Author: tiphane

1978-1981: from Sherbrooke to Switzerland

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I found this job at the computer centre of the Université de Sherbrooke, having responded to an ad in the newspaper La Presse. It wasn’t quite “in my field” if there was such a thing after the experience of developing COMPO and the map-making software, and I found that the best part of it was the few hours a week I had to be at the “consulting desk” solving people’s problems. This was an IBM 360 installation, and even that was relatively new to me, but in a sense it was all about trying to figure out what they were trying to do, and find in the manuals the description of their instructions. I even learned basic computer operations, mounting magnetic tapes and disk packs, so it was fun to be around. In the late spring, the director of the Math department came to ask if I could teach a summer class to substitute a professor suddenly unable to do it. I had given them a seminar on the Pascal language, and the class was …

1978: COMPO, a Phototypesetting System

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That was the title of my Master’s Thesis. It was written in French, at the Université de Montréal. It’s on microfilm at the University’s library (I’m not sure if I kept a copy, in all my moves!). Here’s a paper I wrote in French about it, in which you can see examples of what it did: My advisor hadn’t been too pushy or specific about what to do, and he was going to spend the year away on sabbatical… I guess that was a good way to let me be creative, even though I didn’t know that word at the time. Self-expression, self-determination, and even self-esteem weren’t part of my upbringing, and I had been told to be quiet early on as a child. But I had chosen this advisor, Paul Bratley, at first because in a presentation of the department’s professors, he had the most interesting field of interest. I shyly knocked on his door, intimidated by his look (what was it? His facial expression said I could be boring), and said I found …

The End of Year Tote Bags

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Made of fabrics that were left from other projects… Many odd shapes that I cut and put together in a mosaic… The interfacing layer that makes the sides more rigid also adds to the solidity of the mosaic (considering also that those are different fabric types). This was a fun project! Both bags have a stiffer bottom made of the twill fabric with a thick canvas. The same twill fabric is used for the lining (inside the bag, and inside each pocket), and the handles (sewn around layers of canvas or other hard material).

my bike will be for sale soon

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1999 LeMond Zurich, has a great history of riding several centuries like El Tour de Tucson and others with Team in Training. The original wheels (Rolf Vector Pro) were retired and replaced by the more supple and durable Mavic. The original computer, a Shimano FlightDeck, still has a running battery, but the Shimano Ultegra brake/shifter were replaced and the new model didn’t support it any more. The original stem was recalled and replaced by a sturdier one. I still have the owner’s manual, and Look pedals (not Cleo). It’s a 55cm. Steel frame, carbon fork, Shimano Ultegra 3×9, maintained attentively through the years. Extra new tire can be used to rotate the current one from the back to the front! You can get the Look pedals and the cleats are new. The original seat (Selle San Marco) was not so great and was replaced by a Serfas. This has been my greatest bike, and still a great pleasure to ride even compared to more modern ones. I don’t ride any more, and the racing position …