Randal's Life Memories

Acquisition of First Canon DSLR

In September 2004, I took my very first digital snapshots with my brand-new Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR during a trip to Boston for Software Developm...

Adam West

Adam West (born William West Anderson, 1928–2017) was an iconic American actor, widely celebrated for his portrayal of Batman in the 1960s ABC seri...

Alpaca book

The "Alpaca Book," originally titled "Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules" and later updated/renamed to "Intermediate Perl," is a follow-up...

Alpaca Book Release Party with a Live Alpaca

During OSCON 2003 in Portland (the release year of the Alpaca book), we threw a legendary book release party that featured a live, real-life alpaca...

Antarctica Excursion Cancellation

During one of the tech-themed Geek Cruises, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed up for a highly anticipated excursion to step foot on the frozen ...

Arctic Exposure Photo Cruise and Chris Campbell

The Arctic Exposure Geek Cruise (June 2003) to the Alaska Inside Passage on the MS Ryndam was one of the first dedicated digital photography cruises.

Atlantis Submarine Deep Dive

Excursion in Georgetown, Grand Cayman, embarking on the Atlantis submarine for a deep dive exploring the vibrant coral reefs and abundant marine life.

Australia

Australia is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands.

Baltic Sea Geek Cruise

In July 2005, I embarked on Geek Cruise #28 (aptly named the Baltic Blast) aboard the m.s. Westerdam for a 10-day voyage across the Baltic Sea. Thi...

Beaverton

Beaverton Skate World

A roller skating rink in Beaverton that operated as a sister facility to Hillsboro Skate World.

Bebo White

Bebo White is a distinguished computer scientist and physicist who worked at the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and is widely recognized...

Becoming a Dart and Flutter Google Developer Expert

After actively promoting Dart as a replacement for JavaScript and working with Polymer Dart and AngularDart, I wanted to pitch an AngularDart book ...

Bert Monroy

Bert Monroy is an internationally acclaimed digital artist, illustrator, author, and teacher. Widely considered one of the "founding fathers" of di...

Bill Harp

Met at Hillsboro Skate World in the 1980s during the roller disco era.

Bill Harps Passing and Funeral Message

On February 22, 2013, my dear friend and business partner Bill Harp passed away prematurely at the age of 45.

Birth of Perl

Larry Wall released Perl 1.0 on December 18, 1987.

Birth of Randal Schwartz

I was born on November 22, 1961.

Blue Pixel

Blue Pixel was an elite digital photography consulting, training, and workflow design firm composed of a premier team of professional photojournali...

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas is a beautiful coastal resort city located at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.

Cadbury Factory Tour in Hobart

In August 2003, during my third trip to Australia to attend and speak at the SAGE-AU conference, I visited Hobart, Tasmania, and took a public tour...

California

California is a state in the Western United States.

Camel book

The "Camel Book," officially titled "Programming Perl," is the definitive guide to the Perl programming language, co-authored by Larry Wall and me.

Cane Garden Bay

Cane Garden Bay is a beautiful beach and bay located on the northern coast of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

Caribbean Click 2 Cruise

In January 2005, the 26th Geek Cruises voyage sailed through the Caribbean on the magnificent, newly launched Queen Mary 2, co-branded as "Caribbea...

Catching Up with David Pogue on Land

I caught up with technology author and columnist David Pogue at a book signing in Portland (featuring his Apple book/history).

Chippewa Falls

Leinekeugals

Chris Campbell

Chris Campbell was an accomplished digital photographer and digital photography workshop instructor on multiple Geek Cruises and Insight Cruises vo...

Colton

contents

## How to Use This

CPAN

CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) is a vast repository of software modules and their documentation for the Perl programming language.

Cray

Cray Research (now part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise) was a legendary supercomputer manufacturer founded by Seymour Cray, with a major research an...

Damian Conway

Damian Conway is an internationally renowned Perl programmer, author, and public speaker, famous for writing Perl Best Practices and creating numer...

Dancing Barefoot

Dancing Barefoot is a 2003 book written by actor and author Wil Wheaton. It is a collection of five autobiographical short stories chronicling his ...

Darcy Carlson

Darcy is my daughter.

Dart

## Personal Notes

David Pogue

David Pogue is a prominent technology writer, author, television presenter, and columnist. He was a frequent high-profile speaker and entertainer o...

