Who Am I?

I am an electronic engineer and a microcomputer enthusiast with over 30 years of experience in computer hardware and software, both at work and at home.

I live with my beautiful wife (my opinion, and I'm sticking to it!) in a semi-rural area near Houghton^*, a lovely country village (but still a suburb) just 22km from the heart of Adelaide, South Australia.

Kangaroos in the Street?

You may have heard the rumour that kangaroos hop down the streets in Australia. Is it true?

Well, if you live where I do, then the answer is an emphatic YES! When they stand taller than a car, it is prudent slow down and give them right of way. That's not all: watch out for echidnas, wombats, koalas and the odd 6ft. brown snake crossing the road.

Kangaroo

Echidna

Wombat

Koala

My Hobbies?

I built my first computer (Pluter1) in 1976: an S100-based 8080 with 8Kbytes of EPROM and 8Kbytes of RAM! This was when the term "Microcomputer" was a little misleading, and when the only option was to design and build your own system! It was big, and heavy enough to be a boat anchor. By 1978 it had two 8" disk drives, costing AUS$750 each, and was running CPM V2.2 and later a personalised version (CP/M V2.3). In the early 1980s I graduated to CP/M Plus (aka CP/M V3.0).

I knew that I was not doing something quite right when, in 1985, I found myself using a newly purchased PC/XT clone (Pluter2) as a terminal emulator for Pluter1, so I finally closed the chapter on the old anchor. Even so, Pluter1 found at least two more homes over the years, and may still be in use, possibly as a boat anchor.

In 1992 I replaced the aging PC/XT with a 386DX33 (Pluter3), which grew in time with added memory, several changes in HDD size and just about every version of DRDOS/NWDOS from V3.41 onwards, as well as Win3.1. I started with Win95 using the Preview Program and installed the real thing at day zero (August 24th, 1995). Pluter3 suffered from a mouse - the four legged variety, when it got into the case and caused undesirable etching of the motherboard! Exit one computer.
Lesson: make sure you fill any unused extension card slots with blank plates.

Then, in 1996, I bought a Pentium-120 (Pluter4), and immediately created an ethernet microsoft network. Pluter4 has had extensive additions to both its RAM and HDD space, and a new motherboard to lift its capability to K6-2/333 standard, to keep up with the ever hungry bloatware. Time has taken its toll, so now Pluter4 has been retired to a worthy cause.

Pluter5 came along as a Duron 700, but was reborn as an Athlon 1800+ with plenty memory, disk space, DVD-ROM and CD burner. It was recently "passed on" to the kids.

Pluter6 and Pluter7 are Laptops for Me and She.

Pluter8, my present desktop box, is an Athlon-64x2 4200+ with 2GB memory, a 750GB disk, DVD burner and TV card. Right now it is sticking to Windows XP for the forseeable future.

The newest kid on the block is Pluter9. It is a backup desktop machine, mainly used by She for internet use, and Me for file archiving.

With three printers, ADSL-modem/router/wireless-port and a scanner, I do a fair bit of system development and employment-related documentation and programming.

For almost 40 years I have written applications, utilities and operating systems using a wide range of assembly languages (including SC/MP, Nova, 8048, 8051, 8080, Z80, 68000, 80x86, and several mainframes) and higher level languages (Fortran, PL/M, PL/I, Fort80, Pascal, Ada, Modula 2). Right now I'm enjoying the ease of using Delphi 7 (a great way to produce Windows Applications), and trying to find time to convert to Delphi-2007.

Gardening?

In my spare (???) time I think about home maintenance, computers, keeping our cars running, computers, adding more Australian native plants to Our Garden, computers, watching TV, computers, reading, computers . . .

Included on our garden page is an Australian native flora dictionary - for FREE!

Looking for a Native Plant?

Now available to you. A comprehensive Australian Native Plants selector program. Go to Australian Native Plants Selector to get it FREE!

Work?

I retired from my employer of the last 40 years, in 2002. The last 20 years were in avionics (electronics for aircraft) and Tactical Data Information Links (TADILs). I am now delivering introductory level lecturing in TADILs such as Link-11, Link-16, Link-22, VMF and Satellite TADILs.



Visit my Haoi Technologies site for more details.

Why the name Pluter?

I started computing at home when my sons were smaller than me. In their typical baby talk, they called the old boat anchor "Pluter" so the name stuck and has propagated since that time.

Do YOU use Delphi?

Want some nifty WIN95/98/NT/XP Applications?

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	You can contact me at hharvey@sa.chariot.net.au

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