zacbrown.org

.who?
My name is Zac Brown. Pretty boring name huh? I'm 19 years old, born and raised in Arlington, Texas (No I do not own a horse nor do I wear a cowboy hat). I'm a student at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. I'm studying Computer Science and lots of other computer related things (computer engineering, mathematics, philosophy, etc.), with interests in applications of computing in Biology. I enjoy all sciences, including Mathematics and believe that a strong foundation in Mathematics can provide a student with better tools to be used in the real world. I spend a lot of my time either working, studying, or sleeping. I like computers. A lot. Almost a ridiculous amount in fact. I want to do work and/or research in Computer Science, specifically in compiler/interpreter design, programming language design, parallel algorithms and distributed, reliable systems after I go to graduate school, hopefully at UC Berkeley, Caltech, or one of those other schools like that. This is all up in the air of course!

I work for a researcher( Matthew D. Potts) writing programs that model different systems related to Ecology and Biology. You'll be able to find more about those projects below but as they're just starting, don't expect to see anything too spectacular yet, as I'm still working on them.

I am an advocate for the use of open source software in all environments. I personally use Ubuntu Linux which I have found to be very fast and stable in a development environment. I'm interested in doing more work with software testing and verification as one of my biggest pet peeves has always been buggy software. My specific interests are:


The list of my interests is subject to change with my daily whim, and anyone that follows my website with any sort of regularity will notice it changes about once a month. I'm constantly trying to narrow it down and get more specific, as of late I've been especially good at that.


.what?
This is a list of links to Free, Open Source or Research projects that I work on:
labs.zacbrown.org - My personal playground, its a work in progress
Wine - Contributor
Arch Linux PPC - Package Maintainer & Developer
MindStorm Artificial Neural Network - Co-Admin & Lead Programmer (Nodes)
100 Acre Wood Research Cluster - Programmer, Research Assistant, System Administrator
NetLogo Model of Malaria Transmission - A program written to model the transmission of malaria via humans and mosquitos. This project is from research I am doing at the University of Miami.

This is a list of completed assignments for course work:
JavaScript Quick Sort Implementation
JavaScript Hash Table Implementation
JavaScript Rotating Tree Implementation - Portrayed as a game, but the underlying algorithm is similar to a splay tree.
JavaScript Longest Common Subsequence Implementation
svi - A primitive stream editor written C.

This is where you'll find my resume, profiles, and my blog in the Free Software realm:
My Resume - This is my resume, pretty self explanatory I think :).
My Blog - Lots of stuff on programming, programming language design, science, distributed systems, biology, and other stuff...
WineHQ Wiki Page - This has a list of various bugs I'm working, patches I've submitted, patches that have been accepted and more.
Advogato - If you liked my advice, certify me!
GNU Savannah Profile - Profile on Savannah.gnu.org
LaunchPad Profile - Profile on LaunchPad.net

This is just some personal stuff and items of random interest:
Pi - Like pi? Me too, here's a nice wallpaper for widescreen (1680x1050) with pi calculated to 30,000 digits.
Zac/Kate mugshots - Kate and I playing around on her MacBook Pro.


.where?
These are sites, projects, initiatives, and so on that I think are worth looking at if you haven't already.

Google- Can't find it? Use google.
UM IEEE - Support your local EE/CE/CS junkies!
GNU Software - GNU's Not UNIX. Duh.
Free Software Foundation - Support free software, I mean seriously, who doesn't like free stuff?
Slashdot.org - News for geeks, stuff that matters. Enough said.
Think Geek - Don't know what to get a geek? Buy it here. Or buy it and send it to me, I'll make sure he gets it...
OSNews.com - Want to know which OS is kicking the shit out of Windows this week? This would be the place to check that.
The Onion - Need a break from the boring hum-drum of the corporate world? Don't bother with CNN, read the Onion!
AnandTech - Like hardware?
Tom's Hardware - How 'bout some more hardware?
BOINC - Your computer's getting fat, put it to work here.
BOFH - Hate your boss? Need ideas on how to make his life miserable? Look no further than the Bastard Operator From Hell.


     [FSF Associate Member]