Timothy Andrew Plattner
Please contact me using timothy@cs.ucla.edu.
Last updated on June 19, 1995.
Who is Tim Plattner?
I haven't a clue. I used to pretty simple, back when my whole world was
eating, sleeping, crying, and creating a massive waste explosion by
dirtying countless non-biodegradeable diapers.
Since this bygone era in my life, I have had a few accomplishments,
plenty of failures, and maybe even some fun. Currently, I am about
to encounter a whole new chapter in my life, as I have just graduated
from UCLA's M.S. in Computer Science, and am off to New Jersey to
work for the Operations Technology Center for ATT
Bell Laboratories.
Now, obviously, this is an awfully big move for me, since I have lived
in California since I was three years of age. It won't be all bad,
since I DO get to leave Los Angeles for the first time in six years
(I got a B.S in Cybernetics at UCLA as well), and, as any person
who grew up in Norther California (specifically Saratoga) can attest,
Los Angeles is the root of all evil.
Computer Science
As I mentioned in my intro, I will soon be working for the most successful
research institution in the history of the world:
I will be working in the Operations Technology group in the Red Hills office
in Middletown New Jersey. OTC, which, as near as I can figure, is responsible for
the transfer of technology from the pure research groups of Murray Hills, to
the more development oriented groups near Holmdel.
I will be working on the NGLN: the Next Generation Lightwave Network. No,
I have absolutely no clue what that is, or where I fit in. I've been told
that it's a new optical fiber network that will far exceed any available
today. Whatever it is, it's a really cool name!
As Bell Laboratories
will soon find out, most of my experience is in databases and
some artificial intelligence, but with very little network experience. I
have worked for Hewlett-Packard's
HP/SQL division, ROLM/Siemens'
PBX software
development division, Sun Microsystem's
Corporate Market Planning division (yes,
I know it doesn't fit my character or skills, but I was in high school so I
didn't have much choice).
Additionally, I work as a research assistant on the
Knowledgebase Multimedia
Medical Distributed Database System at UCLA,
and as a contractor for the EyeBase
project (an opthamological database system of which I don't wish to write right
now).
I am completely fluent in the following languages:
- C (created at
Bell Labs)
- C++ (also created at
Bell Labs)
- Pascal (Obviously not as good, since it was not created at
Bell Labs)
- SmallTalk (An excellent language, too bad
XEROX PARC developed it)
- Visual Basic (I HATE
Microsoft, and this language is a reason)
I also have some minor experience with the following languages:
- ADA (YECH!)
- sh (Another
Bell Labs wonder)
- csh (Berkeley beat us to it)
- awk (Yet another
Bell Labs masterpiece)
I'm sure that there are others, but I'm kind of sick of listing these things.
Sports!
When I am not working, sports tend to contribute to much of the time I spend
playing. Of course, I have my favorite teams. In the pro ranks, they are:
and in college sports, I of course am slightly (or completely, overwhelmingly, if
you'd like) bias towards the 1995 NCAA Collegiate Basketball, Volleyball, and
Softball (not to mention Women's tennis singles and doubles, men's 200 meter,
mens and women's shotput and discus and I may have forgotton some more individual
events) champions:
Hobbies
I have many hobbies, some of which have evolved from my childhood, some of
which are newer:
- Baseball Cards: My most prized possesions. I have a 1910 Admiral Schlei
tobacco card, along with cards of Rogers Hornsby, Joe Cronin, Bill Terry, Willie
Mays, Willie MacCovey, Sandy Koufax, PeeWee Reese, Roy Campanella, and about
10,000 others, well 4,000 if you figure doubles. I tend to like the older cards
better, as you can probably tell, but I have my share of Griffey Jr.'s, Barry Bonds,
and Greg Maddux cards as well.
- Gems:
I have collected gems (faceted and rough) since I was 11. I have
an excellent collection of rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, and opals.
Additionally, I have the rarer tanzenite, alexandrite, and cat's eye stones.
(The rarer they are, the smaller the specimen I have gets, down to my 1 point
diamond (1 point = .01 carat)). Additionally, I have taken a class in jewelry
design, and tend to be quite mediocre at it.
- James Bond:
God, I wish I was him. I've read all the books, and can
pretty much speak along with the movies. My favorite is probably From Russia
With Love although I also lean towards The Living Daylights and
For Your Eyes Only. The Spy Who Loves Me gets an honorable
mention for the awesome Lotus Esprit and Barbra Bach.
- Reading: I love reading, and I tend to focus on three major authors:
- Robert Ludlum: I have read about 80% of his 19 books, and I like The
Bourne Identity, Chancellor's Manuscript, and The Matarese
Circle.
- Tom Clancy: I'm a Clancy novice, having read only Red Storm Rising,
The Cardinal of the Kremlin, and Op Center. The first two
were excellent, but the third was average.
- Leon Uris: By far the best writer of the three, I've read all but two of his
books, and love every one, except Trinity. I HIGHLY recommend
Exodus, Mila 18, and QBVII. All have pretty high
levels of Jewish history in them, from the holocaust, to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising,
to the creation of Israel. Being Jewish, these books have extra meaning for me,
but that shouldn't turn off would be readers. I've read Uris' non-Jewish
background books and enjoyed them as well.
Additionally, I really enjoy classics. My favorites in this category would be:
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- The Portrait of Dorion Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers by
Alexander Dumas
- Classical Music: I am an avid listener to most orchestral pieces between
Beethoven and Mahler, with a few pieces from more modern times. Pre-Beethoven
is usually not on my list (Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Haydn). I love attending
concerts, and have seen the LA Phil, the SF Symphony, the London Phil, the Berlin
Phil, and the Vienna Symphoniker all in their own concert halls.
Currently, my favorite composer is Mahler, but I also have a bias towards Dvorak
and Rachmoninov, along with the romantic standards (Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin). In
more modern music, I like Copeland, Hanson, and Lutoslawski. I have over
100 classical music CDs.
- Art: I love impressionism, especially Renoir, and I have traveled to many
great galleries to see it. These include the Chicago Art Institute (By far the
best impressionism exhibit), the National Gallery in London,
the Louvre, the
Hermitage, and the Smithsonian.
- Travelling: I have been to the following countries:
- United States (obviously)
- Mexico
- Canada
- Japan
- Fiji
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Egypt
- Israel
- The Former Yugoslavia (you need the first two words, these days)
- Czechoslovakia (before it split)
- The Soviet Union (before it split)
- East Germany (before it fused)
- West Germany (before it fused)
- Switzerland
- Austria
- Italy
- San Marino
- Vatican City (well, I'm going for volume here)
- Finland
- Sweden
- France
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Amsterdam
- The United Kingdom
Obviously, I still have plenty to go.
Well, that about does it for me. Now you know more about me than my mother,
well, at least within an order of magnitude or two. I hope you enjoyed
my home page, and if you have questions or comments, please let me know.
Goodbye