User:BetaCentauri

Who is this guy anyway?

I am a software/firmware/computer engineer who has occasionally contributed to Wikipedia since early 2005. I live in Westminster, Colorado, a suburb about 10 miles northwest of downtown Denver. Sometimes I rewrite pages or add content, but usually it's just nitpicks or vandalism cleanups.

Places I have lived in

• Westminster, Colorado: Since June 2006.
• Boulder, Colorado: June 2005-June 2006.
• Lafayette, Indiana/West Lafayette, Indiana: July 2000-June 2005 (with a few interruptions).
• Metamora, Michigan: 1985?-July 2000.

Places I have been

Items with parens after them indicate number of visits; "n" means unknown, but at least 5.

Domestic (United States)

• Arizona: Phoenix (x2); Flagstaff; Grand Canyon (x2)
• California: San Francisco (xn); Berkeley (xn); Silicon Valley (San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park) (xn); Anaheim; Los Angeles (x2); San Diego (x3); La Jolla; Santa Cruz; Monterey (x2); Napa
• Colorado: Denver (xn); Fort Collins (xn); Keystone (x2); Copper Mountain (xn); Vail (xn); Arapahoe Basin; Breckenridge (x3); Dillon (x2); Winter Park (xn); Aspen; Colorado Springs (xn)
• Connecticut: Hartford; New Haven
• Florida: Tampa (xn); Orlando (xn); Kennedy Space Center (x2); Everglades National Park (x2)
• Illinois: Chicago (xn)
• Indiana: Indianapolis; Fort Wayne (x2); Gary; Nappanee (xn)
• Iowa: Cedar Rapids (xn); Iowa City; Des Moines; Ames (x3)
• Massachusetts: Boston
• Michigan: Detroit (xn); Flint (xn); Lansing (xn); Houghton; Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
• Minnesota: Minneapolis; Duluth; Ely; Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
• Missouri: St Louis (x3)
• Montana: Big Sky; West Yellowstone
• Nevada: Las Vegas (x2); Reno; Lake Tahoe
• New York: Buffalo; Rochester (x2)
• Ohio: Port Clinton; Toledo; Put-in-Bay; Sandusky; Cleveland
• Oregon: Portland (x2); Mount Hood (x2)
• Utah: Salt Lake City; Park City
• Washington: Seattle
• Washington, D.C.
• Wisconsin: Milwaukee
• Wyoming: Jackson; Yellowstone National Park (x2)
• Others (mostly driven through): Georgia; Idaho; Kentucky; Maryland; Nebraska; New Mexico; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Virginia

International

• Canada: Sarnia, Ontario (xn); Toronto (x2); Hamilton, Ontario; Ottawa; Vancouver (x2); Whistler, British Columbia (x2)
• France: Paris; Versailles
• Italy (x2): Rome; Florence; Pisa; Genoa; Tirano
• Mexico: Zihuatanejo
• St. Kitts/Nevis
• Switzerland: Zürich; Davos
• The Bahamas
• Micronations: Monaco; Vatican City

Airports

In parentheses: 'x' means transited through; 'd' means destination.

• Caribbean: The Bahamas: Nassau (d); St. Kitts/Nevis: Bassetterre (d)
• Europe: France: Paris-Charles de Gaulle (d); Italy: Rome-Fiumicino (d); Switzerland: Zurich (d); The Netherlands: Amsterdam (x)
• Mexico: Mexico City (x), Zihuatanejo (d)
• United States: Boston (d), Bozeman (d), Chicago-O'Hare (xd), Dallas/Fort Worth (x), Denver (xd), Detroit (d), Indianapolis (d), Las Vegas (d), Los Angeles (d), Miami (x), Minneapolis/St. Paul (x), New York-JFK (x), Orlando (d), Phoenix (d), Portland (OR) (d), Reno (d), St. Louis (d), Salt Lake City (xd), San Diego (d), San Francisco (d), San Jose (CA) (d), Seattle/Tacoma (d), Tampa (d), Washington-Dulles (d)

Aircraft/Airlines

This list is partial and almost certainly incomplete/inaccurate. But what the hey, while I'm at it...

