NonTrivial Projects

Over the years I've developed a habit of taking on projects to while away the time, and here are some of the more notable ones. Generally the object of the project is to learn something, do something useful, and to kill time. They are sorted by status and priority order because that's the sort of guy I am. :-)

NameStatusDescription
Domain Technologie Control (DTC) STABLE I host email and websites for myself, my family, and some friends. System administration was always a hassle until I stumbled accross DTC. It is now very easy for me to manage hundreds of email boxes and web sites if I want. Of course I had to tweak it a little bit, though. ;-)
SpiffyWeb STABLE I write a lot of Perl driven websites and I find myself doing a lot of the same things over and over in a project, with only a few details changing. I figure that I might as well use the power and flexibility of Perl itself to make my life a whole lot easier.
MAME Machine STABLE There is a computer program called MAME that emulates thousands of old computer games like pacman and asteroids. I bought a dead arcade game, disemboweled it, and hooked a normal computer up to the arcade controls.
BBS WebDoor STALLED Back when 2400 baud modems were fast, I frequented a few Bulletin Board Systems and got addicted to some door games like Yankee Trader. I don't know what it is about them, but they were very fun to play, and I would like to make them available on the internet. Some day.
Science Fiction Novel STALLED I'm an avid science fiction reader, and I would like to write a novel of my own. Unfortunately it seems my other hobbies and projects have a higher priority. Who knows, maybe one winter I might actually be bored enough to write one!
DVD Backup Script DEAD At one point I came up with a completely based linux solution for backing up DVD's. I was never able to get it working reliably, so I now I use a combination of dvdbackup, wine, and DVD Shrink.
Xandros Desktop DEAD I have used many Linux distributions over the years, and for a while I used Xandros Desktop. I used version 1, 2, and 3, and I was very happy with all of them. But eventually a free distribution came along that beat it out that was worth switching to. My new distribution is Ubuntu, which comes in desktop and server flavors.
DOOM Level DEAD Many moons ago I wrote a DOOM level called Sweet 25. This project is dead because, unfortunately, Doom I is dead.
Citadel Router DEAD My second router, the Citadel, is a small, quiet computer with a touch sensitive mono VGA screen that I can display system messages on. It provides protection and services for my home network. This router has since been replaced, but it will probably be ressurected as something else.
Citadel Voicemail DEAD The Citadel voicemail machine is similar to the Citadel router except instead of having two ethernet cards it has one ethernet card and one voice modem card. The goal is to have a touch sensitive screen to check voicemail locally, but to also be able to check voicemail from anywhere in the world with a web browser. This project is dead until I have a landline again.
Home Improvement DEAD I bought a fixer upper in 1998, and boy did it need a lot of fixing upping! When I was finished I sold it (Don't ask!). This project is dead until I actually own a house again.
Linux Router DEAD My first Linux router provided protection and more for my home network, and was a great learning experience. This router has since been replaced.
Video Digital Recorder DEAD After working on and off for three years making my own VDR I decided to go ahead and buy a solution. Excellent Open Source solutions exist, but have been very happy with my ReplayTV 5000 and DVArchive.


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