This web-site is essentially a note-book that I don't mind other folk
reading – its real purpose is to be a place:
in which I can record my thoughts and explorations of various topics; that I
can access from anywhere with a web browser and an internet connection. Parts
of it may, none the less, be of interest to others; I'll let you be the judge
of that. The major entry-points are:
I did my degree in mathematics,
specializing in theoretical physics; I still dabble in
both. My writings here use a notation
designed for plain text (via a cruder
precursor) and the mathematics is divided between an older
area which is more chaotic, but contains more material, than the more
disciplined newer work. The latter is somewhat more
focussed on the needs of theoretical physics.
and book reviews, organized
chronologically, along with
a diaryrecording what's changing on
this site. Similar thoughts sometimes end up as project
sketches, ranging from space travel and software engineering to tools for
theoretical physics.
I earn my living as
a computer programmer (see my curriculum vitae
– or, to North Americans, resumé –
for details) and am in favour of Free
Software. When I'm learning new web technologies, I add toys to this site
as examples; and sometimes I write essays about how I think the software
industry might be improved. Some of my experiments and
experimental ruminations are also available.
ramblings and witterings
Like many a vain fool with a
website, I have recorded some of my opinions
about politics and life in
general, of which you can make what you will. As my opinions change, I
might even update these pages, but some of them are very old, so might be out
of date.
If I ever have material worthy of peer-reviewed publication,
I am committed to offering it to
open-access journals for publication. I endeavour, on this web-site, to
conform to the world-wide web consortium's
relevant standards: consequently, it should work with all user agents
(including the ones described as web browsers) in so far as they
support those standards. On the other hand, particularly when I'm exploring
new web technologies, I do use some modern standards (e.g. SVG and XHTML)
which are not as widely supported as plain HTML; so you'll get most out of
this site with a modern standards-compliant browser (such
as FireFox
or Opera). I
personally recommend (and routinely use) the cross-platform Opera web browser
– I'm employed to work on making it
better and getting it to work well on diverse devices (not just desk-top
computers). The versions that run on mobile 'phones are built from the same
source code as the desktop version, so improvements we make in either are
naturally available in the other.
My adopted nick-name is four letters long: any other spelling lacks the
meanings (and synonyms) for which I chose it. Where used, I consider it to
properly be a replacement for the whole of my name, not only my first name;
combining it with my surname always strikes me as odd – why shorten my
first name by (at best) two letters when using my nine-letter surname ?
If you're going to be so formal as to use my surname, please use my full name,
Edward Welbourne, which I inherited from my grandfather (born 1894, died 1966)
– if you came here looking for information about a historian, I
encourage you to visit the home page
of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and their
page about
him.
I have had several abodes on the net: however, most of these may sensibly
be expected to have expired. So if you have any other e-mail address for me,
please revise to just eddy@chaos.org.uk. This is now my
definitive home
(and e-mail
address) on the InterNet, although I also have
outposts at work
and on
my.Opera.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president
or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public.
and book reviews, organized
chronologically, along with
a ![[Get Opera!]](http://promote.opera.com/logos/Opera1_t.png)
