This complex section is intended for detail readers. If the buzzwords send you dizzy, copy this to a technical person.
Computing (my home machines run Mandriva Linux 2008.0 or Ubuntu 7.10);
Electronics, amateur radio; RAPS power systems, dyed solar cells;
Science (astronomy, geology, biology, physics);
Writing (journalism, novels, narrative reports, web pages);
Reading (science, science fiction, health, philosophy, etc);
Bush walking, rock climbing, cycling, driving;
Photography & image processing;
Health & diet, simple cooking;
OOPArts & other incongruities;
Home schooling, self-schooling;
Productive horticulture.
C (GNU, Borland, Visual, other types), C++;
SQL (PostGreSQL, MySQL, Firebird, Oracle, others);
PHP-3/4/5 (under Linux & Win/NT, incl. conversions from ASP & ColdFusion);
xBase (dBase II, III, IV, FoxBase 2.x, FoxPro, Clipper, dB/XL);
TCL/Tk (& some [incr TCL]);
Pascal (Turbo/Borland, UCSD, others);
ForTran (77, IV, various compilers) including RatFor;
BASIC (Visual-, M-, GW-, Alpha-, C-, S-, -A, -PLUS-TWO, hp-, Chipmunk- etc);
Java & JavaScript (AJAX);
Shell Scripts (bash, [ackz]sh, REXX, MS/DR/4DOS, DEC-Indirect, DCL etc);
Editor Scripts (EMACS & subsets, EDT, TECo, joe/jmacs/jstar, vi/ed/gawk, etc);
Application Scripts (WordBASIC, spreadsheet macros, ProComm, FTP, etc);
Assembler (80x86, M68K, MACRO-11, VAX, 808x, Z-80, 6800, 6809, 68HC05, AlphaMicro, 6502, 8051, 16032, 1802, DG Naked Mini);
Hypertext (HTML/SGML & variants, XSSI, HLP (HULK), GNU info) with scripting;
Python (including Zope);
Ruby – a wonderfully useful, fast-to-use & intuitive object-oriented language.
Many proprietary applications;
OpenOffice (Writer, Impress, Calc, Draw, Base);
Publishing (Scribus, Quanta, PDF creators, Dia, etc);
MS-Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Draw, Access);
Remote access (VNC, PuTTY/ssh, X, Xming, etc);
Remote storage (FTP, Konqueror’s fish://, scp/WinSCP, rsync, etc);
CD/DVD authorship (k3b, mkisofs, cdrecord, many others);
Tape backups (MagTape, DAT, etc);
RAIDing setups (hardware & software);
VPNning setups (firmware, OpenVPN, ssh-forwarded subnets etc);
Wide variety of text editors, compilers, IDEs like KDevelop, IDLE, Qt Designer, etc;
Audio (GNOME Sound Recorder, Audacity, TiMidity, Ogg Vorbis, XMMS, etc);
Raytracing (KPovModeler, Vertex, The Blender, etc);
Statistics (PMEG, Webalizer, StatSerial, PHPstats, other counters & log analysers);
Compressors (Gzip, BZip2, Zip, JRE, audio, video);
Documentation & libraries (Info, man, PDF, SGML etc);
Documentation standards (HTML, CSS, etc);
SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS-SQL-Server, Oracle, SQLite, etc);
Graphics editors (The GIMP, ImageMagick, jpegtran, Vertex, etc);
Network scanners (nmap, arpscan, traceroute, etc);
Graphics scanners (Kooka, XSane, proprietary).
Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, SCO, Ultrix, Digital Unix, others) including X;
Windows (2.x, 3.x, 95, 98, NT 3.5, 3.51, 4.0, 5.0 AKA 2000, 2003, XP, WINE, WABI);
MSDOS (2.05—6.22, DR-DOS, FreeDOS 1.2 (& DOSemu), PC-DOS, 4DOS);
OS/2 (2.1, Warp 3, Warp 4);
CP/M & MP/M, -80 & -86 (& CP/M-68K);
Mac Finder (to V7, & Lisa);
AMOS & AMOS/L; OS-9, AmigaDOS & other sub-unix variants;
VAX VMS; RSX-11-M-PLUS, RSTS, RT-11 (& TSX-11);
UCSD P-System;
Many of the above in emulators;
Various other proprietary, like AppleDOS, MarvinOS, Q-DOS, StarDOS.
Currently helping out with the LCA2008 (http://lca2008.linux.org.au/) conference.
Set up & maintain computers for some people & businesses who would be unable to afford commercial support.
I enjoy cycling, scenic walking/climbing, “bush-bashing”.
I participate in & write about home-education.
I write technical (HOWTOs etc) or philosophical articles & books (chapters, etc)
To provide prompt, polite & effective service in exchange for a steady & reasonable income, while diversifying & developing my skills.
If you have a question, feel free to ask it of me. Questions don’t hurt (well, not often) & can give me a hint about how you’re thinking. This can be a simple way to deal with odd little corners of our worlds, & to explore ways in which we can help each other.
Both business & personal references are available on specific request. Many referees are shy about having their details broadcast to the world, & even those who aren’t will “wear out” eventually. Please ask.
I can also call up various aspects of my work as a kind of reference, since much of it is public or has been published. I enjoy carrying out small pre-set tasks to demonstrate my utility in particular areas.