![[photo]](norman.gif)
Until recently, I served as system administrator and de-facto lab manager for the systems and networks research labs in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto; also consulting system administrator for a corner of the database group in the same department. The systems-lab torch has been handed on; the database-lab one is hanging fire; a new torch in a different part of the university may be lit shortly.
norman at cs.toronto.edu
My computing interests are in understanding how real programs, systems, and networks work, and how to make them work better, preferably by making them simpler. I am particularly interested in the problems of administering heterogeneous collections of systems, and of finding the right amount of automation and abstraction to apply: enough that systems need not be administered one-by-one or by hand, but not so much that everything becomes an incomprehensible black box. I am also a strong advocate of the often-lauded but rarely-observed virtues of the original UNIX system: simplicity, modularity, consistent interface. As an extreme example, my home computing environment comprises a mix of SPARC and IA32 systems running Solaris, IA32 systems running Linux, and MicroVAXes running Tenth Edition Research UNIX. I hope to continue removing needless code from the last system, as I did during my six years at Bell Labs.
See my canned biography for a more historical picture.
My non-computing interests include urban and long-distance bicycling, amateur photography, passenger train travel, cat socialization, and a never-ending series of minor and major house renovations.
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