Family
Finally an updated photo after all these years. We took a Carnival Cruise again this year and this is a family shot in Orlando (Tim, Anna - 9, Lisa, Alex - 5). This was our 3rd family cruise (one on the Norwegian Jewel, one on Carnival Valor and one on the new Carnial Dream):
More Cruise 2010 Photos
My daughter, Anna Marie, born November 18, 2000
My wife, Lisa and Anna
Me at VA Linux
Sailing
Career
For the past several years, I have been building up a nice software business called GForge Group. It's great to own my own business and work for myself. We have more than 150 customers worldwide ranging from GE to Siemens to Cisco Systems. We've done projects for IBM, Pioneer Electronics, some of the National Laboratories like Sandia, Los Alamos, and Brookhaven, secret government agencies, military contractors like Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and many others. I run the business from Des Moines, IA and have contractors in Argentina.
House
Lisa and I found an amazing home when we came back to Iowa for Christmas, 2000, and we instantly
fell in love with it.
House before move-in
Home Theater
I rebuilt my home theater in January 2005, hiring a really high-end trim carpenter add some awesome woodwork in the room and also to build a really great custom wet bar. The theater is complete with stadium seating and Lazy Boy home theater recliners, a 108" projection screen, DLP projector, HD DVD player, 400 Disc DVD JukeBox, NHT Super Zero speakers, and yamaha receiver. High Definition Dish Network DVR and DVD recorder round out the equipment list.
Check out the pictures of the rebuilt home theater
Politics & Environment
I've taken a strong interest in political affairs since the 9/11 attacks and I believe we should be watching events very carefully, to make sure our rights and privacy are not excessively abused in the war on terror.
- Civil Rights & Privacy
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Internet & digital rights, privacy, and advocacy.
- Charity
- Christian Children's Fund We sponsor 4 children in Brazil and Thailand. CCF focuses on education and basic necessities, not simply giving away a handout of food.
- Salvation Army An excellent charity in the US.
- Politics
- Environment & Sustainability
- National Geographic Society
- Sierra Club (not a paying member)
- ENN Environmental News Network (not a paying member)
- Environmental Defense (not a paying member)
- Space Exploration
- National Space Society Advocates of space exploration.
- Planetary Society Advocates of space exploration.
- Mars Society Advocates of mars exploration
Revolutionary Science
There are two areas of research in physics which I am watching closely. Both areas could revolutionize society - for the better. One involves "unconventional propulsion" - ie gravity-like fields which could be used for advanced space propulsion. The other is a anomalous energy source from hydrogen.
Gravity-like Fields
Dr. Ning Li, formerly of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, theorized in 1989 that a gravity-like field could be created if you were able to precisely align a large number of ions in a magnetic field. Working independently in Finland, Eugene Podkletnov reported a decrease in weight above a spinning superconductor.
Anomalous Energy
In 1989, Pons and Fleischman created an uproar when they announced "Cold Fusion". Unfortunately, their sloppy methods meant they could not always reproduce their experiments and they eventually faded into obscurity. However, at least two independent labs have stumbled onto similar anomalous energy results that have yet to be explained.