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Meet the people
who make Tripod
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Don Kosak
Director of Engineering
[email protected]
One summer day in 1995, Don decided that wearing a suit everyday and
working for the U.S. Senate just wasn't cutting it. He told his wife he was
going to chuck the suit, grow a ponytail, and do that Internet thing. He
did just that in November of that year, leaving the world of A.I. and
government contracts to join WiseWire as Director of R&D.; When WiseWire was
acquired by Lycos in May of 1998, Don applied his talents in
Lycos's Pittsburgh office. Then in February of 1999, Don moved to beautiful
Williamstown to join the folks at Tripod where he helps Research and Development, Operations, and QA make magic happen.
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Christopher Johnson
Quality Assurance Manager
[email protected]
Chris Johnson has been proclaimed the Crown Prince of Production.
He's laid back and loves life. He loves to randomly call people
"big dummies." He loves his job. He loves HTML so much that he's
got an ampersand tattooed on his ankle. He's a multimedia guru,
as well as a flamenco dancer. In his spare time he trains bears
and builds igloos. What a guy.
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Don LeClaire
Senior Software Engineer
[email protected]
Don is a native of near-by Cheshire, MA, which he claims is called
Scrabbletown by the locals although we could have sworn it was
known as the Big Cheese. There's nothing cheesy about Don though.
He lives "out-in-the-sticks" (yes, there are places in Berkshire
County where even LESS happens than in Williamstown!) with Susan,
his significant other; Cosmo,
a Maine Coon cat; Bandit, a Siberian husky-Keeshound; and assorted
tropical fish. When he's not at Tripod, Don composes electronic
music, plays the keyboards and guitar; practices Tai Chi and
Qigong; and hacks software. His dream is to build a gesture
controlled wearable multi-media computer that lets him do them all
at once.
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Heather Grace
Principle Software Engineer
[email protected]
Faced with a 40 minute commute through the perils of Berkshire
County traffic, Heather plays it smart and leaves for work
usually no later than 5 am. Before coming to Tripod, our hero
programmed Trident II submarines and F117 stealth fighters, so we
wonder what mischief she could be sowing in the hours before the
rest of us show up. Working the dawn shift allows Heather to
spend lots of quality time in the afternoon and evening with her
four kiddos, ages 3 to 10. And somehow, on top of it all, she
manages to be fluent in over two million forms of programming.
Some people just don't sleep!
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Michelle Greenleaf
Team Lead, Homepage Building
[email protected]
Oh yeah, Michelle LOOKS like a mild-mannered Senior Software
Engineer all right, but get her outside these brick walls and she
becomes the reincarnation of a pro golfer who likes to wear bunny
slippers! We are not allowed to hold video conferences with
Michelle when she is working at home in that fabulous footwear of
hers because we are a little afraid of what ELSE she might be
wearing (or not wearing)! Anyone who wants to lure her away from
our fold need only offer her a pro golf tour and she's yours,
slippers and all.
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Sean Shanny
Senior Software Engineer
[email protected]
Sean came to Tripod from IONA Technologies, Inc. where he worked with "CORBA stuff" — no, not snakes.
In his spare time he likes to hack Linux, rebuild old houses, and try to keep up with his 6-year-old daughter.
The last is the hardest and most rewarding activity. Sean has decided to hate T.V. because he can't deal with
any more time in front of a screen. Computers are plenty.
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Derek Bruneau
Team Lead, Directory and Community
[email protected]
Working for a financial investment company can be a lot like
working at Tripod: You've got to be smart, fast, and quick on
your feet. Derek has been spotted giving the tech guys a lesson
in sword play. And no one is quicker on his feet than Derek. He's
demonstrated that he's quite a fencer out in the parking lot.
Where else are we going to bash each other with swords?
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Brian Rogers
Software Engineer
[email protected]
If you ask Brian where he hails from, he'll probably say, "from the
sky — but only when the weather conditions are just right."
Actually, he's most recently from Providence, Rhode Island, where
he nurtured an interest in body art. In his idle time, he ponders
poking more holes in his ears and getting more tattoos, yet he's
lacking one essential ingredient: guts. Still, that shouldn't
be so hard for Brian. He has a third degree black belt in
Shotokan karate, and a first degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.
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Sher Khurshid
Software Engineer
[email protected]
His name is Urdu and he was born in London. After living in
England, Africa and Pakistan, he decided to settle down in....
Bennington, Vermont! Why a guy who has lived in such international
spots would want to stay in Bennington and come to work at Tripod
is something of a mystery, but we suspect it has a lot to do with
his beautiful wife, who is currently a student at Bennington
College. After all, he lists his hiring at Tripod as only the
third most memorable moment in his life, after meeting his wife,
and marrying her.
