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current update 29 sep 03 / last update 27 aug 03
* This page provides a set of "overhead" materials, including monthly updates, current site statistics, links & credits, and personal information.
* New materials:
* Updates:
* Current statistics:
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titles pages
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Asimov Project: 10 50
CyberTechnics 16 63
WorldScapes 10 142
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sum: 36 255
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Air Vectors: 97 137
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sum titles: 133 392
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Index files: 37
newsletters: 24
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sum files: 453
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bitmaps: 1,274 / 402 custom
* I was reluctant to add a links page to my site for a long time, mainly out of weariness with websites that consist mostly of links and little else, with most of the links broken. However, I have used some other websites as sources, and so I really have to link to them to properly credit them.
There are many exhaustive link pages on the web on any subject a reader would like. I have no intention of competing with them, as I don't feel that's the "value proposition" of this site. Links have to be maintained on a regular basis, and so my objective is to have as few links as possible rather than collect them. Please do not send me requests to add links to this list.
* I was also reluctant for a long time to add personal information, since as a policy I have done everything to avoid hype on this site. However, I really do have to establish my credentials, biases, and agenda for readers, and besides it is useful to be able to have something to pass back to readers when they ask questions about me.
For the curious, the author's particulars are as follows:
Greg Goebel (full name Gregory Vaughn Goebel)
Born 1953 in Spokane, state of Washington (NOT Washington DC), NW USA
Now living in Loveland, Colorado, north of Denver
Twelve years primary education in Catholic parochial schools in Spokane
Bumming at college in Bellingham, Washington, 1971
US Army Signal Corps 1972:1975 (Fort Hood Texas & Heilbronn Germany)
Electronics Tech degree from Spokane Community College, 1977
Worked for Tektronix in Wilsonville, Oregon, 1978
Electronics Engineer degree from Oregon State University, 1979:1981
Hewlett-Packard customer service in Oregon & Colorado, 1982:2000
Now writing full time
Aviation enthusiasts may wonder if I am any relation to fighter ace Bob Goebel. My father is indeed Bob Goebel, but not the one who was a fighter ace, Dad was a supply sargeant in the PTO rear echelon. "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."
I'm a tall and thin Anglo guy, possibly with a bit of Cherokee blood, with short-cropped gray-streaked brown hair. I used to keep it long, but scalp problems forced me to change my ways of living.
Bachelor, live by myself, tend to be reserved around strangers, not keen on disputes. Hobbies include aerobics; playing the piano (or electronic keyboard to be precise); digital drawing and retouching; collecting diecast aircraft models; and sci-fi videos & animation & Japanese comix. Of course I write a lot on various subjects, too, but you've probably figured that one out.
Clumsy piano player, BTW, it's always nice to have a hobby one has no natural skill at to foster humility. Writing in contrast comes to me naturally. I like jazz music and cyber music, with some very selective taste for classical and rock.
I am largely apolitical, tending towards middle of the road pragmatic politics with a vaguely libertarian ideology, and am basically areligious as well. As a friend of mine once observed, I refuse to belong to any organization that would consider me as a member. I try to be tolerant of ideologues as long as they let me.
* The picture above was taken in about 1994, and was a publicity shot taken for a local newspaper. The big guy on your left was Colorado Governor Roy Romer, the young guy on the right was my colleague Dave Reywerts of Sykes Enterprises, and yours truly is in the center, acting as a representative of Hewlett-Packard for a demonstration to the Governor.
* This website evolved from my tendency to take notes. When I want to learn something, I write everything down so I can retain the information and refer to it later, as well as organize my thoughts on it. This has led to a compulsion to write down everything I know, there being no other way to remember the details reliably or to ensure that they are orderly and consistent.
Having done this, it then makes sense to organize the materials, and a website provides an excellent way of doing this. Once I've taken that step, then sharing it with other people is a worthwhile next step. Knowledge that isn't made accessible and shared seems pointless.
To put it simply, I write down what I want to remember about anything I want to know about, and on the other side of that same coin, if you read one of these documents, you generally know at least as much as I know about the subject. They are generally written from the point of view of someone trying to learn a subject, not someone who is a recognized or even informal expert on that subject. The documents are modified and improved as new information becomes available and I can find time to integrate it.
I am also not generally a fanatic about any one of the subjects I write about. Readers sometimes assume that since I wrote a book-sized document on codes and ciphers I must have a full-time interest in the subject, but that's not the case. It's just one of a list of interests. I'm more like the kind of guy who gets interested in some subject or other and decides to read a book on it, except that instead of reading a book I try to write one.
I try to be thorough but make no pretense of being definitive. For the most part my writings are at the level of detail appropriate to readers interested in a topic but who have no plans to become professionals. I'm am amateur at most of this stuff, and in fact would like to maintain my amateur standing, since otherwise I'd have to take things more seriously and it wouldn't be as much fun.
To the extent that my writing is a competitive exercise, I see the competition as other materials on the web, not writing in print sources. I make no claims for my level of knowledge on any subject, since that knowledge is written down for inspection by readers, who can then form a judgement as they see fit.
* The main draw of VECTORS at present is the AIR VECTORS section. However, although AIR VECTORS is being energetically expanded, it is not necessarily representative of where the entire site is headed over the long run, and though military topics are being emphasized at present, I don't regard this as necessarily a military site.
Three years of Army life left me with a grudging respect but little liking for the military, though in its favor that's all the military expects of its rankers. Despite my fascination with military hardware, I own no weapons worthy of the name. A better concept of my interests can be obtained by surveying the VECTORS and FLASH newsletters. Real masochists may be interested in the reviews I write on Amazon.com.
* A few final notes: