Welcome to DavidWoolsey.com
Hi, I'm David and my web site is back on line! It is here that you can find a
little about me and what I've been up to. There may also even be some useful
content depending on what your interests are.
Recent Additions
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News and recent additions to this site:
- December, 2016
- So, I haven't updated this site in a while. However, I've just
started a weblog called Apprentice to the Obvious. It'll be mostly about
science, technology, and engineering, but there will be a few
uncontrolled excursions into other things as well.
- January, 2009
- I have done a bit of updating to the Laboraory for Science pages. Added
product technical literature and some photos of the existing LfS
physical assets. This is part of a project to get the assets into
the hands of someone who can preserve the technology.
- January, 2007
- Well, I haven't been maintaining this site in a while. It really
needs some of my attention. The wife and I got tired of the midwest
and moved back to California in June of '06.
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Physics
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Firstly, I am, and it seems have always been, a student of physics. I have been in-and-out
of various institutions of higher learning for about two decades now. I
am principally interested in relativity and gravitation but I have a
strong background of working with coherent light (lasers) and optics.
Also, there are so many other interesting 'physics things' out in the
world that it would be difficult for me to be too single minded.
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Ideas
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A place for a few of my more random ideas. Perhaps crazy, different,
and/or interesting. I only ask that you have patience with the cranky
tone of some of the pieces as they were probably written as responses to
"motivation via irritation".
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Work
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On the subject of work: For 14 years I worked at the Laboratory for
Science. The 'Lab' was a company that manufactured frequency
stabilized HeNe lasers and it may be that I know probably more
than I care to know about them. For many years of my stint at the Lab I
was the sole employee which resulted in my being involved with nearly
every aspect of the manufacture of the laser systems we sold. I am
currently in the process of constructing some pages about the Laboratory for Science, its products, my
time spent there, and what to do about its legacy.
I've also worked in the motion picture business at Tippett Studio. I did a number of
things there including electronics and mechanical work on motion-input
devices, match-move, CG modeling, and 3-D scene and model capture using
laser scanning systems (the design and construction of which I had a
strong hand in). The movies in who's credits I appear include Starship Troopers
(Match-Move) and Virus (CG
Modeler). Movies in who's credits I do not appear include Evolution - which is
OK with me since it's such a lame movie.
In 2004 I wrapped up working with the Holzapfel Group for Experimental Cosmology at the UCB
physics department and moved to the midwest. If you are interested in
learning about some of the work I do for the Holzapfel group you should
visit my CfPA pages.
While I was in the midwest I worked for a short while with Dr. George
Miley's Fusion Studies Group at UIUC on his X-Ray Laser project. When I
returned to the Bay Area I worked for a while in the MEMS R&D
industry building a DoD/MDA funded micro-adaptive optics array.
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Newton
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One of the really neat-o toys I have lately come across is a web server for my
Newton MP2100. The server software is called Newton Personal
Data Sharing and is made available as freeware from Lightyear Design. They also
run a Newton Tracker page so that
Newtons running their server can be found as they move from one IP address to
another.
There is a small (no, really, a very
small) chance that my Newton is online via packet radio but if the packet radio
link is dead you may be able to find me via the Tracker.
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Ham Radio
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Recently I have picked up the hobby of ham radio. My call
sign is KF6WXN. I became involved in this as a
result of a recent motorcycle tour of the USA because I thought I might need an
emergency contact method. If you are interested in ham radio you may be
interested in the support pages
for this summer's trip (they are all I have up for ham radio at the present).
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Mapping
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I'm beginning to develop some more mapping
resources with the thought that they should be useful for both traveling
and general reference. So far I have a number of interfaces to various web based
resources including (I think) the only imagemap based interface to the USGS 7.5' DEM FTP archive.
[note: the DEM data this interface pointed to has been moved away]
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Photos
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Here is a collection of electronic photos from various tours and trips I have taken.
- Ellis-Olson Mortuary in
Albany, CA. This tour was arranged as one of the initial steps of
investigating the possibility of it for use as a social club.
- McClellan AFB photos
including a tour of the
insides of a Lockheed Constellation early warning aircraft. The tour
is still in a rough state.
- Photos from my 1999 road trip around the USA -- either raw or corrected.
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Motorcycles
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I am also interested in motorcycles and, lately, motorcycle touring. I
own a Honda NT650 and a couple of Yamaha
SR500s all of which are inappropriate for touring but have done
a bit of it anyway. My most recent motorcycle adventure was my own
"RoadTrip '99"
which was a 45 day ride around the USA. It was great fun. For your
enjoyment I have:
- Trip equipment
lists and reviews (could be useful)
- A sort of travelogue
with a few of my thoughts
- A couple hundred photos of the trip (mostly
of Cold War artifacts)
- Some support
pages of possible usefulness to others on similar road trips.
I hope to shortly have a bit of technical information I learned (the hard way)
about the peculiarities of SR500 electronic ignitions posted,
among other things.
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Music
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I should mention my musical interests here as well. A brief
look at my music shelves would indicate an interest in, but by no means confined
to, the following:
- Death Rock / Goth (Death Rock elevator
music):
- Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim, Red Lorry Yellow
Lorry, Death In June, Current 93, Joy Division, Felt, The Cure,
Siouxsie, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins...
- Industrial:
- Front Line Assembly, Laibach, Test Dept., Coil...
- 1980's Alternative:
- New Order, Section 25, Chameleons, Kate Bush, Simple Minds, ABC,
Altered Images...
- Electronic (AKA
New Age?):
- Jean Michael Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, Vangellis,
Philip Glass, Wim Mertens...
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Appearance
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Oh yeah, I probably should mention that I used to wear a lot of black.
In fact during the '80's I wore pretty much nothing but antique
victorian clothing. I looked a bit like a Hollywood vampire back then
but have (c.1994) given up that look for a number of reasons -- anything
from too diffcult to maintain to not enough abrasion resistance in a
crash. You are probably conceiving of a pretty good caricature of how I
looked by now...
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Gaming
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In the past (from about 1978) I was a bit of a gaming geek and played an
assortment of simulationist games. In the early 1990's I helped develop
some rule enhancements and modifications for use with "Hero
System" games. If you're interested in simulationist gaming and
use the Hero rules (an odd combination, I know) you may
find a few interesting documents in the ASMRB
gaming pages. Damn, it has been a few years since I've played any of
these games. I guess that would be what happens in middle age.
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Contact
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I can be found, via email, at: david "at" the domain of this
page.
[Note: this email address is swamped with spam. If you have difficulty
contacting me using it just try again using a subject line that is not
spam-like. It is my intention that this email address be valid as long
as I own the davidwoolsey.com domain.]
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I have other interests as well and will eventually get 'round to writing about
them here.
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available through the BMUG archive and other
such legitimate sources so it should be fair to make it available here in Mac or PC format).
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