The Foursquare Blog

Hello! My name is Chris Frey. Welcome to my blog.

Computer Programmer

My first real access to a computer was a 386 with DOS 4.01. Starting with batch files, progressing to GWBASIC, and then jumping right into C and C++, my teen years were filled with fun exploration in making computers do what I wanted.

Over the years I've had experience with dBase and ODBC and SQL style databases, written cost and inventory systems in FoxPro, written terminate and stay resident (TSR) programs in assembler, written firmware boot code in assembler, written industrial network firmware and applications in C and C++, written web applications in perl and PHP and Python, written GUI applications from Borland OWL to Windows MFC to Linux Gtk to wxWidgets, reverse engineered USB protocols, lead the Barry open source project, and tackled the world of devops and automated sysadmin.

I am a big fan of Linux and Free Software. These days, as a contract programmer in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, my preferred work is with open source. My general practice is to release the code to my clients as well as the built binary, under a dual license.

Writer

I have not written my book yet. But nevertheless I enjoy writing, from fiction to technical documents. As I get more organized, my stories may appear under the "fiction" tag.

Artist: Enjoyment of Beauty

I occasionally enjoy doing pencil sketches when the mood strikes. I like working with very basic tools to create something beautiful, and so a few pencils, an eraser, and paper result in my favourite art, whether I'm the artist or not. Pen and ink drawings come a close second.

I also enjoy photography, but do not have any fancy equipment. I have an old Canon Powershot point and shoot, that allows for a surprising amount of customization in manual mode. With the hacked firmware, CHDK, that little pocket camera suddenly sprouts some very odd and useful wings.

I once had a photoblog, but ran out of time and disk space to keep it up, and so it fell by the wayside.

But art is not just pictures. To me, it is the care and the craft of what you do, and the enjoyment of beauty and quality in everything, whether that is other people, literature, computer code, mathematics, religion, politics, or food.

Musician

I was blessed with piano lessons as a kid, but unfortunately my skills in that area have gone unused for the most part. I still remember some Christmas carols and hymns, but to learn something new takes me a while until I lock it into my muscle memory. My sight reading is almost non-existent.

I play a bit of guitar as well, and experiment more with that than I do piano.

Cyclist

I used to be an avid cyclist. Broken parts and other interests have crowded it out of my schedule lately, but it is still a cherished memory, and I hope to renew it as a regular exercise practice, as well as bicycle repair.

I love the combination of the exercise, the outdoors, the fresh air, and the human powered transportation. All kinds of human powered transportation fascinate me, including canoeing. In the city, a bike is the ultimate transportation.

My bike is an old Canadian Tire SuperCycle. It ain't fancy, but it gets the job done.

Human

I'm a human being. I share this planet with everyone else. I seek to learn new things and share it with others. I welcome your thoughts and feedback. See the Contact link on the side for how to reach me.