Deke McClelland

Deke McClelland is an award-winning author, technical trainer, Photoshop Hall of Fame inductee, and one of the most prolific educators in the histo...

Discovering Dart and Transitioning to Flutter

Shortly after Google announced the Dart programming language in October 2011, I started using it because of my strong dislike for JavaScript, recog...

DragonCon Guest Streak

In September 2004, I attended DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia as an official guest.

Ed Tuttle

Ed Tuttle is a close friend of mine who shared a unique living arrangement with me at my apartment in Tijuana.

Eric S Raymond

Eric Steven Raymond (known as ESR) is an American software developer, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and co-founder of the Open Source Ini...

First Free Software Foundation Award

Larry Wall received the first Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 1998.

First Phone Call with Darcy Carlson

I spoke to my daughter Darcy for the first time by phone on her 40th birthday.

Flutter

## Personal Notes

Founding of New York Perl Mongers

The first Perl Monger group, NY.pm, was founded in October 1997. This led to the creation of the global Perl Mongers organization.

Founding of Stonehenge Consulting Services

Since 1985, I have been the owner and operator of Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc..

From Aztec Ruins to Buffalo Snowstorms

In late February 2005, I experienced one of the most extreme weather, cultural, and environmental swings of my entire life—traveling directly from ...

Geek Cruises

Geek Cruises was a pioneering travel company founded by Neil Bauman that organized educational, technology-themed cruise vacations (such as MacMani...

George Takei

George Takei is a legendary American actor, author, and activist, internationally renowned for his iconic portrayal of Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...

Git

Git is a distributed version control system designed by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for tracking changes in source code during software development.

Gladstone

Google Tech Talk on Git

Six months after Linus Torvalds gave his famous May 2007 Google Tech Talk on the origins of Git (which focused heavily on what Git is not and roast...

Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum is a Dutch programmer best known as the creator of the Python programming language. He served as the "Benevolent Dictator for Life...

Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay (known officially as Little San Salvador Island in the Bahamas) is Holland America Line's private island resort, famous for its two-m...

Hillsboro Skate World

A roller skating rink in Hillsboro, Oregon, where I spent double-sessions nearly every Friday and Saturday night for many years, spanning the entir...

Hobart

Hobart is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania.

Hosting FLOSS Weekly

During the MacMania cruise in 2004, I met Leo Laporte. At first, he didn't recognize me and assumed I was just a dude helping Neil Bauman out with ...

Hubbard Glacier Excursion

In June 2004, during the Arctic Exposure Geek Cruise inside-passage voyage through Alaska, we traveled to the majestic Hubbard Glacier to photograp...

Illiads Oddysea and Caribbean Click Cruise

In October 2003, the 19th Geek Cruises voyage sailed through the Caribbean, co-branded as "Illiad's Oddysea" and "Caribbean Click".

Intel

Multination technology corporation and Randal's former consulting client.

Janet Hill

Janet Hill is an Apple executive and spouse of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Janina Lamb

Janina Lamb was a key contractor for Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc..

JAPH

JAPH is an acronym for "Just another Perl hacker," a phrase I created and popularized. It originated as a signature in Usenet posts and evolved int...

JD Frazer

JD Frazer, widely known by his pen name Illiad, is a Canadian cartoonist and writer best known as the creator of the webcomic User Friendly.

JoCo Cruise

JoCo Cruise (originally called JoCo Cruise Crazy) is an annual cruise vacation and music festival chartered by independent musician Jonathan Coulto...

Jon Hall

Jon "maddog" Hall is the Executive Director of Linux International and a foundational open-source community leader.

Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton (widely known as JoCo) is a highly popular American independent singer-songwriter and internet celebrity, famous for his clever, h...

Just a Geek

Just a Geek is a 2004 memoir written by actor and author Wil Wheaton.

Karaoke

Karaoke has been a major social and performative outlet throughout my life.

Karaoke with Jonathan Coulton on JoCo Cruise 2

On the second JoCo Cruise in February 2012 (which was produced by my good friend Neil Bauman), I managed to pull off a legendary coup: I tricked Jo...

Keith Packard

Keith Packard is a legendary software developer best known for his foundational work on the X Window System (X11), including fontconfig, Xft, cairo...

