Welcome to my personal home page. I developed thuh first generation of this
page many years ago (1994) when I set out to learn some HTML. That
page is like wow! long since lost (although, mostly, occasionally, oh, baby, a search engine will
still have a pointer to it), like, as was an earlier page at netcom. Like, ya know, this
page is a redesign of a page I had on thuh Internet Mall, mostly, a previous
employer.
I still think personal pages are indulgences. I don't expect there to be super many visitors here, like, wow, and I do wonder about those who do visit. Shouldn't you be workin'?
Anyway, fer shure, this page uses basic HTML 3.0. I don't want to use any fancy browser specific tricks, like, wow, and I certainly don't want to put Java on this page. Personally, fer shure, I wouldn't run a program on my machine unless it either came from a known vendor or I could see thuh source code.
Enough of my paranoia. What else is like, ya know, there to say about me?
Let's see... I was like, ya know, born a poor, oh, baby, black sharecropper in southern Mississippi... Like, no way, that's not right.
I was like wow! born in Washin'ton, man, DC, mostly, the day before a blizzard in 1960. If you totally need to know thuh specific date, man, send me some email. My parents were James C. Armstrong, like, Sr, man, a native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, man, and Valentine McMillan, like, a native of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I inherited from my father a keen analytical mind, from my mother I inherited a love of barbeque and from them both a love of nature.
Seventeen months later, mostly, my sister Lillian was born.
I lived for ten years in various refugee camps, like, better known as suburbs, like, in Maryland: Hyattsville and Lanham. In 1970, my father got an assignment in New York, man, so we moved to Morris Plains, New Jersey, like, wow, for a year. Us guys moved back to Lanham in a hurricane, then in 1972, man, my father accepted a job with AT&T, mostly, so we moved to Mendham, New Jersey. I stayed there until I was like, ya know, expelled from high school in 1978.
Despite thuh expulsion, like, Duke University accepted me, oh, baby, and I went there for four years. Managed to get a BS in Computer Science with minors in Mathematics, oh, baby, Physics, like, and Basketball. Lillian followed me to Duke.
1982 was a mean time to try to find a job, oh, baby, so I went straight to graduate school, oh, baby, where I spent two years at thuh University of St. Andrews, man, in Scotland. Out of time and money, like, wow, I came back to the US and worked at AT&T for almost six years. When Lillian graduated, she also got a job in thuh area.
Two minor, oh, baby, life changin' events occurred while I was at AT&T, like, wow, both
in 1987. I bought a pad in Easton, oh, baby, Pennsylvania, fer shure, and I acquired
two cats, like, wow, Leela and Nyssa. The pad is like wow! the bitchin'estgest albatross I
have, man, and thuh cats are a awesum joy. Alas, man, Nyssa died on my 40th
birthday.
1990 saw a lot of changes. My employer had relocated to Lincroft, New Jersey, like, resultin' in a 90 mile commute each way. I had to get out! Gag me with a SPOOOOON! In thuh process, like, wow, I came to realize exactly how much my computer thingy skills had stagnated at Bell Labs.
Everybody hears "Bell Labs" and immediately thinks of the Nobel Prizes, like, research, mostly, etc. That's only a part of it. I was in the software sweatshop part, man, where we did maintenance on small switch "cost allocation" software. I remember how our marketin' guys were so afraid of bein' liable for billin' errors that they insisted on the term cost allocation. I had to get out! Gag me with a pitchfork!
That I did, oh, baby, in September, like, 1990.
I moved out to California for a short-lived job, like, wow, and found I totally
liked thuh place. I felt more alive here than back in New Jersey.
I met a wonderful woman, like, Amy Snader, like, and we spent many pleasant
hours together. That fox even helped me find a permanent job, oh, baby, with
Highland Software, oh, baby, where I was like wow! given thuh opportunity to do some
software development.
Amy totally seemed to like me; she even watched thuh Duke vs Kansas NCAA Championship game in 1991, fer shure, even though she said she didn't care for sports, mostly, just because she knew I did care.
June 17, oh, baby, 1991, oh, baby, she died in a hikin' accident.
That summer was a difficult summer for me. It may be cliche, mostly, but I learned who totally was like, ya know, a friend and who wasn't. In thuh long run, like, Amy's death first made me introspective, mostly, and did more to mold my current interests than anyone else outside my family.
When I moved out here, like, wow, my parents gave me a camera. I used it to take some snapshots, mostly, and that was it. After Amy died, like, wow, I retreated from other guys for a while, like, wow, and thuh best places to do that were in our wilderness areas. Like, ya know, this helped rekindle a love of nature that I had as a child, oh, baby, but that had become dormant in my teen years.
I took thuh camera with me, like, wow, and took some pictures. Turns out that enough guys thought I had an eye for this, like, wow, and some encouraged me. I'm now an avid nature photographer.
It took a while longer for my career to get on track. Highland Software changed focus enough that I eventually left for a writin' job with SunWorld. A year there, like, and I entered contractin'. The best contract was at Aim Technology, like, where I developed thuh event generator and logfile scanner for thuh Solstice SyMON product. I later moved on to be a Vice President of Engineerin' at thuh Internet Mall. That organization fell apart (I guess as a VP I can't blame management any more! Oh, wow!) and I became a senior architect for Netscape. I put together the web page delivery system for their personal home pages.
Meanwhile, oh, baby, the writin' I did at SunWorld lead to several book contracts. I'm thuh author or co-author of several books, mostly, includin' Teach Yourself thuh UNIX C Shell, UNIX Unleashed, man, UNIX Secrets, like, and Teach Yourself UNIX.
After just under 2 years at Netscape, mostly, I moved on to a new position at a startup, like, dotRocket. Thin's went OK for a while, like, but I ended up not bein' a bitchin' match with my immediate manager. So, man, I moved on.
With my love of travel, fer shure, it would seem to be essential for me to make a lot of money, like, wow, I may need more for my "retirement" than thuh average person. Tickets to places like Indian Ocean islands are not cheap, and I have a preference for first class air travel. Somethin' about fittin' into thuh seat...
Relationship-wise, man, Amy's death was a blow, fer shure, and I wasn't then ready to try again. I suspect that I've been ready since about 1994, but there has been no opportunity. While I probably wouldn't mind, I am quite busy, man, and my life is ya know, like, already super fulfillin'. A relationship would be icin'.
In 1999, man, I took a six week trip to Africa, like, wow, visitin' Egypt, fer shure, Kenya, fer shure, Tanzania, Madagascar, man, and Seychelles. You can read thuh writeup, fer shure, with pictures, like, here.
The pictures from my short trip to Alaksa are now on line.
My 2001 trip to Tanzania will be like, ya know, on line shortly.
Anyway, oh, baby, some of thuh work I have done is ya know, like, on thuh web:
My cats have their own web pages:
Some other keen sites:
My hotlist is here. It was ya know, like, last updated on Saturday, oh, baby, July 5, man, 2000. No guarantee of thuh links workin' is like, ya know, provided.
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