I’m a networking geek. I co-invented Ethernet over Twisted Pair, one of the two significant precursors (along with NCR’s WaveLAN) to the “official” WiFi DFWMAC protocol, network enhancements such as the MPDU Aggregation system for 802.11n et seq., the WMM prioritization scheme, the inter-access point protocol, the Distributed Reservation Protocol for UWB, and various tweaks and hacks to the Internet and OSI protocols.
Ethernet over Twisted Pair corrected the bottleneck misconception in classic Ethernet, paving the way for Ethernet over Fiber and WiFi. Wi-Fi is essentially just an alternate “wire” for Ethernet switches. The ’80s and ’90s were fertile decades for Local Area Networks and I worked with all of them as a developer. The best engineering gigs I ever had were devising network operating systems and the protocols to support them.
I did this work with colleagues in industry and in the standards community, of course. I made contributions to standards committees (and sometimes led them) and then implemented products to the standards. I worked for 3Com for ten years producing Ethernet products, for Airgo, Trapeze, and Sharp Labs doing Wi-Fi products, and for companies like Cisco and HP in the Internet space. My last regular engineering gig involved the home routers used by Verizon and Qwest (now CenturyLink) in 2009. I’ve never done engineering work for a phone company, just computer companies and Internet/networking companies.
These days I do public policy work around spectrum rights, broadband networks, network regulation, and innovation. This involves analyzing issues, testifying before Congress and the FCC, writing reports, and consulting with governments, manufacturers of network equipment, carriers, and content producers. I have worked with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, DC think tank ranked first in the world in science and technology policy. I’ve also been a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. My contact e-mail is “richard” at this domain if you have a project to discuss.
This web site houses some curry recipes, holdovers from my first efforts with HTML that refuse to die. These are now assembled in World-Wide Curries and are apparently among the most definitive to be found, since they’re linked by sites serving the South Asian community in India and the United States. I haven’t tried them all, but the ones I have were pretty good.
The Chili of Excellence Page is much less authoritative, but it’s not a bad starter for those on the road to perfecting their “bowl of red.” Recent chili experiments confirm that Texas Longhorn beef produces a superior flavor lower in fat than chicken or fish, and that kidney suet in moderation sweetens the mix. Curry meets chili in the beef curries of Malaysia and Singapore, the most satisfying cuisine in the world and probably the Next Big Food now that Thai is so 20th Century.
In a former life I was a political activist, working with California Senator Chuck Calderon (chair of the Judiciary Committee), Assemblyman Rod Wright (Utilities and Commerce committee chair), then-California State Senator Adam Schiff, and Senate president John Burton to pass and/or amend a number of measures improving the state of family law back in the ’90s. The most notable of these bills are SB 509 on Spousal Support, and SB 542, creating the statewide Department of Child Support Services to improve the process for both payers and recipients of child support. In those days, Congressman Adam Schiff chaired the California Senate Judiciary Committee, the main venue for my testimony.
I’ve served on a number of oversight boards and commissions related to the court system, given numerous interviews to the press, and appeared on television and radio programs such as Marketplace, the PBS News Hour, and California Capitol Review with Jack Kavanaugh. These days I focus on tech policy, testifying before Congress, the FCC, and foreign governments. I also speak to reporters at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle et al. I’ve published op-eds in these outlets as well as the other New York papers, The Hill, the San Jose Mercury News, New York Daily News, New York Post, and many other outlets.
The DC Circuit Court’s Oct. 1, 2019 opinion upholding the FCC’s deregulation of Internet Service Providers in its Restoring Internet Freedom order relied on the analysis I provided to the court in an amicus brief. (See page 30.)
I’m a big fan of the Oakland A’s baseball team, jumping on the bandwagon after reading Moneyball. Sadly, the current owner of the A’s is a screwup, so Go Nuggets!
Enjoy your visit, and drop a note to me if anything you see here intrigues or enrages you. And yes, I know that nothing on this site sets new standards for animation, multimedia, or Java; that’s just my cross to bear.