Speaker Interview: Randall Schwartz

Randall Schwartz has been in the industry nearly 40 years, and imparts some of his wisdom in his SCALE 12X talk “My Half-Life with Perl.” The SCALE Team caught up with him to ask him a few questions.

Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

A: I've been professionally employed in the computer industry for nearly 40 years, initially working as an employee for a large company and a couple of startups, but then as the leader of my own consulting company for longer than I can remember.

I'm a self-taught programmer, and learned to teach and write on the job, but I also dabble in video production, photography, and podcasting.

Q: You're giving a talk on "My Half-life with Perl." Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of what we might expect?

A: Perl is 25. I'm a bit over 50. I've been with Perl since nearly the beginning, so there's a strong intertwining of my personal and professional life, the direction of my company, and the Perl culture. I explore this relationship through first-hand anecdotes.

Q: Is this your first visit to SCALE? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?

A: This is (I think) my second time as a speaker. I've also attended as press (representing my FLOSS Weekly podcast) when I could over the past few years.

Q: Is it true that you win Karaoke contests regularly?

A:Yes.

Q: Have you actually been mistaken for the official guy who voices Kermit the Frog while singing The Rainbow Connection at Karaoke?

A: Yes.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

A: If you have an open source project for which you would like more publicity, please consider appearing on my FLOSS Weekly podcast. The homepage is http://twit.tv/floss, and my email address is there.

 

 

[SCALE Team interview by Larry Cafiero]