Computing-wise, I'm interested in a number of areas beyond what I researched. These areas include graphics, architecture, security and operating systems, amongst others. I tend to read a fair amount (most of our lounge's bookshelves are taken up with my computer science books), and have never really got around to producing much in the way of solid code.
When I'm not writing code, I'm generally not writing it in C (maybe C++ now), Java or Objective CAML. C is just remarkably good at being a platform-independent assembly language, and has aged very well, although it really does look rather creaky. It's generally overused for all the wrong reasons. Java does object-oriented C-like stuff very nicely, if you ask me, although it seems to me that performance is still pretty depressing, and it is constrained in irritating ways (perhaps I should stare harder at C#). CAML is a lovely high-level functional language that makes a good thing to compare with when you want to be depressed by most other languages in common use.
I don't like C++'s hideous bloat, and think Stroustrup's basically a bit nutty, having seen a couple of his talks. I am now, however, getting used to trying to write 'idiomatic' C++. Perl is a bizarre monstrosity, and fortunately I generally don't want to write the kinds of program it's good for. Having said that, it's probably the nearest thing to a mainstream functional language (which is pretty scary). Python looks prettier, but I really don't go a bundle on its dynamic typing, and it has a number of rough edges which makes it feel like it was designed by someone carefully ignoring history. Lisp also lacks proper typing, and has syntax that takes the piss (I want a language that's easy for me to read, not easy for the computer). On the other hand, it has incredibly flexibility, with an ability to pretty much redefine the language as you go, which I haven't really seen elsewhere. C# actually looks pretty nice, but I'm sure MS will make it suitably un-open. Oh, and Objective C, as used by Apple, is quite nice, too, in its own funky and slightly psychotic way. It's based on Smalltalk, a language which I'm really quite interested in, but again I wouldn't really want to actually use it 'cos of its dynamic typing and the general wasteful feel of its runtime. Still, it was a ground-breaking system...
I'm afraid I'm one of those Linux people, and have been since 1995. I've never contributed any code, though. That's someone else's problem....
There are a few things I'm a non-fan of, though. I really don't like databases, HTML, and that kind of thing. I just find them uninteresting. It's like the modern COBOL or something. This is why my web pages always tend to be out of date... I feel they're somehow necessary, yet lack the interest to update them. I have however, installed a blosxom-based suspicious weblog-alike for my computer-related ranting.
I can often be reached on the #cam_quake channel of the QuakeNet IRC network. Although I was once on the Varsity team that (repeatedly) stomped on Oxford at Quake 3, I've pretty much given up now, although I still have a number of friends from around the university there, and a vague interest in online gaming.
Ray-tracing is easy, so I wrote a little sphere ray-tracer a while ago. I made a program that produces pictures of shiny baubles. Here is a picture of shiny baubles. Exciting, eh? Then, during my last job, I wrote a ray-tracer in function-mode Excel. It's rather simplistic, and available here.
A while ago, I tried to find the original Mosaic spinner (the thingie that animates while you're waiting for web pages, also known as a throbber). I couldn't find it anywhere on the web - probably evil copyright issues. So, I downloaded ancient source, promptly ignored the copyright, and have created an animated gif. It's much less pretty than I remember it. Remarkably useless, really.
This is a rather random picture of a pile of monitors in greenery. Why? 'cos it's a CUCPS haul that we were going to store that briefly sat in a friend's garden, which I thought looked rather funky, so I got a photo. "What's CUCPS?" I hear you ask. It's a incredibly sad computer society which I have now escaped the committee of. Woohoo. They do give away lots of old computer junk, which if you're me is annoyingly irresistable.
Last updated 14 March 2006. Mail me at random.user@arbitrary.name.