Kevin Gilbert

Kevin Gilbert is an award-winning photojournalist, television still photographer, and pioneer of the professional digital photography transition. H...

La Grande, Oregon

La Grande is a city in Union County, Oregon, located in the Grande Ronde Valley east of the Blue Mountains.

Larry Wall

Larry Wall is a computer programmer, linguist, and author, best known as the creator of the Perl programming language.

Leinekeugals

Represents the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company (commonly known as "Leine's"), a historic brewery based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

Life Timeline

Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and principal developer of the Linux kernel and the creator of the distri...

Linux Lunacy III Cruise

In September 2003, I participated as a featured Perl speaker on Linux Lunacy III, the 18th technology-themed voyage organized by Geek Cruises.

LISA 2001 and the Hot Wings Promotion

In December 2001, I attended the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in San Diego, California.

Llama book

The "Llama Book," officially titled "Learning Perl," is the classic introductory tutorial for the Perl programming language, co-authored by me, Tom...

Llama Release and My Conviction Day

November 1st, 1993, is a date I will remember for the rest of my life. It was the official release day of my book Llama book (Learning Perl).

Loreto Dockside Translation

During the Geek Cruises Oracle Odyssey 2002 voyage, I visited Loreto, Mexico, located along the east coast of the Baja California Peninsula inside ...

Machu Picchu Adventure with Woz

One of the most unforgettable highlights of my global travels was exploring the breathtaking 15th-century Inca citadel of Machu Picchu alongside Ap...

MacMania 4.5 Cruise

In June of 2006, the Geek Cruises voyage "MacMania 4.5" set sail through the beautiful Western Mediterranean.

Mariel Hemingway

Mariel Hemingway is an American actress, author, and mental health advocate. She is known for her roles in films such as Manhattan, Lipstick, and S...

Maturin Venezuela Conference and Learning Perl

In October 2006, I traveled to Maturín, Venezuela to present at a week-long open-source conference.

Meeting a Costa Concordia Survivor

In 2012, on a cruise shortly after the infamous Costa Concordia grounding off Isola del Giglio (which occurred in January 2012), I had an unforgett...

Meeting Marta Kirsten at DragonCon

During one of my guest years at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, I heard that Marta Kirsten (who played Judy Robinson in the original Lost in Space s...

Meeting Steve and Jon

Accidentally picked up HP2000 IO Processor manual at Byte Shop

Meeting Wil Wheaton on PerlWhirl Cruise

During the March 2003 PerlWhirl / MacMania cruise on the Norwegian Star through the Hawaiian Islands, I met actor and writer Wil Wheaton.

MemPalace

MemPalace is a high-fidelity semantic memory-vault and graph-traversal personal knowledge base.

Mill Valley, California

Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, located about 14 miles north of San Francisco.

Milla Jovovich

Milla Jovovich (born 1975) is a world-renowned Ukrainian-born American actress, model, and musician, famous for starring roles in The Fifth Element...

Morning flight

A humorous personal travel anecdote involving me on an Alaska Airlines morning flight flying out of Portland (PDX) bound for Silicon Valley or Los ...

My Brazil Adventures and Christ the Redeemer

Across 2005 and 2006, I made three unforgettable journeys to Brazil to speak at major open-source conferences, explore the breathtaking sights of R...

My Childhood Computing and the IMSAI 8080

At age 9, I made the conscious decision to choose computer programming as my lifelong career.

My Mesoamerican Archaeological Adventures

Over my years of cruising through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, I took full advantage of the shore excursions to fulfill a deep personal passio...

My Pilot Training and Aviation Days

One of the most challenging and deeply rewarding chapters of my life was taking to the skies as a licensed pilot.

My Summer Temp Job at Tektronix and Learning to Write

At age 15, I was already doing professional contract coding, making $30 an hour (equivalent to roughly $120/hr today).

Neil Bauman

Neil Bauman is the founder of Geek Cruises (later rebranded as Insight Cruises), an innovative travel education company that pioneered tech-themed ...

OLCC

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (formerly the Oregon Liquor Control Commission) is the state government agency responsible for regulating...

Oregon

Born in Oregon City

Oregon City

Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is a geographical region of the U.S. state of Oregon, stretching along the Pacific Ocean.

Origin of Geek Cruises and Karaoke with Neil

The entire phenomenon of Geek Cruises—which eventually brought together thousands of developers and tech pioneers on legendary global voyages—actua...

