Software Engineering a Better Life

Growing up in the 60's and 70's in a blue-collar neighborhood, Dan Hansen found no practical outlet for his interest in puzzles, art, and literature. After floundering through several false starts, he finally found a way to channel his interests into an incredibly lucrative and rewarding career: software engineering. While serving in the Army, Hansen earned an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy Prep School, where he was taught BASIC programming, and discovered the key to his future. After turning down acceptance to West Point, Hansen was able to land a job at AT&T's famed Bell Laboratories, where he was part of the team that created StarLAN, the local area network that launched technologies still in use today. After honing his software engineering skills at AT&T, Hansen founded a software company with the only funding provided by the salary of his wife of seven months. Twenty-two rollercoaster months later, their startup was acquired by Silicon Valley pioneer Network General Corp. Software Engineering a Better Life covers all this and more, bringing to life the most pivotal decade in computing history. Aided by a treasure trove of records stored in an attic for thirty years, Hansen reveals a bygone technology era before the existence of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the Internet, relaying events at a thirty-year remove while capturing vivid details that make it seem as if it were recorded contemporaneously. Software Engineering a Better Life chronicles the triumphs and missteps of an unlikely entrepreneur as he struggles to keep moving forward.