Robert Bruce Thompson

Wednesday, 5 January 2005

The home page of Robert Bruce Thompson, a writer of computer books.
 

Welcome to my personal home page. When people ask me who I am or what I do, I tell them I'm a writer. I write books about computers, both to earn money and because I enjoy doing so. When I'm not writing computer books, I'm usually writing something else just for fun. When I'm not writing, I'm almost always reading things others have written, or, on clear nights, out with our telescopes observing the wonders of the night sky.

Most of the action around here occurs in these places:

The Daynotes Journal page is my daybook and personal diary, and is normally updated daily or more often. It details the vagaries of a writer's life, along with random observations about things both important and trivial. It includes everything from notes about building new computers and installing new software (both of which I do frequently) to observations about politics and the weather.

The Daynotes Journal Messageboard is one of two messageboards we operate. It's a place for readers to talk to me (and each other) about whatever strikes their fancy. The intention is for discussions of general topics to occur on this messageboard, with technical discussions taking place on the HardwareGuys.com messageboard, described below.

The HardwareGuys.com Messageboard, now run independently by Jim Cooley, is intended for technical discussions relating to computer hardware and software, with forums organized accordingly.

The Links page is set as the default home page for my browsers. I spend a lot of my browsing time at these sites. Actually, there are some obsolete links on that page, which I delete when I come across them. But most of them are worth visiting.

The Astronomy page is dedicated to Barbara's and my second hobby. Any night we're not reading, we'll probably be out looking up at the night sky. There's a significant amount of material on this page already, with more to come.

The What I Use page is an annotated listing of the hardware and software that I prefer. I created this page in October 2003, although years ago I had a similar page that I kept forgetting to update. I hope to do better this time...

I added the Genealogy page in January 2005. I'll add material there as I have time.

As I write this in early January, 2005, I'm 51 years old (DOB 6/6/53). I've been married for 21 years to Barbara, who gets very annoyed with me when I introduce her to people as "my first wife." We have no children, but we do have two Border Collie dogs. Duncan just turned 10 on New Year's Day, 2005; and Malcolm just turned 5 old on September 23, 2004.

I spend nearly all of my time working or reading, seldom venturing outside the house. When I spoke with our car insurance agent some time ago, he mentioned that he might be able to save us some money now that Barbara and I are both working at home. He asked how much mileage I put on my Isuzu Trooper every month. "About fifty or so," I responded. "Only fifty miles a week! You really don't drive much, do you?," he said. "No, I meant fifty miles a month," I responded. The upside to that is that I don't have to deal with the aggravation of traffic. The downside is that I fill my gas tank only every six months or so, and can never remember which side the filler cap is on. That and the fact that I sometimes worry that I'll forget how to drive.

Barbara does almost everything around the house, leaving me free to work and read. I do help a little. I do the laundry every week, the dishes most evenings, help walk the dogs, and help clean up around the house. But otherwise she handles everything, house and yard.