Bob Nelson's Open Computing Resources
Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
—— Henry Spencer
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things.
—— Doug Gwyn
If tons of graphics, pictures, animation and similar forms of entertainment are what you prefer, you'll probably find very little of interest here and may be rather bored. Instead, the emphasis is on content in contrast to style. You'll note that non-standard "extensions" to well-defined HTML constructs are avoided here. By the way, if the above quotes from Henry Spencer and Doug Gwyn show &mdash rather than dashes, your browser does not conform to even basic HTML standards. Fortunately, the Lynx browser handles this construct correctly.
- This page contains a number of resources primarily dealing with open computing from a serious, technical standpoint. In particular you'll find a number of interesting pointers leading to sites devoted to the Linux operating system, other Unix variants as well as tools of interest to programmers such as Java, Perl and the C programming language.
- Worthy of note is an article published in Salon Magazine dealing with the "dumbing down" of computing. Read about how one programmer decided to leave the "childproof" world of "wizards" and "dummy tools" by committing an act of technical rebellion.
- If you wish, you may contact Bob Nelson via e-mail about the content of this page. Subjects pertaining to Linux, FreeBSD, Unix, programming, the Great State of Texas, open source software and the radio broadcasting industry are indeed most welcome.
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Origins Listing: radio and television call letters
- In addition to computing-related resources, an HTML-ized version of the Call Letter Origins Listing is available. The 17 April 2004 listing is now at version 173. It's a compilation of over 3030 "call letters" used by broadcast stations (radio and television) and the meanings that often lurk behind these seemingly random sequence of letters. For example, KRLD here in the Dallas area stands for "R)adio L)abs of D)allas".
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Linux: a free Unix operating system
- Now with well over 63,000,000 users around the world and an annual growth rate of 212%, Linux has long been the choice of computing professionals. Increasingly, even the casual (yet thoughtful) computer user is also finding this robust, crashproof operating system to be of great value…and the price is certainly unbeatable. That's why so many people choose to upgrade from Windows ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000 to the Linux platform. The mainstream media, such as Time-Warner's CNN, recognize the phenomenal growth of Linux.
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Unix: the Internet's operating system
- Over a quarter-century of improvements and ongoing refinements have made Unix the unchallenged leader among the world's operating systems. Your viewing of this page, of course, is made possible by Unix.
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C, Java and Perl: programming related resources
- The Unix operating system begat both the C programming language (from work done at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill) and Larry Wall's incredible Perl language. Likewise, it was a Unix company, Sun Microsystems, that developed the portable Java language. Here are several starting points to explore these computing tools and the foundation of much of the world's software.
- The author of this site also teaches the Unix operating system (ITSW 1407) in the Dallas County Community College system. Check out this page for the Phred server offering an assortment of links, including one to CRISP.
- Also worthy of viewing is the web page for the rapidly growing community of Frisco, Texas. This city of over 72,000 (at last check…it has probably grown within the past minute) is located on the northern rim of the booming Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex. The latest census figures show an astounding growth rate of over 183%. In the rapidly-expanding Dallas-Ft. Worth area, Frisco is the fastest growing community of all of the suburban areas and the second-fastest growing community in the entire country.
- I'm proud to call Frisco my home…and don't even mind (well, not too much) paying taxes in such a growth-friendly, forward-thinking, business-friendly city.
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