(Note: this page is now unmaintained. Please visit jcomeau.com for new homepage.)
Introduction
Hi, I'm John Comeau,
(mugshot)
originally from Skowhegan, Maine, now living in
the tropical paradise of South Florida. I quit a 10-year career as an
Electronics Technician in the Post Office in January of 1999 to work
full time as cofounder and CTO of Dialtone Internet
Communications, a
major player in the Dedicated Server and Server Colocation industry.
Now that Dialtone has been sold to
Interland, it's time for me to move
on to other challenges: accordingly, I announced my retirement on Monday,
June 18, 2002, and am now continuing my education.
On June 22 I updated my
resume but don't bother contacting
me for a "job"; I'm only interested in short-term
consulting assignments,
offsite system administration,
and training at this time. Also, I'm open
to partnerships in a business venture
and a bartering arrangement.
The United States of America
Recent actions by the government of the country in which I was born make
it necessary for me to make this public: I disowned my government back in
1963 when they killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy (not that I suspected
then that powers within the government were behind it - I just
couldn't see any sign of life in it after JFK). If they have done anything
just since then it was either accidental, or carried through by one of the
lower-level employees in spite of the evil powers at the top. The world
has to know that there is a big difference between the citizens of the US
and the government of the US; the only way to get a righteous goverment
in place would be revolution, and I am not sure enough that that would get us
anything better that I would be willing to martyr myself to accomplish it.
So anyway, the point is: just because I'm American doesn't mean I support
the actions of my government; I most definitely do not most of the
time. And, myths aside, the power of my vote is not much when the candidates
among whom I may vote are all put in place by powers out of my reach.
The best I can do, as far as I know, is to pull a "John Galt" and not work
in my field, and not work enough to have to pay taxes. I plan to stick
with that strategy as long as possible.
PDP-11 FAQ
I have been a PDP-11 enthusiast since 1988, when I first got hands-on at
the Postal training center in Norman, OK. My first computing experience
was on the DEC-10 system at WPI in 1974, and my original high regard for
Digital's engineers and software developers has only increased over the
years.
The WWW version of the PDP-11 FAQ
is now complete and has been moved to http://www.village.org/pdp11/faq.html.
I will maintain a pointer here indefinitely; it's the least I can do since
I have not contributed to the FAQ since my initial HTML rewrite.
HRC's Zapper
I have built a modified version of Hulda Regehr Clark's zapper, which
supposedly kills all parasites, bacteria, and viruses in humans with
low-current, low-voltage, pulsating DC. This uses much simpler circuitry
and replaces most of the components with a perl script running on Linux.
See zapper.html for more details.
postFORTH
A language compiler which will eventually incorporate the best of
both FORTH and postscript; have advanced programming support structures
like Perl; but stick close to the hardware and API of the underlying
machine and OS. Currently there is a possibly broken and unmaintained
MS-DOS version, and a Linux version, both available at the postFORTH page.
FTP Area
Since my world.std.com account is terminated, my ftp area may soon be gone (if it isn't
already), so
the same files are
accessible via http in the ftparea subdirectory.
This may not be for long depending on the vagaries of the various free
hosting services I use, but I'll do my damnedest to maintain them.
My Websites
In 2001 I moved all my websites to the totally free service Free.ProHosting.com with DNS provided,
also free, by ZoneEdit.com.
However, in July of 2002, storm.prohosting.com, on which my sites were
hosted, went offline for over 24 hours, and prohosting would provide no
answers on what was wrong or when it would be back; that's when I realized
"TANSTAAFL" (look that up on the web if you don't read Heinlein) and
decided to put my eggs, both web and DNS, in different baskets. You may
find them on different providers at any arbitrary time, some of them
different and/or missing features as I try to get everything working on
all of them.
None of
them are much to look at; I am just starting to find
time to spend on these hobbies.
They are: risp.org, the Organization for
Responsible Internet Providers;
J. Random Hacker's foo.bar && grille, my idea for an Internet
bar/restaurant; and TourThree.com,
something I intend someday to be a portal
for late-night entertainment targeted at Postal workers.
In October 2001 I also added
YoullReallyLikeMySite.com (you won't really, at least not yet), a domain
name that came to me in a dream. And in August 2002 I finally got a domain
I've been waiting for at least 5 years,
unternet.net, the underground internet. Also in 2002 I registered
EcuadorNegocios.COM and
QuickQuestions.COM (got a quick question?
I can get you a fast answer!).
ICTX
If and when I ever get the next version of
postForth working, I intend to port the Linux kernel
to it, and call the result 'ictx', where ICT is "Intelligent Control
Technologies", the name of my consulting firm, with the 'x' of course being
the de facto standard suffix of unix clones. You may find me as nick 'ictx'
or 'jcomeau'
on the efnet #linux channel, and at random (other) times on
NTN
as 'ICTX'. I like to help out with open-source projects, since it's
thanks to Linux that I was able to get out of the rat race while I still
have some time to enjoy life; see my linux support
page for some beginner's tips.
I have nothing to do with ictx.com, a completely different company.
Who is John Galt?
I've been reading a lot of books
in the last few years, particularly so
since retiring. It started with esr's
list of books in the back of the New Hacker's Dictionary and
progressed from there. I also still watch movies
once in a while.
Rants and Ramblings
Miscellaneous facts, fancies, and
fulminations not covered above.
The current date is Monday, 27-Jan-2020 23:04:44 UTC
This page was last modified Monday, 15-Sep-2003 06:52:05 UTC
Author
jcomeau@risp.org, otherwise known as:
John Comeau
P. O. Box 100632
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33310-0632
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