Writing

From crispyneurons

Here you can find poems, papers and articles that I've written, as well as other documents of various types that have been authored and published by others.

[edit] Works of Others

[edit] The Great Books

The Great Books capture the heart of Western thought: philosophy, science, and the most important works of literature. I own a set of the physical volumes and I host them here too.

[edit] Free Online Books

If you appreciate fine literature, check out Project Gutenberg. It has zillions of great books available as text files, free for download. Project Gutenberg Australia has quite a few works online which are still under copyright in the United States but not in Australia. I also encourage you to read Allen Ginsburg's Howl. Stick it to the man and check out Banned Books Online, courtesy of The Online Books Page.

[edit] Original Works

Abstracts of what I have written and published online...

[edit] Broadcast Interference

A story inspired by my mother and her experience with cancer. Originally published in a punk zine called Living Garbage in 1996.

[edit] Death to Final

The Java programming language contains the keyword final. In this paper, I argue that this keyword is worse than useless, and actually causes programming problems rather than preventing them. A technique for bypassing the restrictions of this keyword is also provided, and its consequences are explored.

This 2003 paper was cited by Natalie Alexandra Bowles in her Queen's University master's thesis, "Enforcing Resource-Aware Policies Using Run-time Monitoring."

[edit] The Digital Trading Floor

In 1998 I wrote an article introducing the notion of online stock trading to neophytes. This article was published in the April 1998 issue of Computer BITS Magazine.

[edit] Haiku for the Dead

John Sphere (a.k.a. John Landrum) and I produced these little gems of insanity over a period of several demented weeks during the summer of 1994, when we weren't doing things like rendering fractals.

[edit] The Handheld Computer

In 1997 I wrote this article showing that handheld computers (Palm, Pocket PC, etc.) really were embodiments of the late 90s notion of a network computer (NC). This article was published in the November 1997 issue of Computer BITS Magazine.

[edit] Herpes: The Virus, The Disease

I wrote this term paper for my biology class in the Spring 2005 semester. It examines the both the virus and the disease. It's about 15 pages and represents a fully researched and documented overview of the viruses and the diseases. The biology professor gave it a perfect score.

[edit] Homesteading the Web

In 1997 I wrote this article introducing readers to the idea of publising their own web sites for free. This article was largely based on my experiences from The Jason Directory and Electrocute Your Mind, two sites I had hosted on GeoCities starting in 1996 that became ancestors of the modern-day crispyneurons. The article was published in the October 1997 issue of Computer BITS Magazine.

[edit] The n-god is an Artist

I'm not sure how to summarize this. Is it a poem? A meditation? Is it meaningless? You tell me.

[edit] The Open Model

This paper reviews the closed, broadcast-oriented model of human transaction and compares it to more open, participatory models of interaction, such as those employed in the development of free software. Both models are analyzed. The argument is made that the open model can be extended to many kinds of human enterprise, profit-oriented or not, to the benefit of all participants.

[edit] Semantic Object Language

While UML is the accepted visual language for object-oriented system modeling, it lacks a common semantic foundation with a standard visual syntax. Furthermore, it does not cleanly mesh with external visual modeling languages such as entity relationship diagrams and relational data models. By restating UML and ER in terms of a common underlying semantic and syntactic modeling platform, a comprehensive, encapsulated, and truly unified software modeling technique becomes feasible.

This 2003 paper was used by Ruth Miller in her graduate work at Kansas State University.

[edit] The Stupidity Front

I had a bizarre little idea that I'd like to share... it led me to a highly speculative exploration about something we're doing right now that may dog our distant descendents. It is surely the biggest mark we've made on the cosmos as a species, though few of us even think about it, let alone its consequences.

(Note: I originally posted this paper to Kuro5hin on 10 May 2002. This version reflects edits based on the reactions the article generated from the Kuro5hin community.)

[edit] The Symphony Playing Itself

A monograph on the meaning of change and pattern in our foundationless cosmos.

[edit] A Week for Wallace

I wrote this very short story abruptly one evening in 1995. I still have no idea what it means, though it seems vaguely inspired by my old friend John Landrum (co-author of the haiku).

[edit] Wikipedia

I have contributed over a hundred articles and content to this encyclopedia on a variety of topics.