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Kate Krolicki
Software Engineer
[email protected]
Kate and her crazy furry friends can be found roaming the offices
late at night in an attempt to save the bat population of the
east wing. Kate "the Caped Crusader" as she has become known to us,
does good rather than turning her powers to evil. And we sure are
glad she is on our side. Besides championing causes she can be
found quietly tooling away the day, pondering the significance of
member life.
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Ed Schwab
Team Lead, Operations
[email protected]
Ed is the product of Tripod's first human cloning experiment.
See, we took a few cells from our original sys admin, Jon Butler,
did some wacky things in a pietry dish and baboom! — out
popped Ed. They're not exactly alike but the resemblance is
uncanny. We actually altered his voice to have a southern accent
— pretty good, eh? This makes our cover story that Ed
really came to Tripod by way of Virginia a bit easier to believe.
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Hank Zill
Assistant System Administrator
[email protected]
We imported Hank from sunny Florida with his pet ferret named Dora.
His golden locks are pretty cool, but not as cool as his shiny
red car. Of course, it doesn't do very well in the snow (and it
seems like it is always snowin' here in Billsville) — go
figure, a guy from Florida with a car that doesn't do very well
in the snow.
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John Kalisz
Quality Assurance Engineer
[email protected]
John is our second Quality Assurance guy — no, this doesn't mean
our quality is going down, it means it's going up! John likes it here
because can talk about his work: our phones aren't bugged, he's no
longer sworn to secrecy, and no more retina-scan door locks.
He used to build nuclear reactors for Naval submarines. Cool, hunh?
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Rich Garabedian
Software Engineer
[email protected]
Before Tripod, Rich was an exercise physiologist in NYC at a
corporate fitness center. While stuck in traffic on the Jersey Turnpike for several hours
one day, Rich and his wife decided to pick up and move... to the Berkshires.
While studying for a degree in physical therapy, Rich took
a Computer Science class on a whim. Within three semesters he had earned a second
BS in Computer Science, and began work at General Dynamics,
where he sweated over the fire control system for the Trident Submarine.
Two years was enough of that. Enter Matt Quann (Senior Designer at Tripod).
Matt and Rich race bicycles in the summer. Matt suggested he send a resume to
Tripod. He did.
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Eric Kaye
Quality Assurance Engineer
[email protected]
Eric is one of the growing number of Tripodians who commutes
every day from the Albany area. He insists he passes all those
"wimpy SUV drivers" doing the speed limit on Rte. 2. He paints
pottery, cites Men's Health and GNC labels as his gospel, and
never, ever throws anything away. He longs for a good bagel and
a slice of pizza (any guess where he came from before Albany?
Hint: it rhymes with Blue Pork). He doesn't ski or snowboard but
his 3" vertical leap makes him a terror on the basketball court.
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Matthew Rinella
Systems Administrator
[email protected]
Matt rounds out our Systems Administration crowd of three. He traded the
sun in southern California for the snow and ice of northwestern Massachusetts
after having been promised he'd get to play with expensive computer equipment
and drink free Coke. Tripod's come through on both of those promises. We think
Matt will be around for awhile — what more could he want?
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Julia Reidy
Senior Software Engineer
[email protected]
White-water rafter, pirate carouser, humorist, bibliophile, hiker, writer, Star Wars fan — that's Julia.
Does she have time to do more? She's currently studying German, and taking tai chi and swing classes.
She loves sitting in bookstores sipping coffee and reading; buying books until her credit card screams for mercy.
She even finds time to hike daily, now that she has Mount Greylock in her backyard!
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Vineetha Kamath
Traffic Engineer
[email protected]
Vineetha comes to us from Bangalore, India,
the city of gardens. She claims the beauty of the Berkshires has made the transition very smooth. She's an
accomplished vegetarian cook of Indian curries (always hot and spicy), a voracious reader, and a skilled
artist, trained in two styles of Indian classical dance — Bharatnatyam and Kathakali.
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Justin Houk
Traffic Engineer
[email protected]
Justin is a recent Williams College graduate who came to Tripod the long way (as opposed to walking down the block).
After graduating in 1998 (along with staff writer Anna Groskin), he felt a need to go to the Big City — it was
onto Boston for this native Texan. After less than a year there, during which time he came to the conclusion that he
hate, hate, hated the Big City, he has returned to Billsville. Justin was the fifth person to join the Angelfire team,
and the first to have not previously worked at Tripod. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking through the woods, carrying a
large foam sword with which to whack people. We were planning to prompt him at his first staff meeting with "The
stars at night, are big and bright" to make sure he was a real Texan, but his astounding staff-meeting snack, a regular donut display, quenched our desire to embarrass him.
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