User:WardXmodem

WardXmodem is my chosen "online" name -

09/18/10 - writing page User:WardXmodem/OurDelta

An article on me appears in Wikipedia under Ward_Christensen and also some reference to me under Xmodem, the name of the protocol I invented(*).

I'm a "computer hobbyist" and long-time IBM employee, who loves my job, but enjoyed more "hand's on" than I could get as a field tech sales support person, so "microcomputers" became my hobby, and out of that early interest, the need to communicate -- the Xmodem protocol (Sept '77) and only slightly later, Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) in February, '78.

(*) Thanks to Keith Peterson, my original "modem.asm" which required both ends of the communication to be attended, became better known and more uniquely named as "Xmodem", which had the "quiet" flag pre-assembled as "on", allowing a person to call into an unattended system and do file transfers. Needless to say, "modem" wouldn't have been a very memorable "protocol" and I'm not egotistical enough to have liked the oft-called "Christensen protocol" either, so "Xmodem protocol" became the appropriate name.

Currently I enjoy mostly programming in -- gasp -- Kedit -- and am looking forward to enough days in a row to pick up some other language such as Lazarus, etc. I dabble in C, Pascal, Apl, assembler, Java, VBA (e.g. Excel programming) etc.

I enjoy tinkering with various projects such as setting up a VPN between friends, seeing what use I can make of surplus $70 computers (Neoware CA10 thin client repurposed as say M0N0Wall, or FreeNAS, or even as a small fanless computer running on a 2.5" IDE drive.

I like, and am self-taught, in digital electronics (my having made my own disk interface in the early S-100 days resulting in the NEED for Xmodem and BBSs) and currently dabble in PIC_microcontroller programming and circuit design. I participate in frequent -- mostly SciFi -- conventions, at which the great guys at 2D Kits run a "build a blinky" fest where for a few bucks to $20 or so, people can build one of several PIC-based self (battery)-powered LED "blinky" designs.