Dave Decker

I played trumpet, as a hobby, most of my life, switching to 'cello as a more relaxed way to keep my sanity, what little there is left of it, through the long Silicon Valley overtime hours.

I joined HPSO for the spring 1995 season, and enjoy playing the music I have loved my whole life. I've also been playing 'cello with an amateur wind quartet, for fun, for about the same time period. Yes, I know, the quartet really need a bassoon, but they put up with me.

I am retired, now, but have worked as a Digital Design Engineer, for Ampex, Actel, and other smaller companies. I most enjoyed Designing Field Programmable Gate Arrays, especially for implementing Digital Signal Processing systems.

My other interests include: PCs for music engraving with 'Finale', Photography, and Audio. I also enjoy surfing the WEB, reading USENET Internet Discussion Groups, exploring 3D worlds, such as There.com and Second Life, and auditing collage courses, especially Physics, and Astronomy courses. Great Pizza can be made at home, and I've recently been having lots of fun learning how.

In my past life I've done a lot of woodworking, bicycling, and sprint sled-dog racing.

    "Animals . . . are not brethren they are not
    underlings; they are other nations,
    caught with ourselves in the net of life and time,
    fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of
    the earth."

    Henry Beston - The Outermost House