This account is now inactive, see my new account (ChrisCantrall) for why.

My degree is in Mechanical Engineering, from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

.liaj ot oG .ACMD eht detaloiv evah uoy ,ecnetnes siht no noitpyrcne eht gnikaerb yB

This poke at dumb laws shamelessly borrowed from wirelessbuzzers.

A note on my conduct:

I am a Weird Person™. The people who meet me in person and get to know me face-to-face come to realize that I am a good-natured person who usually means well. Online, that is more difficult for you to do. If I say something that offends you, I probably did not mean to. (Probably because I haven't insulted anyone online yet, but may succumb to the pressure eventually.)

I may also say something that sounds quite unusual, on the fringes of society or accepted behavior. This is likely a result of me being a Weird Person™ - my sense of humor is somewhat twisted. I often push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable, looking for humor. (I even find it, occasionally.) But, my idea of socially acceptable is also Strange™ in some ways. Things which affect my view of social acceptability:

• I am an American. I grew up in California and now live in Washington state.
• I am a Christian. I spend a lot of time in church activities, and a lot of time with Christian friends.
• I am an engineer. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Either I am Dilbert, or I work next to him.

Of course, it is also possible that I said something unpopular - and meant it. I have some philosophical, political, and theological views which are not considered mainstream. And not just the Slashdot Political Party stuff. But that should be pretty obvious, in context.

This confession was made in an effort to avoid misunderstandings. If you have read this and are still unhappy with me, /msg me - if I've done wrong, I want to know. I want to correct what I can, and make apologies where they are appropriate.

The Monastery

• On Being A Monk

• Learning about the Monestary

• How do I use Perl Monks?
• WriteUp Tips
• Guide to Monastary
• Site HowTo
• FAQ
• New Monks Info
• Name Space

• Fitting in

• Perlmonk Procedures
• Development of the Perl Monks Code of Conduct
• ignored users
• Editor Requests
• Name Space
• RE: password change
• Scratch Pad Viewer
• PerlMonks.org Related S‎crip‎ts
• Life at the Monastery. Chapter 1
• The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
• Outside Links
• What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information?
• New Link Tags
• Perl Monks Approved HTML tags
• How To Ask An Intelligent Question (ESR)Offsite
• Jargon Dictionary Offsite

• Contributing

• We Stylin'!
• On CSS...
• What XML generators are currently available on PerlMonks?

• Site Documentation Clan

• Tech Writing - by ailie, part of the Site Doc Clan.
• Site Documentation Clan - The people who've decided to take care of the Monestary's documentation.
• Perl Monks Doc Project - The beginning of the Site Doc Clan.
• Site Doc Wishlist - audience requests for documentation.
• Site Documentation Clan Wiki - restricted to members.
• Site Documentation Clan To-Do Wiki - restricted to members.
• A couple of site changes
• Perl Monks Documentation Project

• Learning

• Learning how to answer
• Name Space
• Scratch Pad Viewer

• This XP Thing

• Voting/Experience System
• Level Powers
• • Level 1: Initiate
  • Level 2: Novice
  • Level 4: Scribe
  • Level 5: Monk
  • Level 6: Friar
  A New Level Proposal
• Number of Monks by Level
• Monk Stats, offsite
• Monk Level Stats
• gods
• pmdev
• Monk Levels Code :)
• Node Tension

• Rooms, Dorms, and Halls

  (where Monks spend time)

• ChatterBox

ChatterBox, by its lonesome.ONsite, best loaded in a seperate window, to allow casual site use while fervently chatting away.
• Last 35 in ChatterBox Offsite, best loaded in a seperate tab or window.
• CBLast35 - Pacific Time
• CBLast 35 Greenwich Mean Time
• ChatterBox FAQ
• No CB comment is serious, and should not be reproduced in a node without researchInteresting discussion of the nature of the Chatterbox.
• java chatterbox

• Newest Nodes

• bivnn.cgi -- an alternate interface to newest nodes(code for PM)

• Meditations

• Seekers of Perl Wisdom

• Raw Code

• Tutorials

• Perl Monks Discussion

• Categorized Q & A

• Book Reviews

• Perl for Web Site Management

• Module Reviews

• Acme::Don't
• HTML::Template Tutorial
• Using HTML::Template
• using CGI, DBI and HTML::Template (a mini tutorial with example code)
• Module Reviews
• Apache::CVS::HTML + Perl::Tidy
• HTML tidy, using XML::LibXML

• Favorite Corners

  (cool nodes)

• Monestary Introduction

• Perl 6

• Thoughts on Perl6 - Love it? Hate it?
• Perl 6 needs you!
• Wanted: Perl 6 Programmers
• NO PERL 6 One person's rant and the monestary's response.

