User:Dave

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I been programming since I was 9. Started on my TI 99/4A, with Extended Basic (with 32 K of memory!). Moved up to my Apple //c, max'd with 1MB and an 8MHz Zip Chip. Eventually moved to a Mac IIcx with a Full Page Display and 20 MB ram (back when 2MB was "huge"). Went to college at UMass Amherst. Worked at Specular International on Infini-D (wrote save/load, the Sequencer etc). Then I worked for a little known company in Rhode Island called "The Company of Science & Art" aka CoSA, on a little tiny thing called After Effects. CoSA was bought later by Aldus, which was itself bought by Adobe. Some of my older stuff is documented at my other site, http://www.lazilong.com. My personal site is http://www.davecotter.com.

My former wife and amazing musician Liesl was into Karaoke when we met. Back then I thought only very disturbed people liked karaoke, but then, Liesl didn't seem really disturbed, so I skeptically went with her when she went out. She encouraged me to put in a song, and I always declined, 'till one day someone sang a song that I really liked and I was like, "I could sing that", so next time I finally got up on the stage and sang it, and I *loved* it!! Liesl used to comment "I've created a monster!". (I am quite a ham with "Man of Constant Sorrow"!)

In 2004 Liesl got invited to sing some solos at a "Showcase" event, so we got a few discs so she could practice at home. My thinking was, hey I'll just download some shareware karaoke app so we can play the discs on the TV in the living room (to which a MacMini is hooked, with remote control for all the lights and an HD EyeTV). I searched the internet high and low for a Mac-compatible app, and only found Jim Bumgardner's program, but it only ran on System 7! So instead of giving up I said, "I shall rectify the situation!" and thus, kJams was born!

I put it online for free, but people started writing from all over, asking how to pay for it. I kept telling them "it's just free" and they were like, "no this is great, let me pay you", so i'm like, well, okay if you insist. I stuck in a shopping cart and the rest, as they say, is history.

--dave 13:06, 25 Sep 2005 (PDT)

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