Enok Sandahl

This was my grandfather, acting as my second father. He had a small carpentry in Åsafors in the countryside in Småland, where I spent all my free time up to six years of age, and much time during later school holidays. I was the chief designer and he was my carpenter and butler. We built small machines for everything needed in my life, such as a machine for playing with cats, for spanking my little brother, for automatically passing nails when hammering, and so forth. He was old already at that time and is no longer alive.

Kjell Andersson

Kjell is an engineer married to one of my father’s sisters. Every time I met him at family reunions, I jumped up on his knee and discussed engineering until he got tired and almost apathetic. He was more formally educated than my grandfather, so I could discuss even some electronics with him.

Per-Olof Ewers

We met in the Värnamo Gymnasium School. He was an amateur radio operator and constructed his own colossal radio transmitters. I was impressed and started to construct colossal audio amplifiers. At that time all our constructions contained radio tubes, which were fatal for a fumbling teenager, but we obviously had guardian angels. Per-Olof now has his own successful company, helping with EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) problems.

Bertil Lindberg and other student friends.

At the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, we were a group of students from the surroundings of the city of Värnamo, who among others constructed electronics. Bertil was always my helpful genius, and we attended many classes and took many labs together.

Ingvar Sandblom

This was a unique bohemian and autodidact from Skillingaryd, the small village where I grew up. He was a radio and television repairman and served customers from the whole Småland province. During my summer vacations, I practiced in his company, and we traveled around and repaired truck communication equipment. Later he became a close friend to me. Unfortunately, he smoked a lot and died of lung cancer.

Erik Dahlbergs Gymnasium colleagues

For a couple of years in the early eighties I was a teacher in electric power and control engineering, and met truly brainy people at this school. I developed an enjoyable intellectual relationship with the crazy and egocentric adventurer Ludvig Bergström , and I worked on a silicon custom design education with the ultradynamic and friendly Anders Lindberg .

Gunnel Sandahl

I met Gunnel during her education in program development at the University in Lund. Apart from sorting out a lot of technical problems together, we fell in love and married, and we now have a sweet family together with our sons Sebastian and Jonathan .

Axis Communication colleagues

I worked at Axis during their startup period in the late eighties, when there were only three development groups. The genius Per Zander worked in the same group as I, and was shockingly skilled in constructing computer boards for complex printers. The Axis manager, Mikael Karlsson , was talented and incredibly promising, but sadly got a fatal cancer some years after I had left Axis. The director for new products, Martin Gren , was a spontaneous genius, which is quite the reverse of my own inclination, and despite our problems in communication, we always aimed to respect each other. At Axis I also met the technician entrepreneur Bernt Böhmer , and together we collected wines of unreal quality, and we still meet for super dinners with special wines and technical discussions.

Q-Labs colleagues

A dynamic Norwegian Geir Fagerhus set up this consultant company during the economically harsh times in Sweden in the nineties. He succeeded in finding dozens of extraordinarily dynamic and skillful people, such as Henrik Cosmo and Anders Gustavsson , to mention two of them. Q-Labs collaborated with many universities and several international product-developing corporations, and used the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of Bill Curtis at SEI, and the Cleanroom methodology by Harlan Mills in Florida.

Sony Ericsson colleagues

I have been in various positions at Ericsson and Sony Ericsson for more than a dozen years. I began as a mobile phone technical manager under the highly talented Jan Svensson , who afterwards had a long, successful career ending at the absolute top of the development departments of both Ericsson and Sony Ericsson. After some years, I shifted to operational development and together with Mats Pettersson , another talented manager, got the yearly award from the hands of the president, Miles Flint. A great deal of this success was attributable to Jan Sjunnesson , who was the knowledgeable consultant mentor during this period. During my operational development work I met many technical geniuses, such as Even Andre Karlsson and Magnus Augustinsson, to mention some. My ever present social mentor was Per Göran Ohlsson .

Cooperation with the academic world

At many of the companies where I have worked, there was a tight connection with the technical universities. I got to know professor Claes Wohlin during the Q-Labs era; I came in contact with professor Boris Magnusson during Java development at Sony Ericsson; and as operational developer in verification methodology I cooperated with professor Per Runesson .

Thord Sandahl

This is my brother, who has a degree in civil and environmental engineering from Chalmers University of Technology. He is a full-fledged entrepreneur, and is the successful managing director of our large family transportation corporation. He has been indispensable during our Hungary wine production adventure.

Bakó Ambrus

I met this microbiologist in Badacsony in Hungary while setting up our own winery, called Villa Sandahl. He established his own oenology consulting company to assist us, and we have developed some of the best white dry wines produced in Hungary. He is a living lexicon and has answers to almost anything one may want to know. He is now replaced with the worthy successor Palkó Zsolt. We also had invaluable help from wine producer Fabien Stirn in Alsace.

Christer Sandahl

I was born and grew up in the Gnosjö area, the well-known region of entrepreneurship in Småland in southern Sweden. My family holds a large transportation company, which was founded by my grandfather, expanded by my father, and is now managed by my brother.

I have been a passionate engineer for over 40 years. Beginning with photo and chemistry labs in my early teenage years, to electrical engineering at the university, and computer and program design as a professional.

Several times in my early career, I constructed large computer systems all by myself, including mechanics, electronics, and programs. When computers grew larger and complex, for long periods I managed programming groups in successful local companies, as well as in large worldwide corporations, such as Axis Communications, Ericsson, and Sony Ericsson.

I also manage my brother's and my winery in Hungary, which nowadays is considered to be a quality breakthrough in Hungary's dry white wine production.

I have always been an engineer in the front lines of technology, and although I am very fond of management matters, I have not jumped into a formal career to get more and more people under me. Neither am I an academic longing for a formal scientific career, presenting an impressive list of references to show my formal education. This book is more a collection of unique and creative ideas from long experience in combination with curiosity about theories in technical and methodology fields. To conclude, I am an artist in technology, loving to express myself.