| Welcome Earthlings! |
Hello there random web browser! You've been lucky enough to stumble
across one of the most valuable vaults of scientifically accurate,
linguisticly perfect, philosophically visionary, aesthetically
pleasing, and psychologically balanced information sources known to
man: my web site! Ok, so maybe not.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Best viewed with visual organs... |
Unfortunately, I've given in to the terrible sin of not making all
my pages work completely with every browser. I try where I can, but
this page, although you can see it perfectly well in Lynx, is really best
viewed using Internet Explorer
or, if you can handle the rather-too-prevalant bugs,
Netscape.
Go on, download one of them. Treat yourself. They're free!
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| Take me to your Leader |
My name's Stephen Jacob, but I assume you'd probably
figured that out from the huge image saying "Stephen
Jacob's Home Page" on, surprisingly enough, my home page, which
I assume you got here from. I live in Killiney, a suburb of County
Dublin, Ireland. I will be moving, soon, to the San Francisco Bay
Area to live (in San Jose) and work (for
Nominum, Inc. in Redwood City),
assuming that the INS approve my H1-B visa (it's really just a
matter of time). This can't possibly be too soon. The sooner I can move
over there, the better. Not because I don't like Killiney or Dublin,
but because I have really strong reasons for wanting to be in
the Bay Area (one in particular, but more about
that later).
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| University: The divine Temple of Knowledge... |
I was, until June of 1999, a student of
Computer Science at
Trinity College Dublin, whence I have since
graduated with a II1 honours B.A. (Mod)
degree. TCD is both a very modern university (it has one of the world's
foremost computer science departments, for example) and very traditional
(it's somewhat over 400 years old!). The degree being a B.A. and not a
B.Sc. is just one of those traditions which Trinity maintains. The
concept of a "B.Sc." is a relatively new one. All bachelor's degrees used
to be "B.A." in the past.
Trinity College Dublin is, in fact, a University despite being called 'Trinity College Dublin'. The reason is that Dublin University (synonymous with "Trinity College Dublin") was started up with the intention of it being modelled on the multiple college system that Oxford and Cambridge use, but the only college that was ever created was Trinity. Of course... if you're not Irish or British, I don't know if it would have occurred to you that there would be a difference between a college and a university anyway. We do have our quirks. It must be the Atlantic breeze. | ||
| Entry to the World of Nerdity |
I completed first year CS in 1996. The courses I
took in first year (All of them are prescribed courses. There are no
choices until 4th year) can be perused at the Computer
Science BA (Mod) Syllabus! I was very pleased with how I did. Subsequently, I was
in second year CS, surprisingly enough
(unsigned int a = 1; cout << ++a;).
That's all done and finished with, and I ended up doing
rather well in 2nd year too.
Then came 3rd year. Yet more fun and hard work. I
didn't do too badly
in 3rd year either! I completed 4th (and final) year in June 1999.
Oh yeah, my final year project was "Using Frameworks to Implement
Distributed Algorithms", and let's leave it at that for now. I had to
wait 3 weeks after exams to find out how I did. I received a II.1
overall (the second highest grade one can achieve [the highest being a I],
classed as a good honours degree result), so that's the grade on my
degree, and I am very happy indeed with it! We had our Commencements
(graduation ceremony; entirely in latin) on the 11th of November (a strange
concept to Americans who graduate days after finishing university rather
than 5 months later), so I now have the piece of paper I spent four years
getting!
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| I used to be mad but I'm alright now! |
I used to be a Science student. In fact, I studied Science in
TCD for 2 years before deciding to switch to Computer Science.
Obviously I'm recovering, but naturally I still retain some of the
strange, confusing traits of a scientist. Chemists' jokes still make
me laugh. This tends to get confused stares from those members of
the general public in the vicinity not familiar with such animals.
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![[Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon]](pics/calvin.gif)
Calvin & Hobbes - Bill Watterson | |||
| To transfer or not to transfer? That is the question. |
People keep asking me "Why did you transfer?". Well, that's apart
from the ones who say "I wondered why you didn't do CS in the first
place". Why would I? Because I decided I really wanted to do CS,
and I wasn't so keen on what I was doing as I had thought I would
be. It had also been suggested to me that it was great to be good
with computers, but better to study something else and use my
knowledge of computing to help with that. I think I possibly didn't
consider it seriously because of that. Now, having completed my four
years of Computer Science and having graduated with a good honours
degree, I'm very glad I did transfer. I've found my niche.
