I spent many good years at Intel. Starting in the 90's, I retired in 2016. My title, for many of those years was Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect. At the start with Intel, I worked with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to create and enable the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). I was chair of the TPM working group and vice-chair of the Technical Committee. In August 2024 I got my invite to attend the 25th anniversary of the TCG and it's predecessor TCPA.
Prior to Intel I worked at Central Point Sofware until they were acquired by Symantec. At Central Point I focused on PC Tools. When Symantec came around I worked for a time on Tools but then created a new product named Norton Your Eyes only an encryption product. Working on an encryption product in the 90's meant that you were creating weapons, at least according to the US export laws, so for some time I was an international arms dealer.
Prior to Symantec, I'd worked at Lotus Development, who had bought the little startup I was working at in Salt Lake City. Lotus was an amazing place to be in the mid 80's. It was growing like a weed. Each quarter surpassed the next 5 year plan. Best office space I ever worked in, great desk with windows overlooking the Charles River. At one time I had the office space 3 floors below the CEO.
Writing
It was at Lotus that I took a course in technical writing. Orginally, I grumbled when my manager said that as an architect I really needed to work on my writing style. So off I went. The instructor, on the first day asked a simple question, "How many of you spend most of your time writing tech docs, or emails, or specifications, or other items?" A good portion of us raised their hands, I certainly did. She then hit us with a stunning fact, "If you are spending more than half your time writing, you are not a programmer, or architect, or anything else other than a professional writer. True, the content is very different, and your expertise matters, but day in and day out you write for a living."
I was thunderstruck. So I tried to do much better as a writer and I really enjoyed and learned a ton in that first class. Those writing skills, continually worked on throughout my professional career, came in very handy when I created my BCG portfolio. The amount of writing didn't intimidate me. I've written two technical books and somewhat surprisingly I loved the editing process. Both the content editing and the grammer editing were fun aspects of getting the book published.
Patents
This is John Martinus Grawrock my great-great grandfather. Born in Norway he immigrated to the United States and was a prolific inventor. A full write-up of his life is here. As an inventor he had issued patents and I've found three. He doesn't know it yet but we are in a competition, who has the most issued patents. My count is 83 as of August 2024. The use of the patent office web site takes an engineering degree, but searching for Grawrock as an Inventor name should give the count. Make sure you separate issued from applications as that at least doubles the number of hits.