General Bio of: Neil S. Rieck
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Brief Summary
- I am, or at least strive to be, an open minded skeptic
- I'm a secularist, but not an atheist. I use the label Deist (we have no formal gathering place other than
here: www.deism.com )
- I'm a centrist and have voted for, or against, any political party based upon the issues of the day
- I call myself apolitical but I never miss the opportunity to cast my vote
- If I vote for someone (or some party) which turns out to be a mistake then I will not make excuses for my decision. But
I will vote against my mistake at the very next opportunity (so watch out you political scoundrels)
- Most political ideologs are idiots whenever they think that their party is the only solution for every situation (How
can you have left without right? How can you have up without down? How can you have fast without slow? How can you have
liberal without conservative? How can you have Republican without Democrat?)
- I never vote for any party advocating war which is always always a huge waste of time, money, and human life
- I am against the death penalty (this is something only performed by primitive societies; if you act like a primitive
society then you will become a primitive society)
- I received a Black Belt (Shodan) in GoJu-ryu Karate and Kobudo in
2012-01-28 (year of the Water Dragon). So although I raised
as a Lutheran Christian, you can count on me to NOT turn the other cheek.
Contact Info
Profession
Click "my computing bio" for the painful technical details.

- Currently employed by Bell Canada to do...
- Software design and implementation on large minicomputers (OpenVMS on Itanium
and Alpha, VMS on VAX)
- computer hardware and software maintenance on minicomputers (CentOS-7 Linux on HP ProLiant)
- Bell-VDSL (formerly: Bell Beacon / Bell Total Vision) Implementation + Support (based upon technology from Next
Level Communications which is now a division of Motorola)
- computer hardware and software maintenance on workstations (DEC Alpha, Sun, HP)
- computer hardware and software maintenance on micros (mostly Windows-based PCs)
- Free Lance Work:
- Software + Hardware design of a 68HC11 based controllers for a ground
source heat pump manufacturer in Canada (software was originally written in 6811 cross-assembler then rewritten in
"Whitesmiths C")
Apollo Launches
Mission |
Launch |
Notes |
Apollo 14 |
January 31, 1971 |
|
Apollo 15 |
July 26, 1971 |
|
Apollo 16 |
April 04, 1972 |
|
Apollo 17 |
December 7, 1972 |
This was a night launch. We stood in the water (camera on a tripod) of Indian River in Titusville Florida (near the
corner of highways US-50 and US-1) while horseshoe crabs tickled our toes. |
Likes (no particular order)
- Authors:
- Isaac Asimov (he sent me a message in 2004)
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Philip K. Dick
- Carl Sagan
- Richard Feynman (and his call for more rationalization)
- Richard Dawkins
- Movies:
- TV:
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Babylon 5
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Sherlock Holmes (of the Jeremy Brett variety)
- The X-Files (primarily about two people working for the FBI)
- The Strain (primarily about two people working
for the CDC)
- Humans (which is about robots)
- TekWar (by William Shatner)
- Music:
Future
Life in the 21st century will probably be much closer to what we saw in the
movie "Blade Runner" (a synthesis of bio-technology and electronics). I doubt we'll
ever see flying cars although the idea is seductive. The damage already caused by
industrial pollution and global warming means that our lives
will be closer to what we saw in the movie "Soylent Green"
Links

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Neil Rieck
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.