Computer and Technical Resources

I'm most well known around the net for setting up the hypertext archive of the Usenet Faqs which is a collection of FAQs from news.answers. I no longer maintain them, but it was fun while it lasted. Alas, now no one maintains them. All good things must pass.

I wrote all about ISDN as a project for a networking class here. It's a fair introduction, and covers some things that are hard to find elsewhere. Or they were when I wrote it anyway. If anyone is interested, here's how to block Apple ethertalk from going across your Pipeline 25 bridge. Also how to block multicast (MBone) traffic.

I developed a Console Server many years ago when I first started working for Ohio State. The link takes you to some information and loosely organized software.

I had a winning entry in the 1991 International Obfuscated C Code Contest for Best One Liner. It was for an 81 character implementation of rot13, but unfortunately others have had even greater success recently at smaller implementations of rot13.

I own a Casio QV-300 digital camera, which has been both useful and annoying. The sketches on this page were "scanned" in with the camera. The result wasn't great, but I was able to fix it with The Gimp.

I [damn does every sentence in this web page have to start with "I"?] have always enjoyed making my own cheap, cheesy, ugly fonts. My (mostly) completed X11 fonts are available. So is the program I used to make them, bdfedit.

One of my oldest and slowest developing projects is the very useful ttkdraw. It's an object-based drawing program written in Tcl/Tk (8.x required), great for doing diagrams and artwork. This lightbulb that I used ages ago on a web page was drawn with ttkdraw, and then shrunk down with other standard sofware.

I developed a GUI interface to the free mtvp MPEG player from MpegTV.com.

I have my own quicker reference, which I wrote because I got tired of not remembering things, and because people kept asking me if I knew of a good quick reference. It is quite out of date, but is still quite useful. Maybe I'll update it someday.

I also use Netscape's HTML Tag Reference (from Netscape's Developer's home page go to Documentation, then HTML).

I have software for converting simple indented text files into HTML or Javascript trees (great for Site Maps).

I wrote a vi reference that lists all the non-ex commands. It also has a few nice tidbits and helpful hints at the end. And a small (but hopefully growing) list of system differences.

Some useful tcsh configuration tips. At the moment these are just some handy drop-in completions for standard commands.

Shameless plug for my parent's company: Visit D F Electronics, Inc., for all of your electronics assembly needs. DFE can handle all or any part of the electronics design and manufacturing process, from circuit design, board layout, and case design, through manufacturing engineering, manufacturing, and full product testing.

Opinions

• The Swatch "Internet Time" Scam
• Why Break Up Microsoft?
• The Benefits of a Monopoly
• Microsoft "Innovation"
• Microsoft is Not a Monopoly
• What if we treated Electricity like Software?
• Y2K or Ynot2K, that is the question
• Estimating Sotware Development Time (you get to decide if I'm serious or joking or both)
• Use of Cookies Considered Safe
• Why do Windows Lovers Love Windows?
• Designing an Electronic Classroom
• FREE LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS! (not)
• Why we should keep flat rates
• Outdated software development practices (work in progress)

On Microsoft true believers: When someone else did come along with a hammer, you'd scoff at them: "Ah, whadya need that for? Aren't you good enough to handle a rock?"

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