The Adventure Begins.

Today the long awaited journey finally begins. For more than the past decade I have had ideas percolating in the back of my head. I have no foreknowledge of which, if any, of these ideas will bear fruit. In reality this is a journey I have been looking forward to starting for a long time. There is a significant chance that I will never reach the end; for I have set about to realize a dream that is so large and complex that I may not live long enough to see it fully implemented. That is OK, for it will be an adventure, a learning experience, and I hope I will have fun along the way.

Many of my friends and colleagues seem to think highly of my skills and abilities, as if I was a master at my trade. I am not. I am but a journeyman, however the adventure to complete my masterwork begins now. I suspect that much of the research, sub-projects and work I have set for my self would qualify for use in a masters thesis. I imagine that the culmination of this project would undoubtedly serve as a basis for work on a doctoral dissertation.

I have often thought, and even dreamed, of going back to obtain a master's degree, or even a PhD. At this time I do not feel that I have the money or time to devote to obtaining such a degree. The desire, no need, to work on this project has burdened my thoughts for the past several weeks. Although I may be unable to afford post-graduate studies at a university at this time, that should not stop me from perusing my first love. The minimum amount of research and self-education to start understanding all the parts needed for my project would be similar to Stanford's Systems specialization for Master students. In fact looking at the sample class 240. Topics in Operating Systems and previous syllabuses gives me some good starting points for whitepapers on things I will need to consider.

So today I start on my quest to bring about 'Big Speech', although it should be noted that I have been toying with these ideas for a long time, and have spent much time in the past few weeks with additional preliminary research. I may not create anything truly "new", although I do expect to combine some of what I consider the best existing ideas into a novel form that I hope others may find interesting or useful.

What I start now could not be done without the giants that have come before me. Such names as Alan Turing, Brian Kernighan, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Alan Kay, Adele Goldberg, Dan Ingalls, James Gosling, and Linus Torvalds. Although I will never match their stature, they have inspired me, and provided the tools and knowledge I will build on.