I’m a retired computer programmer who continues to serve on the ISO standards committee for the C++ programming language. One of the reasons that I retired from my day job after June of ’22, aside from being 76 years old, is that, for the last several years, I’d been writing nothing but Java, which I found rather frustrating.
I’m also quite the geek when it comes to riding on passenger trains. I’m not at all nostalgic about them; I just think that trains are a good way to travel today.
I’ll probably write mostly about C++ and riding on Amtrak; but I reserve the right to become obsessed when someone is wrong on the Internet.
For my commenting policy, I’ll start out using PZ Myers’ Pharyngula as a model. We’ll see how that goes. If a comment points out some error I made in a post, I’ll acknowledge the error in a comment of my own and fix it like Mano Singham does.
I’ll begin with a very short rant from my wires-and-pliers days, just to have something out there besides this “Howdy” post. Around the first of February, I’ll describe a trip that I’ll be taking to Issaquah, Washington, to attend a meeting of the ISO C++ committee.
Please feel free to suggest other topics that I might know something about, including digital electronics
from the SSI and MSI TTL era (back in the early ’80s I designed and built an EKG machine with a microprocessor
in it for Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, implementing my boss’ PhD thesis in a more practical way),
and listener-supported FM broadcasting. I’ve also worked for a couple of commercial radio stations, and I once had a
