About

I may be a retired programmer, but I’m still writing programs.  I wrote my first program in 1979 for an IBM 650, a small (for that time) computer with tubes not transistors.  It had a 4,000 ten digit word memory.  Since then, most of my programming has been on small systems.

My interests include:

  • Books–I have ~10,000 books in my house.  Most of them are science fiction, fantasy or young adult books.  A lot of very good fantasy has been published as young adult fiction.  Can you say “Harry Potter”? Nearly all cataloged with Koha an integrated library system.
  • Garden–I got a Duchess du Brabant rose bush some years ago.  It has been flattened by a number of hurricanes and was under the tent when I had the house tented for termites.  It’s still going strong.  That inspired me to add a number of miniature roses to the garden for my railroad. None of which survived.
  • 3d Printing–I’ve used my 3d-printers to print stuff for my model railroad, 3d-printer accessories, key chain tags for various events, pipe stems, business cards and whatever I can find an excuse for. 
  • Photography–Mostly I record events.  Once in a long while, I get something worth putting up on a wall.   My cameras include:
    • Nikon D80
    • Canon SD-1000
    • Sony Cybershot DSC-HX5V
    • Leica IIIb (It’s as old as I am)
    • “Baby” Speed Graphic (Remember the old press cameras from the 40’s?)
    • A number of other old ones I haven’t wanted to part with.
    • Of course my android phone.  It has an app which shows the strength of all the wifi stations nearby.  I can’t do that on an iPhone.  I tried for a couple of weeks, but had to give it up.
  • Computers–Naturally. I currently have a bunch including:
    • IPFire firewall between me and the internet
    • server which stores files and runs Koha, to keep track of all those books
    • Backup server
    • Work station
    • Guest machine
    •  A windoze machine needed to run 3D printing slicers which haven’t been updated to Linux.
    • Some tablets.
    • Some raspberry pi boxes for connecting to my 3d printers.
  • Vehicles
    • 2012 Hyundai Sonata
    • 1950 Studebaker ½ ton pickup truck
    • 1954 Studebaker Champion 4 door sedan.