| This is Christopher's Home Page | Last updated 6 May 2007 |
My wife is a physicist and a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Dr. Vandana Singh .
My father is Dr. Russell L. Chapman, and he is Executive Director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego.
I like to play musical instruments, especially various kinds of flutes (including bansuri and shakuhachi) and lutes (including 10-course Renaissance lute, bouzouki, sehtar, and saz). I also like to design and make musical instruments. I have even written software to help with tone-hole placement in flute-making. Another hobby of mine is studying tuning systems (such as the Hindustani gamut and the Persian classical gamut). You can read more about all of this on My Music Page .
I have been fascinated with computers since a very early age and have been programming computers and designing and building digital electronics projects since I was about eleven years old.
I presently work as an embedded software developer (a.k.a. an embedded firmware developer). I have written code for everything from the keyboard controllers and BIOS in notebook computers to the audio drivers and infrared remote control decoder drivers for digital TV set-top boxes.
I have a computer setup that drives most people crazy: in addition to a
trackball configured for left-handed use, I also use a keyboard hard-wired with
the
Dvorak
layout made by
Kinesis
. If you
have any kind of hand or wrist problems, or if you think that the QWERTY
keyboard layout seems lame, I encourage you to check out the Dvorak keyboard
layout. I would also recommend Kinesis' keyboards (the ones with the concave
"pits" for each hand -- I have "The Essential QD" [which you can toggle between
QWERTY and Dvorak layouts] keyboards at home and at work and am quite happy with
them). [Note: I am not getting paid by Kinesis or any other Dvorak keyboard
vendor, I just like Dvorak keyboards. Ok?]
If you need a quantitative
comparison of Dvorak vs. QWERTY keyboards, check this out: Keyboard Compare
Applet for Dvorak and Qwerty Keyboards
.
I have become very interested in working in audio digital signal processing (DSP), due partly to my interest in music and partly because it gives me an opportunity to do lots of fun math. :-)
You can find many useful links for Audio DSP on My DSP Page .
Another way in which I differ from your average geek is that I am vegetarian. If you're interested in a more sustainable diet, check out the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) and/or Happy Cow's Vegetarian Guide to Restaurants & Health Food Stores (thanks to Diana Hsieh of Happy Cow for motivating me to update this section) .
My Favorite Comics:
"Over the Hedge features a couple of boisterous "Boyz in the Wood" who don't take the encroachment of their habitat sitting down. R.J., a mischievous raccoon, and Verne, his philosophical best-buddy turtle, battle it standing up, on tip-toes, at a window sill, as they peek in to watch "The X-Files" on a big-screen TV."
"What do you get when you put three techs, two salespeople, a designer, two executives and a couple of administrative staff together in an office? Answer: Columbia Internet, the friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little Internet Service Provider in the world. Throw in a mischievous Artificial Intelligence and a naive but curious Dust Puppy, and you have the makings of User Friendly , the chronicle of a group of well-meaning but misguided Internet workers."
"Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks reflects the racial diversity and complexity of our world. Combining childhood antics with contemporary political and social satire, the strip explores the terrain where dashikis and Brand Nubian CDs meet The Gap and Hanson."
...and speaking of political and social satire, here's Doonesbury.
I presently live Framingham (Massachusetts, USA). I'm building a page of Framingham related links: My Framingham Page .
My Reference Page -- contains links to dictionaries, nutrition info., etexts, format info., etc.
Email address: christopherchapman@rcn.com