About
I’m Jeff Moser. I’ve been having fun writing software since I was eight when I first discovered Applesoft BASIC.
-
2007: I started this blog to write about some of the things I was learning as a developer (like internationalization issues with our code in Turkey).
-
2008: I watched a video on the “Great Principles of Computing” by Peter Denning. I thought it was an interesting talk, so I contacted him with some follow-up questions about applying the principles. This discussion led to an incredible opportunity where Denning invited me out to Silicon Valley to visit with him and several other computing legends. In particular, chatting with Alan Kay helped me better understand the value of computing history (and some of his heroes, like “Lick”). It also led me to investigate his research into “Moore’s Law Software” and OMeta in particular.
-
2009: I became interested in how HTTPS really works. This further led me to read about the inner details of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Slightly frustrated that such a neat algorithm was hidden behind complex-sounding mathematics, I decided to write a more approachable explanation of it. On a late summer vacation, I took some blank copy paper and a marker and drew a stick figure guide to it.
-
2010: My curiosity into ranking coworkers in speed chess, foosball, and tennis led me to research XBox Live’s TrueSkill algorithm. I wrote about my journey to understand and implement it. This ignited my interest in machine learning and ultimately led me to discover Kaggle and enter my first competition. Later that year, Kaggle asked me to port my TrueSkill code to work on their site. I ported the code and wrote about it.
-
2011: Knowing that I would regret not doing it, I left my job and decided to join the startup world by becoming Kaggle’s first employee.
-
2012: Between working hard at a startup and being a new dad, I decided to take an extended break from this blog.
I occasionally tweet, post on StackOverflow, and give local talks.