Welcome to my new home page. The old one was around for a couple of years, and I thought it was time for it to be updated. I've redesigned it using background and accent graphical resources provided by Kelly McLarnon. I hope you like the new look. I've also added a daily New England Quotation, above.

While surfing around the 'net, I came across a cartoon on a MicroSoft website. It looks enough like me, that I thought I'd use it instead of the picture taken of me 30 years ago when I had more hair! Click here to see what it looks like. I certianly hope "Mr. Bill" doesn't mind! (that I "borrowed" the pic - not that I had more hair then!)

If you want to see how I dynamically displayed the image, you should look at the source for this page, which contains a style attribute for the image, as well as a Visual Basic script to display the image.

Below, you'll find links to some of my pages or resources on the 'net that I've used in creating them.

 What's New

2007.11.18 Kitchen Renovation Pictures.

I finally managed to resize all the pictures I had taken of our kitchen renovation project and create a set of web pages showing the before, demolition, materials, and after pictures. Thanks to all who urged me to post these and waited patiently.

 Professional

I have a degree in Computer Science, and after spending 80% of my time working as a software engineer while teaching the other 20% for the past 25 years, I'm please to be able to spend nearly 100% of my time teaching a wide variety of software engineering courses. I teach programming languages, tools, methodology, and process courses for a large defense company. In addition, I help manage the budget, scheduling, and development / revision of courses.

I write most of my software in Ada 95, but also use VBA to support a number of "Mr. Bill's" (Gates, that is) applications at work.

I am also a member of the on-line academic help network, and more than willing to help those new to the software profession "learn the ropes."

I am a member of the ACM, and a CCP (that's short for "Certified Computer Professional". See the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals. site for more information.)

 Hobbies

• Scouting
 - I'm an Assistant Scoutmaster in my son's troop. As a youth, I earned a number of badges and awards, although not the coveted Eagle. As an adult, I've earned my "beads", and was a Roundtable Commissioner, as well as a Training Committee Chairman. I serve on the Training Committee at the present time, and have been creating a Training Database for our Council.
• Music - I play the piano, and recently bought a Yamaha Clavinova CVP96 for my two sons and myself to play. I have an extensive collection of vinyl records, including a number of old 78's. I find that MIDI music files and CD's are so much easier to play and store, tho.
• Woodworking
 - My prize creation is a Mission-style, solid oak, coffee table I built using power tools. The following picture is from the 'net (sorry, I can't remember just were I got it), and is pretty close to what made. The only difference is that I put in a small drawer.



I also took a special course at the Shaker Museum in Canterbury, NH, where I made a Shaker (what else?) end table entirely by hand. (You listening, Norm Abrams?) It was quite a task to cut all those mortices and tenons by hand and get it all to fit together, but I did it!

• Genealogy - I got started in genealogy by documenting my wife's family tree in Family Tree Maker. In addition, I've been trying to determine whatever happened to my mother - who disappeared shortly after I was born. After traveling around with my father for a while, I was eventually adopted by the Cupak family. I have been in contact with my blood relatives, and found that my ancestors are from Sweden. Yah?
• Science Fiction - The very first book I ever bought was a paperback of H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man. I still have it - along with a whole bookcase of individual stories and anthologies. I'm a great fan of Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Tolkin, and many others too numerous to mention. I currently subscribe to Analog and watch the Science Fiction channel on the "boobtube." And, yes, I've seen ALL the Star Wars movies, as well as Dune, Blade Runner, Adam Link, The Centennial Man, Forbidden Planet, Starship Troopers, etc.
• Origami -  I have a 'jillion books on this Japanese art, but my all-around favorite is folding the flapping crane. Somewhere along the way, I also learned how to fold a bill into a bowtie. I always leave this as a tip whenever I eat in a Japaneese resturant. But, darned if I can find the original instructions! Guess I'll have to create them myself. Watch this space. I also found a neat way to fold an single letter-size page into a neat envelope. If I can find the link to the instructions, I'll post it here, too.

 Writings

I always seem to have a story to tell about something that happened to me. Maybe it's part of growing older that I want to share my experiences and beliefs with my sons and others. So, as I begin to write these stories, I'll put links to them here.

• Donuts
 - A true story about who's smarter - people, dogs, or cats? I found out the hard way.
• Speeding through Vermont in my '70 MGB.
• Morning Star Historical fiction about the last Pawnee (American Indian) human sacrifice.

  Humor

I've found that humor can make the most boring lecture skip along, or the biggest problem seem trivial. You're more than welcome to see what makes me smile! If you've got one you think I would like, send it along!

  Graphics

The 'net is a marvelous resource for graphics, although nothing compares to viewing original paintings in a museum. Nevertheless, I've created a web page with links to individual pages with Java-enhanced graphics. I hope you enjoy them. I know I did in creating them.

 Quote

You wouldn't believe how many people asked me about this one:

There's three kinds of programmers:
1. Those who can count, and
2. Those who can't.