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is an United States multinational corporation that focuses on 2D and 3D Computer Aided Design design software for use in architecture, engineering and building construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment....
, and a co-author of early versions of AutoCAD, a product which Autodesk originally acquired from programmer Michael Riddle.

Before Autodesk, John founded a hardware integration manufacturing company called Marinchip. Among other things, Marinchip pioneered the translation of numerous computer language compilers to Intel platforms.

John Walker moved to Switzerland in 1991, after having lived almost twenty years in California.






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Encyclopedia


John Walker (born ca. 1950) is a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 programmer
Programmer

A programmer is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software....
 and a co-founder of the computer-aided design
Computer-aided design

Computer-Aided Design is the use of computer technology to aid in the design and particularly the drafting of a part or product, including entire buildings....
 software company Autodesk
Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is an United States multinational corporation that focuses on 2D and 3D Computer Aided Design design software for use in architecture, engineering and building construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment....
, and a co-author of early versions of AutoCAD, a product which Autodesk originally acquired from programmer Michael Riddle.

Before Autodesk, John founded a hardware integration manufacturing company called Marinchip. Among other things, Marinchip pioneered the translation of numerous computer language compilers to Intel platforms.

John Walker moved to Switzerland in 1991, after having lived almost twenty years in California. He now engages in projects at Fourmilab, including a hardware random number generator
Hardware random number generator

In computing, a hardware random number generator is an apparatus that generates random numbers from a physical process. Such devices are often based on microscopic phenomena such as thermal noise or the photoelectric effect or other quantum phenomena....
 called HotBits and his Earth and Moon viewer. John is also known for his efforts in the 196 Palindrome Quest
Lychrel number

A Lychrel number is a natural number which cannot form a palindrome through the iteration process of repeatedly reversing its base 10 digits and adding the resulting numbers....
, by taking it to 1,000,000 digits.

John Walker's interest for artificial life prompted him to hire Rudy Rucker
Rudy Rucker

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist and science fiction author, and is one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement....
, a mathematician and science fiction author, for work on Cellular Automata software. Rudy later drew from his experience at Autodesk, in the Silicon Valley, for his novel The Hacker and the Ants where one of the characters is loosely based on John Walker. Part of the action in this book takes place in Switzerland in a very Fourmilab-like setting. Fourmi is the French word for ant and illustrates a facet of John Walker's sense of humor.

Besides programming, John Walker is a social advocate who has written many articles, including a well-known one about Internet censorship called The Digital Imprimatur. He is also known for his book The Hacker's Diet
The Hacker's Diet

The Hacker's Diet is a diet plan created by the founder of Autodesk, John Walker , outlined in an e-book of the same name, that attempts to aid the process of weight loss by more accurately modeling how calories consumed and calories expended actually impact weight....
, a guide to approaching weight loss "as both an engineering and a management problem." He gained notoriety during the fall of the Soviet Union for creating a bumper sticker that announced, "Evil Empires: One down, one to go" with the Soviet and US flags.

He makes his home near Lignières, Switzerland.

External links

  • - Reaching 1,000,000 digits in the 196 Palindrome Quest