Leaving Sci-Fi for a Different Network
One-time prodigy is chief architect for tools company
By Geoff Koch
April 1, 2007 —
(Page 1 of 2)
Sometime in the not-too-distant future, ScriptLogic will release several next-generation versions of its various network administration tools. It’s hardly out of the ordinary that the code will have been shepherded through development and testing by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company’s chief software architect, Brian Bucklew. But what may be surprising are the 27-year-old Bucklew’s credentials: a long history of obsessive tinkering with code, an abiding love of science fiction and computing games, and when it comes to education, a high school diploma.
The history of computing is rife with tales of college dropouts who make good, from Bill Gates to Larry Ellison to Steve Jobs. But it’s an archetype that’s beginning to feel somewhat antiquated as professionalization creeps into every nook and cranny of technology, including the formerly anarchic world of gaming. Universities used to scowl at the use of their precious computing resources by the gaming crowd, while today those same campuses scramble to put in place serious undergraduate and graduate degree programs in game development and design.
Certainly the problems that ScriptLogic solves, including how to eliminate network administration errors and better manage system updates, have long been the province of pros with staid training in such areas as systems engineering and computer science. That Bucklew thrives in a world of degree-holding suits—he has long hair and says he wears shorts to work most days—seems due in equal measure to his quirky personal history and undeniable programming chops.
Growing up in the 1980s in space-crazy Plantation, Fla., Bucklew at first was convinced he wanted to be an aerospace engineer. Though Plantation is close enough to Cape Canaveral to be able to see Space Shuttle launches when conditions are right, Bucklew was influenced less by NASA than by science fiction novels such as “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons and “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card.
While still in his teens, he decided he wanted to build sci-fi-inspired games, not those of the simple tic-tac-toe variety. It was what he saw on screens at the local arcade that intrigued him. So while his contemporaries were home watching television shows like “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” Bucklew would spend hours programming on his 286-based PC in QuickBASIC or ANSI C, trying to build spaceships that would fly across the computer screen. Invariably he found himself in way over his head and would end up abandoning the project, though not until he had learned all there was to know about a particular programming problem.
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