Ronald Steven Schnell (born November 10, 1966) is an American computer programmer in Weston, Florida. He was co-founder of Mail Call in 1997 and the chief technology officer of Rand Paul's 2016 presidential campaign.[1][2]
Ron Schnell | |
|---|---|
 Ron Schnell in 2011 | |
| Born | November 10, 1966 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Ronnie Schnell, Ronald Steven Schnell |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
| Known for | speaking at NYU (age 14), co-founder of Mail Call, CTO of Paul'16 |
| Website | www |
Life and work
editSchnell began programming in 1975 (age nine), on the IBM 360 mainframe.[3][4][5][6] In 1981, he tested and spoke about SETL (for VAX minicomputers) at NYU's Courant Institute.[3][4][5] In 1982, Schnell wrote a chat program for Telenet called NET-TALK, while at the Maryland timesharing company Dialcom; this led to helping test the BBC Micro.[7] Schnell wrote[8][9] the text adventure game DUNNET in 1983 for MacLisp[a] and 1992 for Emacs Lisp.[b] After high school, Schnell attended Syracuse University from 1984 through 1986,[c] and was a DJ on WJPZ-FM
Between late 1986 and throughout the 1990s, Schnell was a Unix kernel consultant.[d] He moved to the west coast, and founded his first startup in 1990, Secure Online Systems.[10] He co-founded Mail Call in 1997 in Florida; the product used IVR and back-end text-to-speech (subscribers could call a toll-free number, and check their email via the telephone—Mail Call was before the invention of the smartphone).[11][12][13] From 2002 to 2005, Schnell was a divisional vice president at Equifax.[14][e] Schnell was general manager of The Technical Committee in Seattle, a court-mandated computer-software-nonprofit that monitored Microsoft's compliance with a federal court ruling.[15][f]
Starting in 2013, Schnell became an adjunct professor of Computer Security[g] at Nova Southeastern University.[16] In 2015, Schnell also became CTO of the Rand Paul presidential campaign; he hosted a hackathon in San Francisco during July 2015.[1] Schnell designed the app[h] for Paul'16 (featuring a hidden game, vote feedback, donations, and virtual-selfies).[17][18]
Personal life
editSchnell was married in 1994, and has two children. Schnell's home automation system, which he helped specify, was profiled in 1998.[19] Schnell plays Segway polo, and in 2007 co-founded the Polo Bears team.[20]
References
edit- ^ a b "Coding for Liberty: On the Ground at Rand Paul's Presidential Hackathon". 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 29 August 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ "JEB: 'no more powerful ... Influence on this earth than the Christian conscience in action' – BRADY may miss 6-8 games -- B'DAY: Dana P". Politico. Archived from the original on 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
- ^ a b Linda Stevens (July 21, 1981). "The Whiz!". New York Post.
...14-year-old Ronnie Schnell...is one of NYU's youngest undergrads this summer. He's helping to test a new computer language called "Pseudo-Parallel SETL." ... He started at 9.
- ^ a b Lee Comegys, United Press International (October 18, 1981). "A computer genius at 14". E.W. Scripps Company. p. E-10. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ^ a b Miller, Robert (1981). "Evening news". Independent Network News (US). Season 2. New York, New York. Tribune Company. WPIX.
...Rockland Community College...
- ^ "Hilcrest Boy your average next door computer genius", Rockland County Journal News, 23 August 1981
- ^ John Coll (October 1982). "The BBC micro dials the world". No. 3. Acorn User. pp. 20–22.
...Dialcom Gold computers are [P]rime 5000 units and are connected to a worldwide network of similar machines. ...If I want to send a letter to Ronnie Schnell in New York, I type MAIL SEND RONNIE and my system directs the letter to him. ...We use the system for exchanging computer programs. His copy of Defenders was sent over by electronic mail... (More on Ronnie later.) ...Telecom Gold can turn up some surprises. One day I typed the NET-TALK command which enables you to talk to people on the network. ...I asked if he [Ronnnie] did any serious programming or whether he just mucked around and played games on the system. I was put firmly in my place by being told that he had written the international conferencing software we were using! ...I asked how old he was. The reply was 16! It will not surprise you that a short time later Ronnie received a BBC computer system. He has since been invaluable in helping to prove the file transfer software Acorn have developed. ...
