About Greg Roelofs    

... sometimes also called Cave Newt

This web project is the most self-indulgent, egotistical thing I have ever done in my life. But the day is young. I can top it. - Scott Adams

Greg does this and that, plus a little of the other (but only when no one is looking). No longer a graduate student at the University of Chicago--something that brings a smile to his face whenever he thinks about it--Greg nevertheless managed to get involved with yet another dissertation-like undertaking, namely a technical book. Which of the two was the more painful experience is a debate for philosophers, but the book sure took a hell of a lot longer to write...

Meanwhile Greg is also a search-engine god (heh) at Yahoo!, one of the more recent developments in his life and one that still surprises him more than a little. Before that, he worked at Philips Semiconductors and Philips Research Silicon Valley, where he was a full-time researcher in graphics/audio/3D/compression/UI/networking stuff (having made the switch from part-time Unix sysadmin in mid-1995).

And on the third pseudopod, he likes to fancy himself a software developer; among other things, Greg was a member of the Info-ZIP team for roughly 15 years (though he's now retired) and was the principal author of UnZip for about half of that time. (He's also a member of the Portable Network Graphics Development Group and the maintainer of the PNG and MNG home sites.)

But Greg's life was not always like this... Click here for simpler times. Or click here for the exciting college days!

As for recreational interests, our hero likes to amuse himself by cycling (to and from work, mainly, 23 miles a day); skiing (any flavor, although snow preferred, especially if it means he can drive in it); scuba diving (for 21 years now, from the shores of Lake Superior to the coast of Venezuela to the kelp beds of Monterey); and hiking/backpacking, particularly in the Sierra Nevada range, although Greg's last backpacking trip was in 1993 (Mt. Whitney). Such pursuits naturally lead to another hobby, that of amateur photographer.

Along more sedentary lines, Greg is a chronic reader and a great fan of escapist fiction of the sci-fi and fantasy persuasion. He has also successfully petitioned to have a small town in Pennsylvania named after himself. Not everyone with a name like Greg's can say that. And while he wouldn't exactly classify it a sedentary or recreational pursuit, Greg has cautiously tested the waters of fatherhood (twice over, in fact!).

Of course, no true geek would be complete without a full complement of geek recreational interests, too. Beyond programming (what used to be known as "hacking," a fine and noble tradition before the press and Bruce Sterling gave the term such a sleazy meaning), Greg had great fun pushing his combined Linux-OS/2 system to new heights. (The OS/2 part died shortly after IBM's marketing department did, alas.) Once upon a time he had even greater fun playing modem or network Doom, but those days are long past. (At least, now that there's Quake II...Doom 3 is looking unlikely at this point.)