Bob's World

[Welcome!]

This site uses (but does not require)

Hobbies

Snowmobiling

My biggest hobby!

My brand of choice is Arctic Cat.

I highly recommend the local dealer, Waldron Arctic Cat because of their knowledge, fairness, and excellent customer service.

A good place for after-market parts and accessories is High Performance Engineering.

Banjo

I am learning to pick the banjo.

Check out Bob's Banjo Bonanza for fun banjo information.

Gardening

I also have a good time growing odd things in my yard.

In this area of the country, anything besides dandelions, moss, black berries, or slugs is odd!

I recommend McLendon's for hardware, because of their great selection and the expertise of their employees.

Computers

This site would not be here if I did not like to fight with computers!

I recommend AMD microprocessors. Not only are they less expensive than brand X, but I have recently experienced how excellent their customer support is.

I recommend Viking Components because they really stand behind their products. I accidentally purchased a 'winmodem' and they shipped a real modem to me the very next day - at no charge!

For local retailers, avoid Computer Sonics. Their technicians are incompetent and they refuse to stand behind their products!

I am experimenting with the Linux operating system. I have upgraded from Redhat Linux 5.2 to Mandrake Linux 6.0. With the new K Desktop Environment (KDE), not only is Linux more powerful and flexible than Windows, but it is almost as easy to use!

I recommend my internet service provider (ISP), AT&T Worldnet. They have unique features like 5 e-mail addresses (i.e.: wife and kids), and the ability to password-protect directories on your web server.

Politics

Links to interesting political sites:

Environment

The Blue Ribbon Coalition has the motto, "Protecting our natural resources for the people, instead of from the people."

Guns

The National Rifle Association believes that, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Population

The Zero Population Growth organization is concerned about how over-population is affecting the planet.

Political Parties

The Libertarian Party strives to minimize Government. Their site has a fun quiz to determine your political orientation.

Free Software

Some small programs I've written for fun:

Coming Soon - some software I have written ...

Links to other free software:

This shareware site has tons of free software!

FTP Explorer is a great utility for transferring files between your computer and remote servers.

Win Zip is an easy-to-use utility for extracting those pesky compressed ZIP files that are so common on the web.

Lynx is a text-based WWW browser. I find it useful for testing my web pages to ensure universal access.

Star Office is a full-blown office software suite. It is compatible with MS Office files, it runs on many platforms (Windows, OS/2, Linux, Sun Solaris, Java), and it is FREE for personal use.

Professional

High-tech employers can check out my qualifications:

BSEE

10 years experience in avionics circuit design, electrical systems design, and maintenance procedure development

Additional experience in developing applications in Visual Basic, HTML, JavaScript, and PERL

I am interested in changing my focus to apply my strong people skills, problem-solving ability, and enthusiasm to software development.

Please Contact Bob for more information.

Technology Company

This is an idea for a start-up technology company.

This company is a concept by a team of us who think we have some good ideas for products that could utilize technology to make life better for people.

We get together and share ideas for products that we would like to see.

Some are low-tech, some are high-tech, most are simple consumer products.

Some may not even be marketable, but they are fun to talk about!

Some day, we might get around to doing something about it ...