• American Airlines: MD-83, 767-300ER
• Delta Air Lines: 757-200, MD-90
• Frontier Airlines: A318, A319
• Northwest Airlines: DC-9, 757-200, 747-400, A320
• United Airlines: 737-300, 737-500

Interests

• Denver and Colorado in general
• Passenger rail and rail-based public transportation, e.g.
  • Systems: TheRide, Shinkansen, S-Bahn, Paris Metro, S-Train, New York City Subway, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, BART, London Underground, Amtrak
  • Stations: Denver Union Station, Gare du Nord, Grand Central Terminal, London Waterloo, Ueno Station, Shinjuku Station
  • Trains: TGV, Shinkansen, Thalys, Maglev
• Aviation, especially:
  • Aviation disasters such as Japan Airlines Flight 123, American Airlines Flight 191, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, Pan Am Flight 103, Tenerife disaster, United Airlines Flight 232, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401
  • Airports such as Denver International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Frankfurt International Airport, London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport, Narita International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dubai International Airport and many others
  • Airlines such as Frontier Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways, Emirates Airline, Air France, Ryanair, Eastern Air Lines, Pan Am, Northwest Airlines, Qantas, Scandinavian Airlines System
  • Aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Bombardier, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed
  • Aircraft such as the Boeing 737, Boeing 747, Boeing 777-200LR, Airbus A380, Douglas DC-10, Douglas DC-9, Lockheed L-1011, Boeing 747 LCF, Airbus Beluga
• Computers, particularly
  • Open-source software, especially FreeBSD and KDE
  • Operating systems, file systems, compilers, storage systems, computer networking, ASICs, software engineering
  • I have been part of IT and engineering teams, and have consulted for a variety of purposes.
  • I once helped implement a DOCSIS 1.1-compliant (well, almost) cable modem and am (or rather, was) intimately familiar with cable/HFC systems as well as Ethernet.
  • I also fixed a broken Infiniband Linux device driver.
  • I have worked on more than one SNMP implementation and am much more familiar with the protocol than I'd like to be.
  • Insert familiarity with C, Python, TCP, IP, HTTP, SMTP, etc.
• Photography, hiking, skiing, astronomy, women, racquetball, video games, cars, cochlear implants, soccer, FIFA World Cup, cooking, nuclear power plants and many other things.

Places I would like to visit

These are roughly in order of interest. Places I have already been are excluded.

• Japan: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sapporo, Okinawa
• Germany: Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn
• United States: New York City; Charlotte; Philadelphia; Austin, Texas; New Orleans; Atlanta
• United Kingdom: London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Southampton, Stonehenge, Belfast
• Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Uppsala, Malmo
• Denmark: Copenhagen, Billund, Aarhus, Aalborg
• Norway: Oslo, Tromso, Svalbard
• Finland: Helsinki
• Asian islands: Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines
• Thailand: Bangkok
• China: Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai
• United Arab Emirates: Dubai, Abu Dhabi
• Israel: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
• Iraq: Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah
• Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah
• Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia
• Chile: Santiago
• Peru: Lima, Machu Picchu
• Argentina: Buenos Aires
• Australia: Sydney, Adelaide, Perth
• New Zealand: Auckland, Christchurch
• Morocco: Casablanca, Marrakech
• Spain: Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona
• Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk
• Netherlands: Amsterdam, Nijmegen, The Hague
• Austria: Vienna, Salzburg
• Italy: Turin, Milan, Venice
• South Korea: Seoul, Panmunjom
• South Africa: Johannesburg, Cape Town
• Poland: Warsaw, Krakow
• Czech Republic: Prague
• Hungary: Budapest
• Ukraine: Kiev, Pripyat
• Greece: Athens, Sparta
• Belgium: Brussels, Antwerp
• Ireland: Dublin
• North Korea: Pyongyang
• Egypt: Cairo
• Ghana: Accra
• South Pole

My favorite edits

• Aurora, Colorado is a city full of pussies...
• George Zimmer's real bio

Questions/Suggestions/etc.

Leave a message on my talk page.