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What the heck do you do?
 |
My hobbies are quite varied. I scuba dive and
(occasionally) play badminton. In fact, I was at one stage playing
badminton every single Wednesday (this had to stop for final year - far
too much work to keep up with)! I know, it's shocking. Actual
excercise. It is indeed a strange concept for a Computer Scientist.
For those computer scientists in the audience, let me present this
in comprehensible form:
Humanitarian note: If you are not a computer scientist, you may wish, in the interests of saving your sanity, to skip this section. You have been warned. If you are a computer scientist; what sanity?
#define TRUE 1
int excercise ();
int main ()
health = fitness = enjoyment = 0; while (excercise()) {
++fitness; enjoyment = TRUE;
while (not_at_computer) enjoyment = FALSE;
int excercise ()
++tiredness; I've even been known to show my face in a squash court from time to time, but some believe this is just a nasty malicious rumour. Remember, you saw it here first. It's true. Now, what the heck was I talking about? Oh, yeah... | ||
| It's a hobby, Jim, but not as
we know it. |
I watch X-Files and a few other
Sci-Fi shows and am a great
Star Trek fan (trekker). I
also watch some other TV shows, like The
Simpsons and Friends, and am in the process of being converted to
Buffy, Charmed and Gilmore Girls. Family Guy is incredibly
funny... pure genius, and Futurama is pretty funny, but both
started since I pretty much stopped watching TV, so I've seen
very little of either. Another of my favourite passtimes is to go
to the cinema, or indeed to
rent a video or watch a film on TV. I'm a bit of a film buff
(although not at the worshipped guru film buff Sad
AnorakTM level). I really enjoy
films (or movies, as they habitually call
them across the pond) and my idea of an enjoyable evening can be
a trip to the cinema to see a newly released cinematic feast. I
see rather a lot of new movies in the cinema, as indicated by my
Films '96+ pages.
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| Where did I put my regulator? |
Actually, on the subject of Scuba Diving (which I
wasn't, but let's not quibble over semantics. Well, ok, if you must...
that is another of my hobbies, now that you mention it. What, you didn't?
I could've sworn I heard you mention it. Oh, well, my hearing must be
going), I hadn't dived at all in 1995, but I went to the club AGM in order
to show I still existed. There were about 20 people there out of a club of
nearly 70 members, and half of those were the outgoing committee. Guess
what happened. I just wanted to show I existed and they had the
indecency to vote me in on the committee!!! I was P.R.O. (Public
Relations Officer) for a year, but thankfully, I've passed the torch to
someone with the will and the time (hopefully) to do it... and what's
more, with a secretary that they can ask to create the newsletters for
them! Much as I enjoy diving, for a whole lot of reasons I haven't managed
to find time to dive since ... well, probably 1996 or something. Maybe
even 1994. I could check my log book, if I could find it, but that would
really be too much effort!
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| Verbal discourse on flattened vegetable matter... |
I also read quite a bit. I tend to read a lot of Sci-Fi including
Star Trek (although none for the last few years),
Anne McCaffrey,
Isaac
Asimov, and my favourite author bar none, Robert A. Heinlein.
I also like Orson Scott Card (Ender trilogy, Homecoming series), Larry
Niven and, a couple of authors I've started reading recently:
Mercedes Lackey ("Bedlam's Bard") and Neal Stephenson ("Snow Crash",
"The Diamond Age", "Zodiac",
"Cryptonomicon").
As well as science fiction, I read quite a lot of spy/legal thrillers,
etc. like Tom Clancy
and John Grisham,
the author of the brilliant The Rain Maker which kept me up until
4am... couldn't stop till I finished that last page! Michael
Crichton also features on my book list. This is just the more obvious
stuff. I also sometimes read weird and techie stuff like The
Language of the Genes by the brilliant Steve Jones, and by
people such as John Gribbin
(who, amazingly, has a home page of his own!). Richard Preston's The
Hot Zone is a must if you are interested in microbiology or just
appreciate a book that'll keep you reading it until you fall asleep from
pure exhaustion!
