User:Eric Balkan

The account of this former contributor was not re-activated after the server upgrade of March 2022.

Educational background

• Psychology and economics (City College of NY, BS 1967)
• Some graduate work in geology (Vanderbilt Univ)
• Formal and informal training in computer programming and related technical subjects

Current Interests

Economics, psychology, stock market, politics, ethics, military history, movies, writing, science-fiction.

Work history

Began with the US government in 1971 as a computer programmer trainee. Worked during the 1970s with mainframe system internals and data communications, gov and private sector. Began moving into smaller computers in the late 70s and early 80s. (Built an IMSAI 8080-based microcomputer system from kits in 1978.) Have been working with embedded systems (a.k.a. device software) for most of the past 20 years, including kernel internals and drivers. (Both as a salaried employee and as a contractor/consultant.) After some 29 companies in 29 years, put aside programming to take up tech/developer support for a Swedish software company in 2000. Now US support manager for them.

Writings

2 published computer books, an historical novel (City of Tears) published as an e-book, 5 unsold screenplays and other unpublished fiction

Current project

• http://www.freethinkertools.com/forum - a new site for non-academic but intellectually oriented discussions. I am particularly looking for ideas related to creating a system of political economy that's both workable and ethical.