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires|magazine=(help) - ^ "There is a Surreal Cyberpunk Adventure Game Built into OS X That You Never Knew About". 15 April 2013. Archived from the original on 27 July 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ Richard Stallman; et al. (2015). GNU Emacs manual, 17th edition, updated for Emacs 24.5 (PDF). Free Software Foundation. pp. pdfPage#24 aka printedPage#2, as well as pdfPage#429 aka printedPage#407. ISBN 978-0-9831592-5-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
Acknowledgments. Contributors to GNU Emacs include ...Ronald S. Schnell.... ...
M-x dunnetruns an[sic] text-based adventure game. - ^ "Archives". Los Angeles Times. 5 May 1991. Archived from the original on 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
- ^ "Notable Websites", Fortune, July 1998
- ^ "Hello? You've Got E-mail", Family Circle, October 1998
- ^ "E-Mail, Phone Home", Working Woman, February 15, 1999
- ^ Thomas Claburn (May 7, 2004). "Microsoft Signs On For E-Mail Program". Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ Cade Metz. "How Microsoft Learned to Stop Worrying and (Almost) Love Open Source". Wired. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ "College of Engineering and Computing / About Us". Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ Nick Corasaniti (September 2, 2015). "Rand Paul Campaign Makes Pixelated Pitch, Through an App". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
...Paul campaign is releasing a smartphone app... Ron Schnell, the chief technology officer of the Paul campaign and architect of the app.
- ^ Chris Plante (September 2, 2015). "Rand Paul's presidential app is no joke". Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
...Paul (R-KY) released an app promoting his bid for the [presidency] ...chief technology officer of Paul's campaign, Ron Schnell... who served as the chief architect of the app...
- ^ Julie Jacobson (February 1998). Julie Jacobson (ed.). "System Spotlight: Super Sundays!". Electronic House. Vol. 13, no. 1. Kenneth D. Moye, EH Publishing, Inc., Wayland, MA. pp. 54–57. ISSN 0886-6643.
...sports-centric room of a Florida family... nine-screen video wall... the Schnells decided to design a video wall.... Ron, a software engineer by trade and technical tinkerer in his free time, had his own ideas for the video wall, but he couldn't do it alone. ...six surveillance cameras.... whole-house cable network ... face-to-face [video-conferencing].... With a little tinkering, Ron gave two of the small TVs... any channel at any time [capability via] X-10... commands to various lights and appliances... [via TV] remote, an X-10 keypad, or any touchtone phone.
- ^ "The Segway Polo World Cup is Everything You Imagined". Archived from the original on 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
Notes
edit- ^ http://www.driver-aces.com/ronnie.html#dunnet
- ^ Ron Schnell (1992-07-28). "dunnet - text adventure for e-lisp". USENET.
- ^ http://www.driver-aces.com/ronnie.html#university
- ^ http://www.driver-aces.com/ronnie.html#unix
- ^ "EMAIL AUTHENTICATION SUMMIT, Federal Trade Commission, November 9, 2004" (PDF). Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "Joint Status Report on Microsoft's Compliance with the Final Judgments". 25 June 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
- ^ Ron Schnell (2014). Barbara Chiarizia and Sarah K. Webster (ed.). "Hacking 101: Using social engineering increases security attack effectiveness" (PDF). Coast Guard Journal of Safety & Security at Sea, Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council. United States Coast Guard. pp. 25 through 27.
...About the author: Mr. Ron Schnell is an adjunct professor of computer security at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale Florida...
- ^ Released in September 2015; works on most iOS v8+ and also Android v2.3.3+ smartphones.