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E-mail
Hosting History
Work
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I am an engineer by profession and computing enthusiast by hobby.
I got into computers with the arrival of the
TRS-80 microcomputer back in 1979
(try my TRS-80 emulator page).
I was an instant addict. Since then, I've owned several variants of the TRS-80,
a Commodore 64, a Timex Sinclair 1000,
an original 128K Macintosh, an Amiga 500, and, more lately,
several x86-based PC's. In 2020, after 20 years of use, I finally ditched
my beige PC case in favor of a smaller, completely silent model from
Fully Silent PCs using the Streacom F8-alpha
case with a core i9-9900 CPU, 64-GB RAM, a fast M.2 SSD for the O/S, and dual large-capacity
SATA SSDs. I highly recommend it.
I've been enjoying writing some multi-threading apps to take advantage of having 8 cores.
In 2021 I got a Mac mini to try out Apple's M1 CPU. It's fast (see the 1/23/21
news entry).
Most of my programming work is in C these days, which I learned in 1985 using Borland's
Turbo C (way
ahead of its time!) on an IBM AT. That was another case where I was an instant addict.
C was the perfect blend of a high-level language with low-level access that solved
all of the things I hated about having to combine BASIC and assembly language, which
I had relied upon until that point. I have never felt compelled to use a different
language since learning C, although I have tried quite a few (sometimes willingly, sometimes out
of necessity).
I enjoy the challenge of creating cross-platform
applications (Linux/Unix, Windows, and sometimes OSX), though I'm not much of a GUI
guy, as you'll be able to tell if you use any of my software (most of my programs
are command-line centric). My interest in C has resulted in my
C compiler pages and MinGW pages (where I recently had success building gcc on my PC).
When not working or spending time with my wife, daughter, and cat
(and when not watching Monday Night Football!), I occasionally find the time to update
willus.com, my personal web site, where I keep links
and information that I find to be useful.
I use lots of free and open source software (FOSS),
so I've posted some of my own software for free download.
I also enjoy using digital cameras,
though I definitely put the amateur in amateur photographer.
I've learned a thing or two about streaming videos
in the process of posting home videos from my digital cameras. I also enjoy tracking
the progress of computing technology.
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