Stuff you might have found me doing in the past

Before that, I was a Math and Physics major at Carleton College (in Northfield, MN). Since I left, they've even started a Linguistics major.

Still further back, I hail primarily from Stillwater (MN). I've lived in various places though, including Chicago (IL), and lived in Albany (NY), Woodbury (VT), Grantsburg (WI), and Amery (WI).

Am I old because both my Jr. High and Sr. High school are on the web?

• hanging around with people from my past.

• playing guitar in various bands.

• data entry for West Publishing in Stillwater and Northfield, MN (typing judicial decisions, law textbooks).

• Wandering around in the Boston Public Library, checking out Books on Tape to make the walk from Boston to school more entertaining..

• Hanging out on 4E (East Campus, MIT undergraduate dorm), where I was one of the Graduate Resident Tutors.

  

• Working on the MITWPL (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics) web pages.

• Affecting what you get to see on TV through the authority of the mighty Nielsen television rating scheme. My week of power began on January 11, 1996. All hail me.

  

• Reviewing Client/Server books for Addison-Wesley Publishing, Corporate and Professional Publishing Group... (You can even see me in the online Acknowledgments section of a recent book.)

• programming for
  
  • International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP).
    (Database programming in FoxPro, mainly)

    

  • Fundrasing and Communications Services (FACS)
    Minneapolis, MN
    FACS are the people who call you to ask if you'll donate to various worthwhile entities.
    (my job involved writing a billing program for them in FoxPro)
    • I also raytraced a nifty logo for the program, which is shown to the right. The text under the company name reads 'phoning with a social conscience.' I didn't design that part, I just scanned it in from their stationery.

  • the Lowell Inn
    Stillwater, MN
    The Lowell Inn is Stillwater's local "luxury hotel/restaurant" where us common folk only go for special occasions. The food was quite good on the occasions that I tried it..
    (my job ionvolved writing miscellaneous hotel management stuff as well as a separate salon management system for the owner, all mainly conducted in an early version of Clarion. I also spent a fair amount of time doing random miscellany like driving around to pick up repaired hardware or installing graphics cards. I had this position for an entire decade. Amazing.)

  • Old City Foods
    St. Paul, MN
    The Old City Cafe is the restaurant, but Old City Foods supplies food products to supermarkets as well. Last I heard, they reached as far as Madison, WI.
    (writing a production/order tracking program, in FoxPro)

  • MicroAssist
    Northfield, MN
    MicroAssist is a consulting company I worked for (actually, run by a friend of mine). I wrote a survey/people-matching program called CompuQuiz and I spent some time doing tech support for Servus. That's basically it. If you need proof however, check out the article about the president of MicroAssist from The Carleton Voice (in pdf format). You'll find me there at the top of the third column.
    (miscellaneous FoxBase+/Mac work)

    

  • Technology Research Group
    Boston, MA
    (writing a contact manager in FoxPro).
    • I raytraced a logo for their program as well (that's the fun part of writing these programs -- I didn't actually bill them for it). Kind of looks like Mitsubishi's logo, or Addison-Wesley's, but it's TRG's.

  • fun (in C, mainly).
    • SaveTM:

      Since I grew up with an Apple II, I've spent a fair amount of time playing about with the Stop the Madness (STM) Apple II emulator for the Mac. I wrote a companion program called SaveTM that allows you to save modified disk images. It comes in two versions; paradoxically, the newer version of SaveTM (SaveTM 1.02) only works with the older version of STM (0.851r), while the older SaveTM (SaveTM 1.00) works with the newer version of STM (0.881r). SaveTM should become obsolete altogether with the next release of STM, though.

    • ChaosTalk:

      This one wasn't really for fun -- it was part of the requirements for my undergraduate physics major. The program simulates a few different dynamical systems (some chaotic, some not), and for certain models it has a very pretty 3D viewer. Of course, it looks best if projected onto a movie-sized screen in a dark auditorium, but I suspect that my actual comps talk was the only time that will ever happen. You can download it if you want. Comes with source code and readme.

    • Triste:

      A little Tetris ripoff I wrote a million years ago (pretty much the first program I ever wrote in C on the Mac). Black & White, kind of buggy, but cute. You move the landscape instead of the piece. Anyway, you can check it out if you're really bored. Comes with source code and a weak attempt at a readme.

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