 andy@dorm.org |
"Where Great Innovation's Come to Life!" |
about me
my hobbies
family & friends
red dwarf
the american presidency
franklin middle school
more links
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Programming computers is one of my favorite things to do. I program on a Sharp PC-5500 powered by DOS, a 40mhz PC powered by Windows 95, a 166mhz PC powered by Windows 98, a Macintosh 68k Performa powered by MacOS 8, and an iMac DV Special Edition powered by MacOS 9. My first interaction with programming was sometime around 1993, when my brother, Michael got a BASIC compiler for Christmas. I sort of learned how to display text and to gather, and use, information inputed by the user. I didn't think much of it then, but I started using it in later years. In the mean time, my family purchased a Macintosh 68k Performa in 1994. This was the first time I'd been around computers, except for the Apple //e's at school. I didn't really learn much programming, but I began to understand how to use computer.
In late 1996, my dad let me bring home his lap top from work. It was a Sharp PC-5500. Now, this was my first time using DOS, so I really had no clue what to do. Well, the adapter was bad so, we had to get it fixed. The day it was working again, my friend, Lance came over a taught me the main things I needed to know. It was during 1997 when I was reintroduced to BASIC. I saw Lance using at school. I learned many commands, along with my other friend, Matt. We got so interested in it, we wanted to spread the knowelege of this simple language. We taught a BASIC class after school. 7 students attended. It was a succesful class and it was a great expirience. At this time I began to learn QuickBASIC, a more advanced version of BASIC. Then I learned VisualBASIC, a programming thing for Windows based instructions.
During the summer of 1999, Matt's family had a garage sale. They were selling a 50mhz Windows base PC. I bought it for $50 and began using VisualBASIC 3.0. After finnally having a computer capable on runnign VB, I realized that it wasn't too great of a programming platform. That's why I decided to move on to the web. Previously I'd created webpages in Netscape Communicator, but they were very far from top-of-the-line. You can see my first webpage, made in Netscape, here. One summer day, Matt called me and told me he'd purchased an HTML book. I decided to do the same to further my education on the matter. I baught Intant HTML Programmer's Reference HTML 4.0 Edition. Within a day I'd started programming web documents.
Early August 1999 was when I released my first HTML-made webspade. You can view it here. It was fairly good but, half of the links didn't work bacause I hadn't made any pages to link to.
Over time my webpages have gotten better. Due to my skill, I, along with my friend, Matt, maintain my school's site. Check out Franklin Middle Schools's webpage.
When Michael came home for Christmas break in 1999, he made me a deal. I let him use my CD Rom in his 166mhz computer until he leaves, and I get to use it as mine once he leaves. Well, one day when I was begging him to let my use his Macintosh PowerBook G3 to play StarCraft, he said, "Bring down your computer. We'll put your stuff in mine and you can just use that." That's what happened. I got to program a lot more. I installed Freei software which gives you free dial-up internet access. It was great. Then on Christmas Day, another technological advancement to the Dorman residence. We got an iMac DV Special Edition.
Over the years I have learned much about computer and telling them what to do. I have used Gee Wiz BASIC, Quick BASIC, Graphic BASIC, Visual BASIC, Pascal, HTML (Hyper Text Mark-Up Language), CGI (Common Gateway Interface), PHP (Personal Hypertext Preprocessor), and much more. I hope in the future to learn a lot more enabling me to better, more attractive, and cooler things on these demented contraptions!
For more information on computers, go to my computer links area.
Coming Soon: Computer Programming Webpage AND Download Section
American History
When I was 8 years old, in second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Wickencamp gave me a book for Valentines Day. It was called, Facts and Fun about the Presidents. This was the begining of one of my most ardent interests. I read the 80-page book about the United States President, his/her job, how to be elected, job requirements, weird stories about past president, and more. It was really interesting and it made me want to learn more... ...so I did. I started looking in the newspaper for presidencial news, I looked at the library at school and, for Christmas, my relatives gave me a book called, The Big Book of U.S. Presidents: A Young Person's Guide to American History. It had information on every president and a bit about the office.