OSCON

OSCON (O'Reilly Open Source Convention) was a significant event in the open-source community that ran from 1999 to 2019. It grew out of The Perl Co...

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a historic and world-renowned 82 km artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.

Pearl Harbor Tour

In June 2003, as part of the Perl Whirl / MacMania Geek Cruise, we went on a comprehensive tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Bowfin submari...

People

Bill Harp

Perl

## Personal Notes

Perl Mongers

Perl Mongers is a global, grassroots organization of user groups for people who use the Perl programming language. The groups provide a space for P...

Personal_Homepage

My long-standing personal homepage and professional archive (known online as merlyn), hosted at http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/ since the mid-1990s.

Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise

In February 2005, the 27th Geek Cruises voyage sailed the Caribbean on the m/s Veendam, co-branded as "Photoshop Fling 3".

Pool and Go-Karts with Linus

During one of my famous Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. parties at OSCON, I invited Linus Torvalds to attend.

Portland

Publication of the Camel Book

"Programming Perl" (the Camel book) was first published in 1990, co-authored by Larry Wall and me.

Randal Schwartz

I, widely known as "merlyn", am a pioneering software developer, prolific author, system administrator, and prominent member of the open-source com...

Randal Schwartz Wikipedia Page

My official public profile on Wikipedia, documenting my career, contributions to Perl, books, and legal history.

Ray Schwartz

Father of me and Ron Schwartz

Retha Schwartz

Mother of me and Ron Schwartz

Richard Stallman

Richard Matthew Stallman (known as RMS) is a software freedom activist and programmer who founded the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation ...

Rob Galbraith

Rob Galbraith is a legendary Canadian photojournalist, writer, educator, and digital photography workflow pioneer. He is widely celebrated as one o...

Rob Griffiths

Rob Griffiths is a prominent Mac technologist, founder of the famous Mac OS X Hints website, and senior editor/writer for Macworld.

Russell Brown

Russell Preston Brown is the legendary Senior Creative Director at Adobe Systems and one of the original, foundational pioneers who launched Adobe ...

SAGE-AU Hobart Talks and the Tazzy Accent

In August 2003, during my technical presentations at the SAGE-AU conference held in Hobart, Tasmania, I experienced a hilarious language barrier.

Sal Soghoian

Sal Soghoian was Apple's Product Manager of Automation Technologies (including AppleScript, Automator, Services, and Dictation Commands) from 1997 ...

Schwartzian Transform

An efficient algorithm and programming idiom used in Perl and other languages to optimize sorting a list of elements based on an expensive key-calc...

Sitting Next to Adam West in First Class

During a first-class flight from Newark (EWR) to Salt Lake City (SLC) on my way home to Portland from working in Manhattan, I sat directly next to ...

SLAC

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (originally Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory op...

State of Oregon v. Randal Schwartz

Overview: In late July 1995, Randal was convicted of three felony counts under Oregon's Computer Crime Law. The charges stemmed from security audit...

Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts is an author, designer, and pioneer of "nomadic computing" who built custom computer-integrated human-powered vehicles and vessels (l...

Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak is a legendary computer engineer, co-founder of Apple, and tech philanthropist.

Steve Wozniak Meets Janet Hill

During one of the tech-themed Geek Cruises (specifically a MacMania voyage), Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak met his future wife, Janet Hill.

Stonehenge Booth LISA 2004 Cash Swag

During the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in Atlanta in November 2004, my company Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. ...

Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc.

## History and Operations

Stonehenge courses

Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. offered a range of expert-led Perl training courses, developed and taught by the authors of the corresponding ...

Stonehenge Visit and Forrest Gump Moments

During a trip to the United Kingdom in October 2001 (around the time of the 4th Linux Lunacy Geek Cruises voyage), I experienced a sequence of pure...

Stonehenge Wednesday Blowout Parties

Starting in 2000 at TPC4/OSCON2 in Monterey, Bill Harp and I launched a long-standing tradition of throwing massive Stonehenge parties during confe...

Sydney

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Famous for its iconic harbor, the Sydney Opera House, and t...

Tandem Computers

Tandem Computers was a dominant computer manufacturer known for pioneering fault-tolerant computer systems, which were widely adopted by banks, ATM...

