Thomas Boutell's Home Page

Tom and Eleanor, catching up on sleep.

Who am I?

There is a very strong chance you are a carbon-based terrestrial life form with Internet access. As for me, I am a full-time programmer and occasional author and expert witness on Internet-related matters living in Philadelphia. I have a five-year-old daughter who spins my world. I am the proprietor of Boutell.Com, Inc., which still brings home the soy bacon around here. Until June 30th, 1995, I worked for RealNetworks, back when it was called Progressive Networks. Before that I worked for the Quest Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Perhaps someday I'll write another book for Addison-Wesley.

For two years, I lived in Duwamish Cohousing, an intentional community designed by its residents. Cohousing provides a greater sense of community, while still respecting individual privacy. It can also be crazy-making. People are a problem. I don't claim to have an answer to that!

Wondering what's happening with me lately? Check out my livejournal. This page offers just a quick bio and a collection of oddities.

For instance, I suggest you study the life cycle of the tank of live, cannibal, drag-and-drop fish, below.

Sorry, your web browser doesn't like fish (or java).

Boutell.Com, Inc.

My company. We write tools for web server log analysis, open source software for Linux and other operating systems, and many other things. We do so many things that I've simply given up on keeping any updated list of them on this page. Visit the company pages and find out for yourself.

Tom and Eleanor Roam the Landscape

On March 16th, 2002, Eleanor was two months shy of her third birthday. Watch her do her stuff on the streets of Seattle.

XInvaders 3D Port to Windows

I couldn't resist trying a 3D version of Space Invaders. I noticed that the author had written very portable code, and I couldn't resist porting it to Windows. In fact, a friend of mine and I had a little footrace: I ported it to Windows, he ported it to the Macintosh. We both took about an hour and a half. I took much longer on the clock, of course, due to baby-related things.

Download my Windows Version

"CGI Programming in C and Perl": The Book

A tutorial on CGI programming, with plenty of examples. Dated now, of course, but still quite useful especially on the C side. All of the code is presented in both C and Perl (you only need to know one).

Saving USENET and Then Some

Some thoughts I'd like to share with everyone who uses USENET newsgroups and would like to see their deterioriation stopped. And just maybe change the entire culture for the better in the process.

Eleanor Boutell Grant, cursing the paparazzi.