Scott R. Armstrong, Computer Professional

Scott R. Armstrong

COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL

Real and Unreal Places

This is a picture of my home office network (home studio for education) from when we lived in Monterey, California. Two additional computers are not in this picture, and by the time we moved to Polo, two more machines attached themselves to my network. Operating systems communicating on this network include SCO UnixWare, SCO OpenServer, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, 2000 Professional (I have become very fond of Win2k), Windows 95, Windows 98, and Novell's Netware 6. The machines can print to a single printer connected to the network with an HP JetDirect box. Oh, and the iBook was connected via a wireless Airport. It would take too long to describe our current IT inventory, but a quick summary is that we've got several Macs (OS X is nice), several Windows machines, and several Unix or Linux machines. I call it a test laboratory. Why? Because it's just fun to play, isn't it!

Have a look at our original and free home on the Internet, not to be confused with our future home in the real world on seven acres of wooded wonderland! We plan to put a house on that land in the spring of 2007. We may also use primarily wind and solar energy to power the house--it's an exciting proposition.

Here is a desk that I inhabited while in Moscow and here is my current desk at work.

I've been to several other places in the world (some more exotic than others), but one of my favorites was Johnston Island (part of Johnston Atoll), about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii. The water really is blue, the temperatures were usually around 95 degrees every day, and the 20-30 mph regular breeze kept things fairly comfortable. Johnston Island even boasts a 9-hole golf course. It takes about 30 minutes for a round. The holes are all par-3, and they range in length from 75 yards to 129 yards. I developed a fairly good short game during my 7 weeks on the island.

Our main Sneetches home page will soon become our family's primary page, but for now, it's a simple page of links.

I am not currently considering employment opportunities , but if you're interested in who I am and what I have done with my life, my professional career is condensed into a 2-page Resume and Curriculum Vitae (last updated: April, 2006 --Really, I'm not looking! I had to update these for CS428).

I used to compile a list of what I did (an 'I love me' file) for my supervisor each year while I was in the Air Force to provide information for my Annual Performance Report (APR, later the name was changed to Enlisted Performance Report, or EPR). During my first few years in the Air Force, it was difficult to fill up all of the white space with meaningful content to satisfy all of the parts of the report--leadership, education, community service, professionalism, etc. During my second assignment (I was stationed at NSA...ooooh, shhhh!) the challenge turned from finding enough stuff to fill the white spaces to finding creative ways to pack in all of what I have been doing into the spaces available. Each year's report reminded me of what I have been doing and what I should be doing. Now that I'm retired (but working), I don't summarize my year's activities and I think I should. Not so much to brag to the world, but to remind myself that I am still very, very busy and involved, and also that I'm very, very busy and involved in some worthwhile activities. As time permits, I'll update my list of stuff that I do for reference.

Under the Influence of Books