Alan R. Weiss
Alan R. Weiss is a computer industry expert on benchmarking and Software development tools, as well as telehealth and embedded systems. In January 2009, Weiss, along with business partner Samuel B. Fuller, formed Waldo Networks, Inc., an innovative telehealth devices and medical health care services company. The company received Angel and Venture Capital investment in late 2009, and received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to market for the Waldo Health System. in April 2011.
Weiss is Founder and CEO of Synchromesh Computing, LLC in Austin, Texas. His work included consulting with major semiconductor companies on software tools, operating systems, performance improvements, and power reduction technologies. Synchromesh Computing also developed products for others, including a 32-bit high performance NAND flash memory device, an MP3 player system for incarcerated prisoners, a complete electric vehicle control system for a Class III/Class IV all-electric truck, and other technologies. Waldo Health was a spin-out from Synchromesh Computing.
Weiss helped develop the benchmark source code for EEMBC, and was the Project Manager for EEMBC's Technical Advisory Group, the main team chartered with the technical direction of EEMBC. EEMBC is an industry-standard consortium of 60 semiconductor and compiler companies.
Before starting ECL, Weiss worked for Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor) for 6 years, rising from a software developer to Manager of Software Technologies and Principal Systems Software Architect for Intelligent Transportation Systems. He was, for a time, software architect for corporate-wide Speech Recognition technologies inside of Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor).
He was a co-founder and was the Motorola Voting Board Member of the EDN Embedded Benchmark Consortium EEMBC. He served as the first Chairperson of that consortium's Automotive/Industrial Subcommittee. Before that, he helped found and served as the first Vice-Chairman of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation SPEC Graphics Performance Committee Multimedia Benchmark Committee (SPEC Media). He is a recognized industry expert in microprocessor performance analysis, benchmarking, software engineering, and Software development tools. He has spoken at Cool Chips, DesignCon, Embedded Systems Conference, Microprocessor Forum, and other computer industry conferences.
Weiss is a member of the Advisory Boards of a number of computer industry companies, including dbk Associates, and is a former member of the Microprocessor Report Editorial Review Board and a former member of the Technical Advisory Board for Improv Systems, a Silicon Valley intellectual property company.
[edit] Libertarian Activism, Political office, and Personal
Alan R. Weiss is a Libertarian political activist, former Vice President and Organizer of the Free State Project, was an elected officer in Austin, Texas.
Weiss was elected, as a Libertarian, a Director of the Northwest Austin #1 Municipal Utility District and had a fiduciary responsibility for that public utility in the state of Texas, USA. Previously he had worked for the establishment of an elementary school in Canyon Creek, his neighborhood, which was granted in the mid-1990s by Round Rock Independent School District. While in office he served as the Finance Chairman, and led the effort to reduce taxes while improving services. Taxes were reduced by over 50% on property in his District under his leadership. Services to residents/taxpayers were actually improved as a result. He resigned when believed his work was completed on the basic taxation issue, but not before participating in a lawsuit against the City of Austin for multiplicity of taxation. Alan R. Weiss, Don Zimmerman, and William Ferguson asserted that Austin had violated the Texas State Water Code. The case has been heard by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals of the State of Texas. Meanwhile, there was a failed attempt by the State of Texas Legislature to modify the state Water Code to deny in-city Municipal Utility Districts and cities from creating allocation agreements. The Third Circuit court ruled in 2009 that an allocation agreement in fact did exist, and that the City of Austin must adjust its tax rates so that the ad valorem taxes were equivalent such that the taxes paid by residents in the M.U.D. were equal to those paid by others in the rest of the city. The City took the case to the Texas Supreme Court, but that court denied to review the case. Issuing a relatively confusing order for the City and the M.U.D. to negotiate "in good faith", the City of Austin finally threw in the towel in the winter of 2010, buying out the M.U.D. bond debt. Thus, the M.U.D. decided to abolish itself. Director Weiss, along with Directors Zimmerman and Ferguson, had won the case
In February 2006 Weiss was elected a Director of the Canyon Creek Homeowner's Association, where he pledged to re-open all closed infrastructure without raising taxes using volunteer labor.
Weiss is the Founder and Chairman of The Ceres Project, a small investment project dedicated to funding a new film and book by L. Neil Smith entitled Ceres, and is similarly the Founder and Chairman of the follow-up project, The Ares Alliance. Combined, the two funds raised significant capital in a very short amount of time. The book "Ceres" was first-draft finished in December 2005 and distributed to investors in March 2006 as completed, proving that private investment club funding could work to fund major (over 800 pages) new pieces of literature.
Weiss has written dozens of articles and essays for both Rational Review and The Libertarian Enterprise, an influential anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian journal, including "They're Not Here, and They're Not Coming Part 1", "They're Not Here and They're Not Coming Part 2", "SCOTUS Among Us", "The Economics of Sitting Ducks", "Alan R. Weiss Endorses Michael Badnarik for President", "Thoughts on Forms of Political Economy on Mars Part 1", "Real World Economics", "Planes, Trains, and the Free State Project", "Our Kind of Town", "The Dan Weiner Delivery", "On Mel Gibson", and "Lux Lucre, R.I.P." He was on the front page of the Sunday edition of the Austin American-Statesman with a picture of him in front of an American flag, a copy of the Declaration of Independence in his hand, a smile on his face in the featured article, "On To New Hampshire To Build The Land of the Free" by Mark Lisheron. This marked the second time Alan R. Weiss was on the front of the Austin American-Statesman, the first time being in advocacy of building a neighborhood elementary school on pre-allocated, free, but unused land.
Weiss' company certified the voting process and the balloting for Free State Project (FSP). This was an example of a private company certifying a major vote of an intensely scrutinized (by the Media) organization.
Weiss joined the Free State Project as a Participant, then became an Organizer and Advisor, and then led the Executive Search Team to find the Director of Development for the FSP. He was elected Vice President of the Free State Project.
Because of his activities in the Free State Project and in Travis County, he attended the 2004 Libertarian Party National Convention (both as a credentialed delegate from Texas and as Vice President of the Free State Project). He was asked, and gave, one of the nominating speeches for Michael Badnarik, which was televised on C-SPAN.
Weiss' involvement in the LP extends back to 1978, when he started a Students for a Libertarian Society (SLS) chapter at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and then the Northridge Libertarian Society. He cut his teeth on the Ed Clark for Governor campaign, and then continued working within the LP on the Ed Clark for President campaign in 1980.
Weiss holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and has extensive post-baccalaureate training and education in hardware and software engineering, semiconductor physics, management science, and project management. He regularly teaches classes in software engineering to help better the industry and its products.
Weiss has published a number of papers at various software and semiconductor-related conferences, and has given presentations at Embedded Systems Conference, DesignCon, Cool Chips IV, Freescale Technology Forum, and Embedded Processor Forum. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE Number 40357826).
Alan R. Weiss is a graduate of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills California (1977), where he was active in the Model United Nations club, and California State University Northridge (1982). He lives with his wife, Jane, a former school teacher, and their grown adult kids Robyn, Jessica, David, and AnnaMaria in Austin, Texas along with two Labrador Retrievers, three cats, and two ferrets.
