From: Henry Spencer

Many things changed on Sept. 11, but the
importance of freedom did not.
From: Henry Spencer

Tofu is nature's Styrofoam.
From: Henry Spencer

Microsoft shouldn't be broken up. It should be shut down.
From: Henry Spencer

"Be careful not to step in the Microsoft."
From: "Iain Brown"

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
From: Clive Feather

If you lie to the compiler, it will get its revenge.
From: Henry Spencer

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes,
but... make *new* ones.
From: Henry Spencer

"God willing... we shall return."
From: Henry Spencer

MS-DOS is the OS/360 of the 1980s.
From: Mark Brader

"If you design for compatibility with a donkey cart,
what you get is a donkey cart."
From: Henry Spencer

"Breakthrough ideas are not from teams."
From: Henry Spencer

C++ is the best example of second-system effect since OS/360.
From: Henry Spencer

SVR4 resembles a high-speed collision between SVR3 and SunOS.
From: Henry Spencer

Altruism is a fine motive, but if you want results,
greed works much better.
From: Henry Spencer

"Every time I inspect the mechanism closely, more pieces fall off."
From: Henry Spencer

Politics, n: from "poly ticks", short for "many small
bloodsucking insects".
From: Henry Spencer

Study it forever and you'll still wonder.
Fly it once and you'll know.
From: Henry Spencer

Belief is no substitute for arithmetic.
From: Chris Robertson
Date: 24 Dec 89 02:47:18 GMT

In article <71*thompson@arc.cdn> thompson@arc.CDN (bradley thompson) writes:
>
>... I would like to suggest ... for some of our more frequent
>contributors ... a brief bio. [be] submitted ... people
>like Dietz, Neff, Spencer, and Szabo. ...
^^^^^^^
Well, since Henry's on vacation right now and it'll be about a week
before he's up again, I thought I'd fill in a little of his background
for you, since I've been putting together a "Henry bio" for some years now.

Henry began in Saskatoon, and his interest in space was well
established by the time he was in a high school. Efforts to talk
to the teachers there have unfortunately been unsuccessful, as the school
doesn't seem to exist any more. (When I mentioned this to Henry, he
mailed something vague about being interested in chemistry at school, too.)

At the University of Saskatchewan he was active in both chemistry and
computer science, but again the details are hazy as the chemistry lab
he was in doesn't seem to exist now either. I'm not sure whether he was
active in the University Space Society as I can't find out how extensive the
University's net was then.

He moved to Toronto for the Master's program in computer science, but the
building where he was first based doesn't seem to exist any more --
the Dean said a fire started mysteriously in the middle of the night.
The fire department arrived amazingly fast, and immediately concentrated
all their efforts on saving the computers and tapes; this suggests
strongly that the Toronto networks were better established at that time
than many of us realized.

The computer science department was moved to temporary accommodations,
and it was there that I myself first encountered Henry; the place
was a warren of old corridors, and I never did find out exactly where
his working terminal was. (Now, of course, that we realize Henry's
significance, I curse myself for my lack of persistence, especially
since that building doesn't really exist any more -- it's been totally
gutted and renovated into Admin offices.)

It was about this time that Usenet began, and Henry immediately made
connections to it and began to post frequently in the emerging space
groups. We realized, of course, that the net must be connecting to
NASA, although no one in authority would confirm this. Actually,
Henry's interests and connections are quite wide-ranging; he's
well-known in the C newsgroups, as well as the military ones. I
personally have found his military knowledge quite amazing, but I
suppose that's not surprising, considering his interests in cryptology.

He is currently based in the Zoology Department at the Univ. of Toronto
(a solid, fire-proof building with an extensive networked computer
facility). We have all wondered at the significance of this, but those
zoologists are keeping pretty quiet about it, and there are lots of
locked doors. Henry has the reputation of being difficult to find;
in fact, his "office" (some of you may recall the discussion on Henry's
office in comp.lang.C a few years ago) is located next to the machine
room and you actually have to go through the machine room to get to it.
People who've interacted with Henry for a long time know not to try
to get a response from him first thing in the morning, when the Zoology
computers are still processing overnight news.

As far as general philosophy goes, Henry has always maintained that
self-aware entities should not remain planet-bound, but should make
all possible efforts to move into space, with the abundant resources
of the asteroids and the lack of obstruction for laser-based
communications networks, and he puts in a lot of time working towards
this goal. He has addressed the local space enthusiast group
(unfortunately, there was a mixup about the date, and most of the
members arrived on the wrong Tuesday; but the couple of guys from
the computer science dept. who actually heard Henry's talk said it
was very good), and always makes a direct line for the space groups at
the annual World Science Fiction conventions in September. In his spare
time he reads every space-related journal he can access, and writes
other computer programs.

I hope this has been of interest to you, although it's a bit sketchy.
I have been very frustrated by the setbacks in my efforts to uncover
more about Henry's origins, but feel confident of finally getting some
more information now that I have my own link to utzoo.

--
mallow(3) - allocate discontinuous memory | Chris Robertson
and fill with white space | chris@mcc.pyrsyd.oz

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