User:Grafman

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Bob "Grafman" Free

Grafman has been developing 2D/3D/imaging software since 1973, and believes in giving back to the Internet community by releasing freeware and contributing to Open Source projects.

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[edit] History

Grafman was first exposed to computers in the early 70's at a nearby junior college, that just happened to one of few centers dedicated to APL programming. APL required special characters that were not available on computre terminals at the time, so you needed a graphics terminal (Tektronix) to program in APL.

Grafman taught himself APL, and the mathematics of 3D transforms, and developed a vector-based 3D modeling/rendering system with scalable fonts and hidden-line removal in 1973.

At Cal Poly SLO, Grafman studied Architectural Design, with a minor in Computer Science, developing a 3D CAD system as his senior project. While at school, he worked part-time as a software contractor for the university, developing 3D solar and cast shadow analysis applications - and tutored math grad students on programming in APL.

During the early 80's Grafman worked for various companies developing 3D CAD/AEC/GIS systems: Syscomp (acquired by Data General) and McDonnell Douglas Communications (for BellCore, Pacific Telesis, SouthWestern Bell, and others).

Grafman started his first company Graphcomp in 1982 on a part-time basis, then went full-time with a couple of employees in 1985. Graphcomp was dedicated to sotfware consulting for the CAD/GIS industry, with customers throughout the US, in Canada and in New Zealand.

Tired of working in the mainframe/defense industry, Grafman moved to Silicon Valley in 1990 - where he became involved with the internet, developing client/server, peor-to-peer and online services technologies.

In the mid-90's, Grafman started a subsidiary to Graphcomp, called Grafman Productions, dedicated to visual design and online communications.

Grafman continues to develop online 2D/3D/imaging/video technologies that facilitate creative expression within social networks.


[edit] External links

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