Hello! Welcome to my page about computing! I am an avid programmer and especially like Unix. I use several systems, one a i386 (Pentium I) Gateway PC running NetBSD 3.0.1, another a HP laptop (zt1130 Celeron) running *sigh* Windows, and a soon coming Fujitsu Poqet PC Plus running MS-DOS 5.0 (oh, well...) with two PCMCIA slots, full PC-XT compatibility, and..................a 5" by 9" form factor!! I also particularly like palmtops and subnotebooks. For me, computers can't be to small. If you want to learn more about my Unix use and other stuff on my computer usage, please go to my blog. That site is full of information on Unix, its variants, ports, and its use. However, I can still tell you some stuff here.
First off, I have a long story behind getting the Gateway and installing NetBSD Unix on it. After using SDF for a couple of months, I got hooked on Unix. I wanted to use it at home on my own machine. After first loving and hating Macs, I was ready for a change. So I scoured the market for a cheap PC. First I realized I had an old 386 that was my father's. It had to be rebuilt, so I spent several weeks working on that. What a pain. After busting my brain messing with floppy drives and reading through a book on PC hardware, I gave up on it. It turned out that on that Saturday I could go to yard sales. At one, at a high school (Talawanda High School if you recognize that name), I rummaged around, looking for a machine. Let's see......books.....ooh, a bicycle...too bad I have a nice one....yes, PCs! And for...25 bucks! Well, too much for a cheapskate like me. So I bargained it down to 12 dollars. A done deal.
Next came the big pain: installing Linux. The machine was loaded with *yuck* Windows 95. First I tried muLinux, a minimalist edition of Linux, but that wasted more time. My faced turned red and burned after partitioning. Time for something new. So I tried NetBSD. I discovered it after reading about different free operating systems. It turned out to be fairly simple to install....but....more partitioning. I finally cleared out the mistaken partitions from Linux. Then, after fiddling with the installation a little bit, I installed NetBSD 2.1. No X11, but I got used to csh and bash. I installed some packages on it, and now the machine is pretty cool. That is story of my Linux quest.
Also, today I am preparing to install NetBSD 3.0.1 on my Gateway. However, things have not been going swimmingly. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 6/23/08: I'm using a scratch-built Intel Core 2 Duo-based PC that runs Slackware Linux 12.0. For more information, click here. It runs fast and well! I'm doing some molecular and C programming stuff with it.
I'm also using my Palm III more again. I've installed LispMe, a Scheme VM and compiler, on it. For information, click the image below. (Note: this page is not active yet!)
This page will later tell you more about my computing. I have updated it, but it's still a 'stub'.*