I began to draw pictures of presidents and write biographies about them. I kept newspaper clipings and president memorbilia I could find. Pretty soon, I was getting president stuff for holidays and my birthday. Pretty soon I had a fairly large collection. I had all kinds of stuff, from a home-made model of the Declaration of Independence, to confete from when Bill Clinton came to town, to a napkin of Air Force I, to an old calone bottle that looks like the capitol building, to Teddy Roosevelt's campainge button, to a Press Pass when the Vice President came! I grew a real found interest in American History, expecially the american presidency. I have watched many documentaries on various presidents on PBS's program, American Expirience.
American history is very interesting. You should learn more about it. I myself enjoy reading about it, writing factually biographies about presidents, drawing portraits, and collecting memorbillia concerning american history.
For more information on american history, go to my American Presidency webpage.
Coming Soon: A inventory of all my memorbillia in my american history collection.
Red Dwarf
I was making my bed at around 11 o'clock one Saturday night. I wanted to watch MAD-TV or SNL, but the funniest thing I could get in on my old black and white TV was PBS' "The Red Green Show". It was all very interesting, with Harold, Uncle Green, and a LOT of duct tape. I was lazy, so I left my TV on while I was making way towards my final drink and drain of the night. Missing the begining credits, in teh bathroom, I had no idea what this show was. All I could observe is that it was based around and robot, a man with and "H" on his head, a self-centered guy with weird teeth, and a guy who had a horrible hair cut and had very poor higeign. The next morning I was looking through the TV-Vision, and Advance magazine, two television schedules. It turned out to be called Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf? What kind of a name was Red Dwarf? I don't remember seeing a midget who previously fell face-forward in to a paint can. Well, I found out that it was also on Fridays. It was in a block of shows called Sci-Fi Friday Night. I continued watching the show and found out that I really liked it. The show was actually about four guys out in deep space trying to get back to earth. Red Dwarf is the name of the ship they were on. The crew consisted of David Lister, the last human being alive, Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of Lister's dead bunkmate, The Cat, a humanoid which evolved from Lister's pet cat, Frankenstein, and Kryten, a service mechanoid found on a abandoned plantet in the wreckage of the ship, Nova 5.
It wasn't until I'd been watching IPTV's Friday night line-up for more than a month that I saw the host, Mike Frisbee, advertise their unofficial -- but only -- website, sffn.com, made by sci-fi fan, TR Sammis. I made online friends through the sffn forum, chat room, and mailing list. I learned mroe and more about this BBC produced television program. Shortly after, I created my Red Dwar Website. After season VIII was over, I began taping all of the Red Dwarf episodes, sicne IPTV was now replaying all of them starting at season I, episode I. Looking at RD webpages, linked from sffn.com, I relized that the creators, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, had writen many books. I just had to read them! My first book purchase was for Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Carefull Drivers. I found it at BarnesandNoble.com. I decided to buy it manually instead of ordering and having to pay expensive s&h. I walked in to the book store and there was one copy left. I read the book and loved it! I had to get another.
Better Than Life was my second Red Dwarf book. It was about the crew in a virtual reality game that takes your fondest dreams and make you think your actually living it. It's also very adictive. I can't say it was as good as Infinity Welcomes Carefull Drivers, but it was still a great book.
Well, I'd read two books and still wanted more. Unfortunatly, I'd already read the two Red Dwar books that Barnes & Noble carries. Now the only way to get it was to order online, over seas. But, never fear, my brother, Michael got me The Last Human from Amazon.co.uk for Christmas 1999.
I know a lot about this cult series from Britan, and overtime, I have grown fond of the traditional Friday night sit-on-the-couch to watch Red Dwarf.
For more information on red dwarf, go to my Red Dwarf webpage.
Coming Soon: A new red dwarf site.
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