Hey... am I forgetting something? Nah... I don't think so. Hey, wait, how
could I possibly forget? Terry Pratchett, of course! Yes, I've read every
single Discworld book. On top of all this, how could I finish the section
without mentioning J. R. R. Tolkien? As of the 25th of November 2000, I
have finished reading Lord of the Rings. I've read The Hobbit a couple of
times.
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Resonant Wave Forms
 |
I'm not totally fanatical about any sort of music really, but I have
quite a lot of things that I quite like, and some I really like very
much. You could mosey on over to my music
page if you want to see some small indication of some of the
stuff I like. Ok, so it's actually more of a representation of how
little time I bother spending on my music page.
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| This passtime is printed on 100% recycled electrons |
Of course, one of my main passtimes is the 'net itself. I use IRC (Internet Relay Chat) rather a lot (well, I
used to, back when I had free time!). Too much, some would say. In
fact, these days I don't get the time to IRC or otherwise spend my
time on 'net stuff much -- nothing like as much as I used to, to
say the least! I use AIM sometimes, and have been known to use ICQ.
I sometimes surf a little bit, but not often. I usually only surf
the web when looking for something in particular; e.g. researching
a project, looking for hardware drivers, etc. Oh yeah... and, of
course, I mosey on over to
User Friendly now and
again to catch up on the often-hillarious cartoons. Especially
hillarious for people who've worked in ISPs!
I sometimes write stuff like this on my web pages which is probably
of no interest to anybody. I have been known to
log on to the occasional MUD; such as TrekMUSE and Future Realms. In fact, I've
used only them other than some MUD that I forget that I logged onto
once. In fact, this is a little misleading, since I used implied
continuous present tense when in fact I haven't connected to any sort
of MUD, MUCK, MUSH, MUSE, MOO, ... hmm, since about 1994!
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| What do you do for money?!? |
I've worked at quite a range of different places. I've worked for two
ISPs, and two scientific institutions (see below), and a software
development company ... in addition to short stints in places like an
animal shelter, an aquarium shop and a natural history museum. I've
done all sorts of different types of work, from cleaning out cages to
system administration and C/C++/Java programming! I am currently
working for Nominum, Inc. (see below), on
a consultancy basis remotely from Ireland until the INS approves my
H1-B visa which will allow me to move over and start working on-site.
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| Nominum |
In mid-November 2000, I started work for
Nominum, Inc. as a Software
Development Engineer; on a consultancy basis and working remotely
(one could say teleworking) from Ireland. They sponsored an H1-B visa
application for me in mid-October (the process started earlier than
that, but that's when the actual I-129 form was submitted to the INS),
so when that comes through, I'll be moving to California (as mentioned
at the top of the page). I'm very excited about my new job, moving to
the US, and getting to be with Lori when I do move.
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| Indigo |
Up until April 1999 (when I had to leave to concentrate on my final year
project and exams in college), I worked for
Indigo, one of the largest (and best)
ISPs (Internet Service Providers) on this isle (bought by
Telecom Eireann (since renamed
Eircom), the largest Irish
telecommunications company, until recently a monopoly, while I was working
there), as a 'Support Analyst' and latterly as 'Helpdesk Supervisor'. I
worked there part-time for 22 months in total, minus a break last summer
when I went and worked in America.
The brainchild of my brother, Alan (who works for Indigo now), and I -- we now have a web ring for Indigo helpdesk part-timers, ex-part-timers, and friends... an odd bunch of people if I do say so myself. Here's the all important stuff that'll let you surf your way around the ring from here: | ||
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| USGS |
In the summer of 1998, I worked in California for a bit over
three months. I was lucky enough to end up working for the
US Geological Survey,
Western Region
Earthquake Hazards Group
in Menlo Park, CA.
I spent the summer working on an application (now called QDDS)
to enable the many US seismic networks to share earthquake data
in near-real-time. It was decided to work at a socket level,
using Java for its support of easily verifiable programs and
platform independence. I also contributed ideas and helped come
up with a scheme for transparently doing load balancing on one
of their web sites (multiple servers, same content, didn't want
to use a www
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| HomeNet |
I worked, before that, for about 9 months as a Technical Support
Administrator on the "HomeNet Hotline".