The Language

• Beginning in Perl

• Learning Perl as a First (programming) language
• Fundamentals Of Programming -- In 6 Hours
• CPAN
• CPAN a history lesson
• Use.Perl;

• Good Coding Practice

• Writing General cases for code re-use
• Why and how to re-use code to make better applications and you a better programmer. (discussion)
• Perl Style Guides for Large Projects
• Internals of Shift/Pop/Unshift/Push
• Intellectual Property
• Security checker
• "Biting" text files into managable sections
• References quick reference
• Micro optimisations can pay off, and needn't be a maintenance problem
• Why I like functional programming
• tidyhome
• Use strict ...
• Perl Debugger
• CVS in EMACS
• Use CVS for rev control
• Add/Commit to CVS
• CVS, CGI, & Perl
• Perl, RCS/CVS & distribution
• CVS web interface
• CVS & Perl
• The Lego approach

• Advanced (Perl) Programming

• The Black Art of Perl Programming

• Modules

• CPAN info

• Object Oriented

• Object Oriented Perfomance
• Object Oriented Perl
• Damian Conway's ten rules for when to use OO
• Advantages of OO-ish exception handling..

• Web (That's what Perl's for, right? :)

• User Interface - Arranging a list in HTML
• CVS, CGI, & Perl
• The Case for Javas‎crip‎t

• System Administration

• GUI

• GUIs Considered Harmful (Tom Christiansen)

• Obfuscation, Poetry, and One-Liners

• Morsify
• Mission: Obfuscation (1)

• Operating Specific Information

• Camelbones for Mac OS X

• Programming Aids

• GNU EMACS for MAC OSX
• XEMACS on MAC OSX

About Me

• Nodes

• Timeline

High Points in my Journey toward Perl Enlightenment.
• Sept 14, 2002
  Got off of duff.
• Oct 18, 2002
  Initiate
• Oct 22, 2002
  Novice
• Oct 22, 2002
  First votes
• Oct 31, 2002
  Heard Dan Sugalski talk about Parrot at SPUG.
• Nov 1, 2002
  Acolyte
• Nov 12, 2002
  Scribe
• Nov 18, 2002
  Monk
• Jan 8, 2003
  Friar
• Jan 15, 2003
  Heard TheDamian speak at SPUG about how he has customized his work environment. If you get a chance to hear him talk about this, drop everything and run. It wasn't HyperOperatedSuperPosition, it was information (and more importantly a method of thinking) which I can start applying to make myself more productive.
• July 2, 2003
  More Damianiacle talking at SPUG. The same topic that he had at YAPC::NA in Boca Raton. When I grow up, I want to be 1/100000000 as smart as him. (Pssst - I'm 27. :)

• My Favorite Modules

• Who I Am Elsewhere

I'm Louis_Wu most everywhere on the web.

• Slashdot

I've been reading Slashdot for a few years. Louis_Wu at Slashdot

• use Perl;

I follow several journals, learning from some smart people. Louis_Wu at Use Perl;

• Geek Codes

-----BEGIN PERL GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 0.01
P >+c--P6->+R+>+++M >+O->+MA>++E-->+PU-BD C >++
D-->+S->++X>+WP++>+++MO+PP >+n!CO--> PO->+o >++
G>+A-->+OL!Ee>++Ev->+Eon+uo++w->--@$m+>++
------END PERL GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Decode Perl Geek Code

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GE d- s++:++ a-
C++ U*+ P++ L++ E>+ W++ N o? K? w+ O? M+ V?
PS+ PE(++) Y+ PGP
t+(*) 5+++ X+ R- tv-- b++ DI++++(+++) D+ G
e++ h+ r*>+++ y-
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Decode Geek Code

--- BEGIN WEAPONS EXTENSION BLOCK ---
ma- k++ F++4 X-
---- END WEAPONS EXTENSION BLOCK ----
Weapons Code info

Version History

• 0.1.1 - I converted the previous version to nested lists, while keeping the structural tags. I don't like using lists to provide the visual formatting I want (indenting each level), but not enough browsers support CSS. And the visual formatting is a great aid in finding something you're looking for.
• 0.1.0 - The first non-table homenode. The node uses HTML's structural markup to organize a large, diverse body of information. I hope that the content is as organized as the markup.
• 0.0.1 - My first try at a linkful homenode. It used tables for layout, because that was the way to get text to show up on Netscape 4 - the 'standard' browser at work. But I've put Phoenix on my work machine, so I was freed to try something other than tables.