This page is a list of packages, patches, interfaces, and little
utilities that I've written to make my life easier, predominantly in C and
Tcl/Tk. (no academic class programs here). A couple of them are even
pretty popular by my humble standards.
My software workshop
I built
a 3D Laser Line Scanner from hardware through
point-cloud viewer. for a class project and also just
for kicks. It's still in progress, but works. There's
some sample data here too.
3D Laser Scanner
What you get when you have a scope, cheap CCD cameras,
and more computers than you can shake a stick at (believe me,
I've tried).
Astrophotography
Linux is my primary OS at home (2+ linux boxen, 1 mac, 3 doorstops) because it makes me happy. If I want an environment to handle the details while I get real document-oriented work done I'll use a Mac. Windows just drives up my blood pressure every time I'm forced to use it. I was licensed a copy of Win95 once, but not a single byte remains. If you need more propoganda, check out Slashdot.
I seem to have a knack for getting ahold of old machines for little or no cost - Suns in particular. I've had a slew of Sun-3's pass thru my hands and had one fully operational 3/60 running StunOS 4. Unfortunately an attempted upgrade to NetBSD rendered it inoperable. I've also recently aquired a Sparc-1 which was running RedHat linux 4.2 with some difficulties, but operates beautifully as a diskless Xterminal to my laptop. It's monitor has been requisitioned as the head to my new desktop linux box.
Alternative OS's and Old Hardware
I managed to get NetBSD 1.2 to boot on my Centris 650 off an
external 230MB Magneto Optical drive. It's slow, but pretty
cool. Ethernet and X also worked pretty well, though color X was not
completely functional. I've since given up since I have enough unix
machines and realized I'd rather have MacOS too.
Playing with NetBSD/Mac68k
- I got to play with some pretty cool toys while working at LANL and decided I need to know more about basic electronics. I haven't gotten around to building anything on my own yet.
Basic Electronics
- I've worked with Tkined for awhile and wrote some companion and extension scripts.