HomeNet was one of three
services (HomeNet, WorkNet and InterWeb) of
ISI (Internet Services
Ireland). Since a lot of people these days go "Huh?" if you mention
HomeNet, and nobody really ever knew the name ISI since the services
were branded seperately, a little explanation is in order. ISI went
on to buy the much better known
EUnet Ireland (or maybe it was
still called IEUnet back then -- anyway, that's beside the point),
and the combined company traded under the EUnet name (presumably due
to the far better branding power of the name of the first Irish
Internet Access/Service Provider). More recently, the whole lot was
bought up by Esat (the second-largest telecommunications company in
Ireland), becoming Esat Net.
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| DIAS |
I've done a fair bit of work during summers and part-time, also,
for the Geophysics Group
of the Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies School of Cosmic Physics, and in fact I worked there
full-time from June/July 1999 to April 2000. Everything from
software design and coding (an application, co-authored with
Donal O'Connell, to
allow the audio playback of and event picking from digitally-recorded
seismic data; a facility that was lacking and sorely missed since
they moved away from analogue recordings) to troubleshooting,
software and hardware installations of all kinds (SunOS, NT, PC
installation/setup, networking, ...), web design, hardware
recommendation and purchasing.
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| Transition Year |
I worked at three places during my 4th year of secondary school
(3rd last year before university; equivelant to sophomore in
American high school) as part of "Transition Year", a year
between exam cycles (1st-3rd year = preparation for Junior Cert
[well, it was actually Inter Cert for most people back when I
was in school, and Newpark Cert where I was]; 5th & 6th year
= Leaving Cert). In transition year, they try to do things a
little differently, less academic classes, and more life skills
orientated courses. Part of it was three one-week voluntary work
experience sessions. You had to find people willing to take you on
for a week at something that interested you. Way back then I
was heading towards zoology, and so the three places I arranged to
work were: Aquaria (an aquarium shop; working with customers and
maintaining aquaria, feeding fish, etc.), the Natural History
Museum (part of the National Museum; assisting the academic
behind-the-scenes staff research, cataloguing of specimins, etc.),
and the DSPCA Cats and Dogs Home (this one's fairly obvious).
While somewhat sharing a bit of a theme, they were all three very
different types of jobs both from each other and from any of the
other work I've done since. I enjoyed all three very much.
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| Goddess of my heart... |
Almost last, but not least (infinitely far from least!), I mention
my wonderful, beautiful, charming, loving and incredibly intelligent
(this is but a small selection from the host of complimentary
adjectives which I could mention) girlfriend, Lori, who I had the
amazing good fortune to meet on the 27th of June, 2000, and have
been with since the 2nd of July, 2000. I was working in Menlo Park,
CA, for the USGS for a few months at the
time. We met at a small gettogether of
UFies of the
sfbay-ufies variety in
Los Gatos, CA, and were attracted to each other straight away
although we didn't know the other was then. If truth be told, I've
never been so immediately or strongly attracted to anyone before.
She is a Software Engineer for IBM, working on DB2 internals, who
had only recently moved down to the Bay Area from the Seattle area
when I met her. She has degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics, and
a wealth of knowledge on many topics. She is amazing. I am very
much in love with her, and can't wait to be with her again when my
H1-B visa comes through. I consider myself a very lucky man (I'd
consider myself luckier still if the INS would hurry up and give
me my visa in record time). She visited me in Ireland for a week
(as much as time off work would allow) back in August 2000 after
I returned to Ireland, and I have since visited her for 3.5 weeks
in October and November 2000. I'm expecting my visa some time in
late December or early January. I can't wait.
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| I've had enough! Kill me, please! |
You are probably wondering who this guy is and why he has such a
large number of web pages. Well, the second question first... Why so
many web pages? Well, because I'm totally disorganised when it comes
to making them, and so instead of updating, I just add more. What
looks like a hell of a lot of work is actually less work than if there
were less pages but kept in a more organised way.
Anyway, tough luck. Disorganised is what you're
getting, so there! Hah! As for the first question, do you really want
to know? I doubt it, so I'm not going to tell you. Feel free to
complain by e-mail if you think that I should bother.
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