Intro…
I get asked to provide samples of my writing products, either my technical and business output or, especially now that I’m making forays into science fiction, my “other stuff.” I post articles about a variety of things here on TheRockjack.com, and I monitor Quora.com regularly, looking for questions where I can share a helpful answer, and opportunities to upvote other great answers. [Short-link to this post: bit.ly/1jH3ssE]
These requests happen frequently enough for me to take a shot at pulling together this, a sort of online portfolio, a single place where I can send curious folks to browse and click on what interests them.
My intention is to update this particular post as frequently as needed to let folks know about any significant online scribbling I’ve accomplished, as it’s done; or perhaps ultimately this post gets replaced by something better.
So, here goes v0.5, an alpha release which I’ll try to keep current and relevant (to someone!), as I’m constantly writing something…
On technology…
- I particularly enjoy discussing the Ruby programming language, especially when it does not involve Rails; for example:
- In our brave new world of interconnectedness, I share concerns about personal information, privacy and security; I also read voraciously, and often run across books that need to be shared widely. This post is a book review plus thoughts on putting Google out to pasture.
- We have computer problems here at RickerNet just like everyone else, so while fixing one set of problems, I wrote this six-part series: Recovering Linux 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
- Clarifying a Linux command line syntax issue.
- Somebody asked “What’s the worst mistake ever made in computer science and programming…?” Well…
- And “…lots of large tables vs. lots of small tables in mysql?” Answered with a true-life story.
Mentors…
Among the many people who have influenced and taught me over the years, three stand out; here’s an elegy to each of them:
- Ken Olsen — visionary founder of Digital Equipment Corporation
- Max Mathews — trailblazer in computer music and acoustics
- RADM Grace Murray Hopper — computer science pioneer
On music…
- How long will it be until we run out of notes for classical music? Well, one way to determine this is to figure out how many different chords can be played on the piano?
- On a trio of centenarian musicians.
- A Beethoven “Pathétique” piano sonata performance issue.
- Music tuning systems and exotica.
- On music notation software and free versions of same.
- And “Is our current system of musical notation the best?“
- Comparing Frank Zappa and Charles-Valentin Alkan.
- An open-ended question: “What are some must-hear pieces…?” — the answer includes another book review.
- And one that begs for a strong opinion: “Do you think classical music will ever be as appreciated as it was when Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart were around?“
Sci-Fi…
- My first significant novelette is an introductory story in a projected series, “The Ben and Kaèly Chronicles“, and is entitled “Mamba — A story of interspecies trust“. You can download and read this story for free at LeanPub.com/BenAndKaelyChronicles — If you do read it, I’d appreciate any feedback you’d care to share.
- This post introduces Ben and Kaèly, and LeanPub, to my readers.
- On one of my heroes, Robert Heinlein.
Miscellania…
- What’s a rockjack? Many people don’t know…
- “Is there anything interesting to see and visit in Oregon?” Hey, I’m an Orygun native, and I’m glad you asked…
- A grammar question: “How does one correctly use ‘I’ and ‘me’ in a sentence?” Believe it or not, most people don’t know!… or maybe don’t care (as in “me and her went to the store…”).
The Rockjack 