This web page explains a bit about what I'm working on, my software design philosophy and why I like Linux.

I am currently developing a challenge/response anti-SPAM mail filter system that runs a custom SMTP server programmed in LISP. I am looking for venture capital to fund further development to make it usable by a large audience. I have used the system continuously for my own email since Fall 2003 and no longer receive any spam . In addition to a more-or-less standard challenge/response technique, the user has an infinite pool of 'private' email addresses to give out to mailing lists and robots. The server provides general purpose filters defined as queries in first order logic via the ap5 language. ap5 provides a way to endow relational databases with an active rule capability that surpasses current trigger technology, so this system is very extendable and powerful.

Standards

The internet is really client/server computing for the masses. Three factors account for the rampant success of the internet.

• Connectivity. Any computer can connect to any other (with permission).
• Standards. The connection is made via a standard protocol.
• Simplicity. The protocol is elegant, well thought-out, and simple.

Thanks to standards, the same software, or nearly the same, runs on different platforms at different places on the internet or on a private local network. For example, a Netscape web browser is pretty much the same whether you are running it on Windows, on a Macintosh, or on a Linux machine. This is mostly true for client software but is also true for server software such as the Apache Web server.

The application of these principles has resulted in software which is more ubiquitous, easy to use, easy to maintain, reliable, and cost effective.

The same approach works for custom software. My partners and I strive to build systems which leverage internet standards to provide networked custom applications to both small business and corporate environments. For example, even for small businesses, it is now easy to provide a system whereby sales and field personnel may access centralized shared data in a secure manner from a standard web browser running on any computer at any remote location.

Linux vs. Windows

I predicted in 1992 that UNIX would become more, not less popular. I didn't know at the time that Linux would be the UNIX of choice, but things are going in that direction.

Now in the 2000s, Web Services are subsuming the first generation Web development models on both Windows and UNIX. The XML-RPC protocol is, finally, a simple standard way to do remote procedure call. For situations where we want to provide a somewhat more standardized overall framework to provide services, the SOAP protocol, along with XML itself, XHTML, and WSDL, is the new way. I will have more to say about these protocols in the coming year as I gain experience with them. I believe already that these new protocols will enable us to forget about CORBA and COM for all intents and purposes.

I have worked extensively on production software running on Linux, using Perl, mod_perl, Java, Apache, and peripheral tools such as OpenSSH, qmail, tinydns, emacs, vi, etc. I am a bit biased due to this experience, but overall I find Free Source software to be of outstanding quality and, importantly, the programming culture to be extremely experienced, robust, and deep, in the sense of having solutions for problems and a way to find those solutions.

I am working with ap5, a high-level relational extension to LISP with a query language based on First Order Logic and rules expressed in the query lanaguage which can react to state changes in a main memory database. I think that ap5 has the potential to become a persistent database and ad hoc query tool for small to medium size (< 50 Gigabyte) databases. Ap5 provides a way to represent external data as if it were internal data manipulable by the ap5 query language. Hence, ap5 can be used to wrap conventional relational databases, enabling the use of the superior ap5 query language and active database rules capability as a portal to back end data on the relational database. I am looking for venture funding to support ap5 development.

Future Media

I am excited about the new possibilities which will arise as bandwidth and connectivity increase and we can begin to put audio and video out on the net at low cost. There will be opportunity for far more production with far less control of distribution by a small number of media Gods. To facilitate this evolution and, really, revolution, in communication from the many to the many, high tech tools will be needed. Already, with open systems such as Linux, Free BSD, and others, it is possible to employ very state-of-the-art technology and share the development of that technology across the planet independent of the corporatacracy and national boundaries.