Jim (James) Lane is an American who was one of the original staff of Microsoft. He worked on forging the relationship between Microsoft and Intel, the so-called "Wintel" alliance. Bob Wallace, Gordon Letwin, and Jim Lane were the original members of Microsoft's Languages group. Lane worked on Microsoft's Pascal compiler, and was Project Lead for the FORTRAN compiler before leaving Microsoft in 1985. He has run his own small software company since the early 1990s, working on compilers, embedded systems, network protocols, and occasionally computer games. In the early 1990s, he worked under contract to Digital Equipment Corp, porting Microsoft's Visual C/C++ compiler to the DEC Alpha. He has been a speaker several times at the annual Games Designers Conferences, and was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Seattle Area Unix Users' Group. Before working At Microsoft, Lane worked at Digital Group, in Denver, Colo, where he originated the concept of the luggable computer. He lives in a high-end suburb in Seattle's Eastside. His hobbies include math, cognitive science, Argentine Tango, and art photography.
Regarding the Associated Press April, 2000 article "A look at Microsoft's first 11 employees", Lane has said "They spelled all of the names right, but got almost everything else wrong."
Famous quotes containing the words jim and/or lane:
“Just kids! That’s about the craziest argument I’ve ever heard. Every criminal in the world was a kid once. What does it prove?”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Jim Bird, The Blob, responding to the suggestion that they not lock up the teens pulling the alien “prank,” (1958)
“The prairies were dust. Day after day, summer after summer, the scorching winds blew the dust and the sun was brassy in a yellow sky. Crop after crop failed. Again and again the barren land must be mortgaged for taxes and food and next year’s seed. The agony of hope ended when there was not harvest and no more credit, no money to pay interest and taxes; the banker took the land. Then the bank failed.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)