James Duncan Davidson (born July 29, 1970 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American photographer and former software developer. While a software engineer at Sun Microsystems (1997–2001), Davidson created Tomcat, a Java‐based webserver application and the Ant Java‐based build tool.
He was raised in Oklahoma and Texas, and is currently self‐employed as both a software consultant and a photographer. He is a resident of Portland, Oregon.
James has in the recent past (2005–2006) turned his programming interests and attention in the direction of Ruby on Rails. In tandem with well‐known Rails guru Mike Clark, Davidson has designed and built some of the most complex and robust early Rails applications.
Starting in 2005, James' primary professional focus shifted to photography. He has served as the primary event photographer at several high-profile technology conferences. In February 2009, he served as a photographer at the TED conference.
He is co-founder and co-owner (with Greg Koenig) of Luma Labs, a small company in Portland, OR focused on making quality camera accessories.
Famous quotes containing the words james, duncan and/or davidson:
“... if we take the universe of ‘fitting,’ countless coats ‘fit’ backs, and countless boots ‘fit’ feet, on which they are not practically fitted; countless stones ‘fit’ gaps in walls into which no one seeks to fit them actually. In the same way countless opinions ‘fit’ realities, and countless truths are valid, tho no thinker ever thinks them.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Virtuous people are simply those who have ... not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them.”
—Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)
“Seraphs and saints with one great voice
Welcomed that soul that knew not fear.
Amazed to find it could rejoice,
Hell raised a hoarse, half-human cheer.”
—John Davidson (1857–1909)