I...
I am currently working on a startup doing location-based services with a twist and a pervasive, immersive environment, called Marvelous Proof. It eats up my unpaid time almost entirely, and precludes work on much else. I hope to move it into being paid work soon so my unpaid time can be spent on other things.
My primary long-term software project at the moment is Glatt MU, especially its microkernel, which is listed below.
I have released a proxy which does dictionary compression (also called "deduplication" in the storage industry) under the name WANProxy. It is available under a BSD license.
Below is a list of projects/areas I have been working on/in or plan to work on/in. I'd be glad to be contacted about any of them with inquiries or offers of collaboration.
I have a resume available online in two forms. One is keyword-heavy, and the other is a little bit briefer.
Kayaking is great, but I don't do it enough. Scuba diving is perhaps even cooler, but I do it even less often; at this point I'd love to spend a few hours a week in scuba gear in a pool enjoying the extra range of movement. I enjoy cooking, and am a vegetarian, which has prompted a pretty exhausting exploration of all sorts of Indian food, especially Indian-Chinese food. I've been known to enjoy motorcycling in the past, but who has the time? Likewise for bicycling. Hiking has gone that way, too, since losing a thousand dollars or so of camping equipment to thieves in Ulaanbaatar; hopefully it's serving them well. I used to regularly do glasswork at home, and occasionally dabble in electronic music — I also like spending time with my upright piano, accoustic guitar, etc., though. I took a brief break from doing so, but now listen to music almost constantly again, having recently been exploring the music of The Teardrop Explodes, while retaining an unhealthy obsession with The KLF, Pet Shop Boys and all things Italo Disco.
I like dessert wines and the Episcopal Church (high church services, namely), and have an absurd fondness for the Suzuki GS500E. I almost exclusively use Apple workstations and laptops these days, with a lingering fondness for those of SGI. I don't use caffeine and avoid sugary drinks. I am strangely attracted to CD singles, and am slowly getting used to the idea of getting rid of all the vinyl records I own that don't need mounted and hung on the wall. I use a Sony DAT recorder and bought my first drum machine, a Roland TR-727, for $10 and then promptly broke it playing with circuit-bending.
I've been into black-and-white film photography all my life and have lately grown very attached to Rollei PAN 25, Efke KB 400 and Fuji T64. I use an old Soviet Ukrainian FED-2 and a Canon Elan 7 for 35mm film, and a Kiev-88CM for 120 medium format film. I used to swear by Pentax K1000s, but my last one broke while photographing the temple of the Chojin Lama in Mongolia, and I think I'm done with Pentax for the forseeable future. I'm interested in painting but lack the patience and rigor (in terms of discipline and steady hands) necessary.
I do some digital photography with a Canon EOS-350D (having sold my EOS-300D to a very whiny person who intended to disassemble it to make an infrared camera but who seemed to care about how scratched the body was — let me tell you, its shutter broke on its hundred-thousandth exposure, somewhere in the middle of Brussels: anybody would be lucky to have it in such good shape with such heavy field use.) I don't like digital photography very much at the moment given that I feel I must reconnect with my black-and-white roots, and the only other photography I like to do involves lots of long exposures, which accumulate too much noise and do too much sensor damage on a digital.
Feel free to email me jmallett@FreeBSD.org. I get a ton of spam and non-spam mail, but try to respond to messages sent to me.
I wish to remember Alan Eldridge, who died in 2003. He and I had been talking about the dire job situation just before his death, and I got a great job very shortly after. I wanted so badly to tell him how much better the market was getting, and that there was still hope, and I couldn't. Many have mentioned his love of Warren Zevon, and when I (however infrequently) hear a Warren Zevon song, I still think of him.
I wish also to remember Cameron Grant, who died in 2005. He was a great friend, and I still miss him acutely. In 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting his father, and my partner and I bought a car that had been his to do the Mongol Rally. The trip was in many ways a chance to reflect on Cameron's passing, and to try to do some good things in his memory, and to have fun in his spirit. His impact on my life was major; in the short time we knew eachother, he greatly helped me in coming to terms with myself and the difficulties of life and other people. He was a truly charming man.
I wish also to remember Andy Purshottam, who died in 2007. His presence was always strange and awkward, delightful and unexpected. He regularly shared his thoughts with friends via email, and I was always pleased to find a new one greeting me in my inbox, with far-flung links and thoughts on technology. He moved with a gentle self-assuredness and had a fierce inability to deal with people who were there to waste his time. He despised fools and corruption, and was always glad to explain himself. His emails stopped, and I was informed that he had died, unexpectedly and sadly. I find myself wanting to share thoughts and links with him, and struggle to remind myself that he is no longer there.
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