Brian Lowe: What I do

"Never time to do it right, but always time to do it over."

Index to my Interests Page

Professional Computer/Analyst Programmer
General Computer User
Membership Secretary of the Winnipeg PC User Group
Sysop, the Programmer's Oasis BBS
Reading (Mostly non-fiction)
Writing (Mostly science fiction and fantasy)
Hamster Owner
Middle-Earth Role Playing
Not politically active
Guided Tour

Professional Computer Analyst/Programmer

I am currently employed as an Analyst/Programmer in the headquarters for the Canadian operations of a large American Corporation. I assist in the maintenance, trouble-shooting, and general administration of a network of 100 computers across Canada from Ontario to British Columbia.

It sounds glamorous, but the reality is I spend a lot of time on the telephone getting users, many of whom are unfamiliar with computers in general and UNIX in particular, to type commands for me. I'm also responsible for hardware troubleshooting, which can be a challenge when you're in one city and the computer that's not booting is in a remote settlement a thousand kilometres away.

Especially troublesome are printers. The company for which I work is in a cyclical business: eight months of the year it's quiet, then for a couple of two month periods in the spring and fall things just go nuts, and I get burned out trying to keep all printers running.

The funniest call I ever got was from a user in another city. The conversation went something like this:

User: "Brian, I have a problem with my computer."
Me: "What is it?"
User: "The thing isn't going into the thing!"

I eventually figured out the user was trying to connect a parallel printer (which uses a cable that has a Centronics connector on it) to a serial cable (which has a 25-pin male end on it)! Try as you might, it will never work, for the cable end is just too small to put on to the printer.

General Computer User

If you have already read my autobiography, you probably have figured out that I'm a nerd: a general computer geek. At home I own a Pentium 200 box with 32 MB of RAM and 3 gigabytes of disk. It's not really state-of-the-art, but it's a decent machine.

I use OS/2 as my primary operating system. I've never bothered with Windows 95; after using OS/2 for a couple of years, Win '95 seems clunky and unstructured. At work I use UNIX on Hewlett-Packard and IBM RISC boxes. I've dabbled a bit with Linux, but feel I can't really make the switch to it. I have too many DOS programs that I wrote and still want to use, and I don't know enough C to translate them all!

I also run a Bulletin Board System in Winnipeg called the Programmer's Oasis. Sorry, the BBS is not on-line to the net, so you can't link to it from these web pages.

I also tend to be a bit of a techno-freak: I love high-tech toys like electronic Personal Information Managers, VCRs, camcorders, and the like. My apartment probably generates enough electromagnetic interference to knock out the control systems of a jet aircraft!

Membership Secretary, Winnipeg PC User Group

I have been the membership secretary of the Winnipeg PC User Group for several years now. In that time I've seen the membership go from 300 members, up to 1200, then settle back down again to 850.

I'm also chairing the promotions committee for the User Group. If you have any good ideas for promoting user groups, I'd love to hear from you. Just send me e-mail!

Sysop, the Programmer's Oasis BBS

Since 1992 I have run a small BBS called the Programmer's Oasis. It's a relatively humble enterprise: a 386 SX/16 computer connected to a single telephone line. I've run door games, helped a lot of young people get a start in programming, and made a lot of friends.

The biggest single contribution the Programmer's Oasis made to the BBS community was with a companion program to a door game called Trade Wars. Many versions of the TradeWars 2002 beta were plagued by an anomoly known as the "Ship Records Bug." When the bug hit my copy of the game, a friend and I figured out the cause, wrote a program to prevent the bug from occuring, and released it to the TradeWars community. To date, I have not heard of a single BBS that runs TradeWars and my program (TWBUGFIX) ever having a problem with the Ship Records Bug.

Reading

I have been an avid reader all my life: my mother says I was reading at a grade three level when I was in grade one. Today my apartment overflows with books and magazines.

I'm relatively omniverous in my reading, but lately I've been generally reading non-fiction, biographies and autobiographies in particular. Fiction works, when I do read them, and that's rare these days, are usually science-fiction and fantasy related.

Magazine subscriptions are generally for Canadian works: Canadian Geographic, The Beaver (a magazine devoted to the history of Canada,) and Canadian Consumer. Unfortunately, Canadian Consumer ceased publication a while back, so now I get Consumer Reports out of the States. I used to get PC World, but they're now basically just another Windows rag, so I didn't bother to renew my subscription.

Writing

This is only a brief mention, for I have a whole section devoted to it on my web site.

Visit my Short Stories Pages
Back to top of page
Guided Tour

Hamster Owner

I'm quite a fan of cats and used to keep one or two. But my liking for high-rise apartment living makes life difficult for a cat, for they enjoy their freedom and need space to run around. They also require a fair bit of food, litter-box maintenance, and TLC on a regular basis, and at this stage in my life I'm rather too busy to supply all of that.

I came to own a hamster quite unexpectedly when a friend of mine called me one evening to ask if I wanted one. It seems they had a small popluation explosion on their hands and were looking for homes for some of them. I agreed to take one. Her name was Rosebud, and in the time I had her I came to rather enjoy the little critter's presence in my life. She was quiet, unobtrusive, undemanding, and required very little maintenance - all I want in a pet.

Visit my Hamster Pages
Back to top of page
Guided Tour

Middle-Earth Role Playing

Similar to Dungeons and Dragons, from which it is descended, Middle-Earth Role Playing sets its adventures in the fantastic world created by J. R. R. Tolkein. I've been playing MERP since August 1995, and so far the campaign that we started back then is still in progress. The Game Master is creative and quick-thinking, and has come up with several fascinating scenarios for us to play.

Visit my MERP Pages
Back to top of page
Guided Tour

Not Politically Active

Although I actively follow national, provincial, and civic politics, and exercise my right to vote as the opportunities afford themselves, I am not really politically active. I do not hold a card in any party, nor am I loyal to any one party in my voting patterns. I am skeptical of almost every political organization. Individual politicians I can support, and some even trust, but overall it appears political parties can't seem to keep up to even their basic tenets once they are elected!

Guided Tour

What I Like!
[Previous]

My Generally Boring Autobiography
[Next Section]

Short Stories Pages
[Home]

Brian Lowe's Home Page

Brian Lowe / Winnipeg PC User Group / blowe@wpcusrgrp.org
Last updated on June 14, 1998. Accesses since September 30, 1998: (Counter image not available)