My name is John Duncan. I'm a software engineer with over 7 years of industry experience based in Washington, DC, where I've been working at Quorum Analytics since early 2018.
Previously, in the summer of 2016, I was a research intern for the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems group in the Homeland Protection division (now Biotechnology and Human Systems) at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on Hanscom Air Force Base in Lexington, Massachusetts.
I received a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science (Honors) and Philosophy (Honors) from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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ch'io faccio il canto della guerra eterna Fra luce a fango.
for I sing the song of the eternal war Between light and mud.
| — Ezra Pound, Canto LXXII | 1944 AD |
Verum esse ipsum factum
What is true is precisely what is made
| — Giambatista Vico, De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia ex Linguae Originibus eruenda Librir Tres | 1710 AD |
Et sic in infinitum
And so on to infinity
| — Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi | 1617 AD |
Le Temps Venra
the time will come
| — Jean de Berry, Duke of Berry and Auvergne & Count of Poitiers and Montpensier | ~1340–1416 AD |
Mortui vivunt, vivi pro eis sepeliuntur
The dead are alive and the living are buried by them
| — Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium | ~1180 AD |
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Everything changes, nothing perishes
| — Ovid, Metamorphoses | 8 AD |
τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἀνάμνησις ἐκείνων ἅ ποτ᾽ εἶδεν ἡμῶν ἡ ψυχὴ συμπορευθεῖσα θεῷ
This is a recollection [anamnesis] of those things which our soul once beheld, when it journeyed with God...
| — Plato, Phaedrus (249c) | ~370 BC |
τὸ γὰρ ζητεῖν ἄρα καὶ τὸ μανθάνειν ἀνάμνησις ὅλον ἐστίν
For searching and learning are, as a whole, recollection [anamnesis]
| — Plato, Meno (81d) | ~385 BC |
מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה֙ ה֣וּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶ֔ה וּמַה־שֶּׁנַּֽעֲשָׂ֔ה ה֖וּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂ֑ה וְאֵ֥ין כָּל־חָדָ֖שׁ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃
Quid est quod fuit ipsum quod futurum est quid est quod factum est ipsum quod fiendum est
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new beneath the sun.
| — Ecclesiastes 1:9, Kohelet (Solomon), son of David, king in Jerusalem | ~450–180 BC |
ἀκούοντί ποι χθονίᾳ φρενί
Deep in the earth, their heart listens
| — Pindar, Pythian V | 462 BC |
𒃻 𒌑𒄖 𒌣𒀀 𒃻𒈨𒃻𒊏
níg ú-gu dé-a níg-me-gar-ra
It is inconceivable that something is lost forever
| — The Instructions of Shuruppak | ~2600 BC |
Quorum
Nel mezo delcamin dinrã uita
Mi trouai ᵱuna ſelua oſcura
Che la diriƈta uia era ſmarrita
(Foligno, Neumeister/Angelini)
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
Ché la diritta via era smarrita.
(Gutenberg)
Midway along the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
(Longfellow)
| — Dante, Comedìa: Inferno, Canto I | ~1308-1321 AD
(Published 1472) |
I spent nearly 7 years building the Quorum Analytics B2B SaaS civic tech public affairs platform. During my tenure, I researched, designed, built, launched, and maintained over a dozen of Quorum's flagship products, features, and critical systems.
While I did a lot of programming, a large part of my role involved serving as a mentor and technical resource to dozens of engineers, managers, engineering directors, and the CTO.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Coſi lanima noſtra incótinente che nel nuouo et mai nó fa ciò cāmino diqſta uita entra
(Florence, Bonaccorsi)
[C]osì l’anima nostra, incontanente che nel nuovo e mai non fatto cammino di questa vita entra
(Florence, Edizione Nazionale)
[S]o our soul, as soon as it enters upon this new and never travelled road of life
(Princeton, Lansing)
| — Dante, Convivio: IV, xii, 14-18 | ~1304-1307 AD
(Published 1490) |
I interned with the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems group (Division 4 Group 44) on the Local Evacuation Alert Verification (LEAV) program for HURREVAC-eXtended (HVX).
Sponsored by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate.
Upspin
I am currently working on project using Go, Mozilla, Svelte and the upspin protocol.
