Anthony Thyssen

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About Anthony...

I am a systems programmer at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, and enjoy my position here. I have a tendency to 'blab' and be a know-it-all.   I like programming, and graphics which I never seem to get enough of.   I also like sharing my knowledge and helping anyone and everyone, in any way I can.

I am also the web-master for the ICT Information Server, and was the first to provide such a permanent WWW service Queensland, Australia.

What I really am is a hacker (original meaning, not the cracker meaning of the media) and as such, live on COKE and often work into the wee hours of the mornings (or at least I used to).   A sign which once appeared on my door says "Real Programmers do their best work between 1 and 5 am", about which I totally agree.   Though my boss, and wife don't!

General Information

Electronic Mail:	Anthony.Thyssen@gmail.com
WWW Home Page:	http://antofthy.gitlab.io/
Job Description:	Systems Programmer, Server Support Services.
Work Address:	Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane.
Time Zone:	Australian EST Time (+10 GMT)

Expertise

I am a UNIX expert..

General Expertise:

UNIX (all aspects, servers to desktop, Linux, Solaris, etc), Computer Languages, X Windows, Network Programming, World Wide Web, CGI Programming, Sendmail, FTP, System Security.

OS Experience:

Linux (Fedora, RedHat, SuSE), SunOS, Solaris, Solaris for Intel, IRIX, Ultrix, OSF, HPUX,
and can probably handle any UNIX system you care to throw my way!

Programming:

Python
Perl (version 4, 5 perl libraries, POD, CPAN), Perl-Tk
    I have even published a CPAN module "Math::VectorReal"
C, Pascal, Forth, Modula 2, OpenGL
TCP/IP Network Programming (in either C and Perl),
Shell Scripting Languages (Bourne Shell, Csh, Bash), Sed, Awk, Ed, Tcl/Tk.
HTML, Apache SSI HTML, CGI Programming and Interfaces, some PHP
Postscript
Vim editor

Specific Applications:

Puppet, Git, Ansible
Docker, Docker Swarm, Podman
Printing Systems: BSD lpr, SysV lp, LPRng
Network Information Services:- NIS or YP (irix), NIS+ (solaris), LDAP, LDAP-Novell interfacing, Active Directory Authentication.
Networking software: including Netscape, Secure Shell (SSh), etc..
PGP mail, Digital Signatures, and file encryption.
Exim, Sendmail, Procmail mail filters, Mail client configuration
Apache Web Server, NGinx Web Server, Web log analysis software,
Web site and web application development
INN News Server, Domain Name Service, TeX and LaTeX (install and usage)
X Windows (server and Clients), and X Emulator configuration
POV-Ray (Persistance of Vision Ray Tracer), and OpenGL Programming
2D Image manipulation using ImageMagick
Gnuplot data graphing.
Amanda Backup Server.
MPI and PBS Clustered (super) Computing
File Synchronization (using Rsync, Unison, SCP, FTP, TAR)
Data Encryption, at File, Directory, and Disk levels.
Text and Image comparisons.
3D Vector and Mesh Graphics Programming.
Minecraft :-)

Past Projects:

Accounts Database: A Perl script based database for user accounts.
doing nightly and real-time account handling over multiple machines.
Labs using Central Authentication but Distributed Accounting.
Individual Software Development Programming Environments for students.
Distributed Mail service to ensure correct mail delivery.
Quota limited printing system for students.
Printer Communications Filter for LPD and LPRng print systems.
Automated UNIX backup of multiple remote UNIX systems overnight.
Mail Filters for internal user mailing lists (limit access, anti-spam)
Maintenance of a large number of UNIX machines using Puppet.
Locating duplicate text blocks in plain english story files.
for installing and updating large numbers of linux machines.

Other General Skills:

Computer System Setup, Security and Maintenance,
Compilation and Installation of Software
including: GNU Configured, RPM's, Solaris Packages, Licences
and debugging install to run when standard installation fails
General Installation of Computer Hardware (mainframe or desktop)
Basic use a soldering/electronic skills for patching cables, and minor faults.

Computer Interests:

System Programming, Graphics (anything and everything), Graphing, Icons, Cellar Automata, Conways Life, Data Structures, Games, General System Programming, 3d Vector Programming, Ray-Tracing, Polyhedra.

NOTE: I do not claim any expertise in Microsoft Windows for PC's, nor for Macintosh systems (though I know some MacOSX).   However I usually can resolve problems I come across.

See my Software Index for some of the programs I have written and have made available to the world. -- And I do mean only some!

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Other Non-Computer Interests

General

My wife, has the highest call on my time (naturally).

Reading Reading and more Reading!! (Science Fiction, Computers, General Science)

Science Fiction and Fantasy (See my Castle Library

Kite Flying (and other flying `toys')

EG: come and visit my Kite Workshop or look at my Kite Gallery

Minecraft Moderator on a large server.

I tend to built large involved bases, over long periods of time.

Generally with clean mathematical themes, like spheres, torus, and spirals.

I have published YouTube videos on some aspects of my building. Kite Gallery

Dungeons and Dragons (check out my home page!), though I haven't been involved with the game for a long time.

Playing Ancient Chinese game of Go. The Rules of Go are extremely simple but the game takes a very long time to master (which I haven't). You may even look at the old play by mail game, which is still located in the castle Castle Library

General Mathematics, especially geometry, polyhedra, and 3D vector math. For example see my Studies into Polyhedra

Image processing and specifically Creating Examples and improving the image processing software package ImageMagick. See ImageMagick Examples.

Favorite Authors (Science Fiction / Fantasy) (include)

Larry Niven	Steven Barnes	Jerry Pournelle
Robert Heinlein	Piers Anthony	Anne McCaffrey
Robert Asprin	Terry Pratchett	Arthur C. Clarke
Alan Dean Foster	Bob Shaw	Gordan Dickson

You can also have a look at my SciFi Book Library listing the books I currently have in my collection (and have read) and includes the books which I would like to get sometime in the future.

I Love Dragons

My favourite is a "Faerie Dragon" , which is described as:-

Faerie Dragon (Draco Mischievous Chaoticous): This is a small dragon about 2 feet long with large colorful butterfly wings, long prehensile tails, and a huge mischievous grin, usually living in the deep forests. While the dragons claws and bite is not particularly dangerous as dragons go, they are highly magical, with a huge repertoire of magical spells and can become invisible at will. Its breath weapon (it is a dragon after all) is also not very dangerous, consisting of a two foot sphere of "euphoria" gas, which can incapacitate a humanoid creature for a couple of days or so. They are also great practical jokers, as such ogres encountering a faerie dragon may find themselves turned into gnomes or worse. They will use their magic at any opportunity to wreak mischief on any passersby. In fact they are known to pick and chose spells solely for their mischief potential, and not for any attack or defensive capability. Of course a knight in armour which has rusted solid, and in desperate need of a can opener, will not be able to put up much of an attack on a Faerie Dragon. Though many faerie dragon pranks are spur-of-the-moment affairs, months of preparation often go into a single grand practical joke. Only a faerie dragons insatiable love of fruit pies (apple, raspberry, peach, etc), is greater than its love of a good practical joke, and they will go to almost any lengths for a fresh one.

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Publications

A list of academic papers, and places where my Castle and my icon library has been published available in Publications of Anthony's Stuff.