Tom Van Vleck

Software Engineering Stories

A collection of stories and essays on software quality and engineering. Some published, some not. (11/02/06, 10K, 18 files, 5 images)

• Three Questions About Each Bug You Find (02/25/06, 13K, 1 comic)

• Cleaning up the Basement in the Dark (02/01/05, 7K, 1 comic)

• It Can Be Done (02/10/07, 7K, 1 picture)

• The Evolution of My Thinking (03/01/06, 9K)

• Nasty Question (02/01/05, 7K)

• A Few Minutes' Discussion (03/01/06, 8K)

• Notebooks (02/01/05, 6K)

• NASA's $30,000 drops of Epoxy (02/01/05, 5K)

• The Risks of Electronic Communication (02/01/05, 13K)

• Painting the Wall (02/01/05, 5K)

• When the River Is Polluted (02/01/05, 5K)

• Structure Marking (01/16/07, 16K, 1 figure)

• Perfection Pills (02/01/05, 5K, 1 comic)

• Counterpoint (03/01/06, 5K)

• Check Marks (03/01/06, 6K)

• Software Engineering Proverbs (01/16/07, 15K)

• Software Engineering Reading list (03/09/06, 19K)

• Hellandizing (02/17/06, 8K)

• Gauss's Algorithm (03/10/07, 6K, 1 picture)

• Management Tactics (07/07/05, 6K)

• The Bulgarian Lesson (01/16/07, 5K)

• Van Vleck's Comb (07/07/05, 8K)

• Interviewing and Hiring (01/28/07, 18K)

• Darwin (10/20/06, 6K)

Tools

• Tools for web site management and security. Source programs in Perl and C. (03/01/08, 16K)

  • webtrax.pl: Analyze and report on a web server log.

  • headpage.cgi: Return an HTML page by expanding a template.

  • cal.cgi: Display a calendar, loading boxes from a control file.

  • gpw.c: Generate pronounceable passwords.

• Demonstration programs in Java. An interesting new language. (03/17/07, 6K, 5 applets)

  • Globe: Display the globe from any viewpoint. (03/17/07, 8K)

  • Pie Chart: Display a pie chart. (03/17/07, 8K)

  • Diskpie: Display a directory's disk usage. (03/01/06, 6K)

  • The I Ching: Display the I Ching, or Book of Changes. (03/17/07, 5K)

  • Password Generator: Generate pronounceable passwords. (03/17/07, 9K)

  • Say: A very personal fortune cookie program. (03/17/07, 5K)

• How I Prepare Pictures for the Web With Photoshop What I've learned so far. (03/01/06, 22K, 5 images)

• How I Filter Spam It takes some work, but it's worth it. (07/01/08, 20K, 3 images) updated

Multics

I worked on the Multics operating system for almost 16 years in the 60s and 70s, and edit a web site describing the system, its history, and its builders.

• "The Multics System Programming Process"
  Charlie Clingen and I wrote an invited paper (11/20/05, 21K, 1 picture) for COMPCON 78 about our team's development process. It was reprinted in the IEEE Tutorial on Software Maintenance.

Computer Security

• Timing Channels. Covert channels are a concern in the design of secure operating systems; they allow information to leak between security domains. I wrote a short paper about an early exploitation of a timing channel, and some thoughts on the star property. (01/13/06, 12K, 2 pictures)

• How the Air Force broke Multics security in the early 70s. (12/07/07, 18K, 1 picture)

• Project names and Borges numbers. Since we're talking about security, you may enjoy this story. (03/01/06, 7K)

• Home Computer Security Advice The bare minimum that everybody should do. (03/26/08, 16K)

Professional

• Here is my résumé. (06/20/07, 19K)

Stories & Humor

• How I got started in computers .. in a suburban basement in the 1950s (01/16/07, 7K, 2 pictures)

• 1401s I have known. Includes HELLO WORLD (05/30/06, 8K, 3 images)

• The IBM 7070. An interesting and little-known machine (05/30/07, 11K, 2 pictures)

• The IBM 7094 and CTSS. MIT's two 7094s. (05/07/08, 31K, 3 pictures)

• The IBM 360/67 and CP/CMS. My experiences with the ancestor of VM/370. (03/01/06, 15K)

• The History of Electronic Mail. Early electronic mail and instant messaging. (05/25/08, 27K)

• Real Programmers Don't Write Specs. I wrote this in 1982, based on people I knew. (01/16/07, 6K, 1 picture)

• Software Engineering Comix. Seven b&w comic strips for programmers. (03/01/06, 5K)

• Mulvaney on Bomb Disposal. World War II humor (12/28/06, 11K, 39 pictures)

• Home Terminals. Forty years of logging in from home. (02/10/07, 22K, 2 pictures)

• Borges and I. How I learned to appreciate the master. (02/01/05, 7K)

• The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Tuesday, October 17, 1989, at 5:04 PM. (07/07/05, 10K, 1 picture)

Reference

You never know when you might need to know some of this stuff.

• The Figures of the Syllogism .. as described by Petrus Hispanius. (02/01/05, 8K)

• Borges' Animals .. a classification as good as any. (03/01/06, 5K)

Personal

• Index Gallery (12/18/05, 13K, 29 images)

• Art Gallery (01/06/08, 36 photos)

• Memory Box (01/16/07, 4K, 1 picture, frames)

• Famous Van Vlecks (04/03/07, 13K, 3 pictures)

• Favorite Restaurants (04/01/08, 10K, 1 picture)

• Favorite Beers (04/01/08, 7K, 1 picture)

• Favorite Music (03/09/06, 5K)

• Favorite Books (03/09/06, 20K)

• Favorite Bookstores (03/09/06, 8K)

• Favorite Movies (01/04/07, 4K)

• Favorite Places on the Web (11/04/07, 16K)

• Feijoada (02/09/06, 6K)

• Venice (12/27/07, 8K, 4 pictures)

• Mushroom Hunting (01/16/07, 8K, 4 pictures)

• The Funnies (09/14/06, 8K, 2 pictures)

• Ocean City, NJ (07/03/08, 4K, 4 pictures) updated

• My online journal (blog)