The Day I Decided Never to Learn Python

During the 3rd Alaska Geek Cruises voyage ("ScriptScape"), I attended a private, small-group one-hour OO spreadsheet design session led by Python c...

The Gecko Book and Compuserve Chat

In August 1997, O'Reilly published Learning Perl on Win32 Systems, commonly referred to as the "Gecko" book.

The GNU Linux Headlock

During a party on one of the Geek Cruises with Linus Torvalds (likely during a Linux Lunacy Cruise in the early 2000s), I walked up to Linus and pl...

The Great Shouting Match

During the 4th Linux Lunacy Geek Cruises voyage, a spontaneous, high-decibel yelling match erupted between Richard Stallman (RMS) and Eric S Raymon...

The Legendary Juneau Pub Crawls

Over the course of many Alaskan Geek Cruises (such as the Linux Lunacy and Arctic Exposure series), the annual Juneau Pub Crawl became a legendary ...

The Perl Foundation

The Rise and Fall of The Perl Institute

Following the runaway success and royalties of my books, I wanted to take some of my "runaway money" and find a way to give back to the Perl commun...

Tijuana

Tijuana is a major city in Baja California, Mexico, located directly on the border with San Diego, California.

Tom Christiansen

A major figure in the Perl community, known for co-authoring foundational books like "Programming Perl" (the Camel book) and the "Perl Cookbook."

Trip to Seattle to see Damian Conway

In July 2002, I took a trip to Seattle to attend an event featuring Perl legend Damian Conway. Before the event, I enjoyed a scenic ferry ride acro...

Trolling the Salzenberg

Chip Salzenberg was the release "pumpking" for Perl 5.004, and he was remarkably adept at fixing bugs. There was a running joke in the community ab...

Trolling Usenet to Spread Perl

During the late 1980s, I spent a lot of time "trolling" Usenet groups like comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.shell to spread the word about the bra...

Tropidera Bar

The Tropidera Bar was a major establishment located in La Grande, Oregon. It was purchased and operated by me and my close friend and business part...

UN Bank

A prominent banking institution associated with the United Nations or international development (such as the World Bank Group) headquartered in Was...

Vallco Fashion Mall

Vallco Fashion Mall (later known as Cupertino Square) was a major shopping mall located in Cupertino, California.

Vasquez Rocks

Vasquez Rocks is a 932-acre park located in Agua Dulce, California, famous for its spectacular, slanted sandstone rock formations formed by rapid e...

Venezuela Perl Conference

In October 2006, I traveled to Venezuela to present a full-day Learning Perl course (translated into Spanish) and deliver a keynote address titled ...

Veracruz Conference and Richard Stallman

In late November 2004, I traveled to Veracruz, Mexico, to present at a technology conference. It was my first time flying into Mexico, and my first...

Visit to Arecibo Observatory

Over my years coordinating and speaking on Geek Cruises, I had the rare privilege of visiting the historic and world-renowned Arecibo Observatory i...

Walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge

During my second trip to Australia in August 2002 to attend and speak at the annual SAGE-AU conference, I walked across the iconic Sydney Harbour B...

Web Services Cruise of May 2004

In May 2004, the 21st Geek Cruises voyage sailed from New York City on the Carnival Legend, representing our first Geek Cruise on a Carnival ship. ...

Web2000 International and Bill Harps Clown Costume Party

In October 2000, Bill Harp and I attended the Web2000 International (Web2K) conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Weird Al Yankovic Concert

In August 1999, my family and I went to see "Weird Al" Yankovic perform at the Oregon State Fair. It was a spectacular show featuring 20 costume ch...

Welcome to Portland Lunch and the Non-Linux Portability of Git

Shortly after creating Git in April 2005 to replace BitKeeper for Linux kernel development, Linus Torvalds arrived in Portland, Oregon.

WikiLinks

This page is a placeholder for the concept of "WikiLinks" in Logseq.

Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton (born 1972) is an American actor, blogger, and author. He is widely known for his roles as Wesley Crusher in the television series Star...

Wil Wheaton Dancing Barefoot Booksigning

In August 2003, during O'Reilly's Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon, Wil Wheaton held a milestone book signing for his self-publis...

Xochicalco

Xochicalco is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the western part of Morelos, Mexico, famous for its fortified ruins and the Temple of the Feat...