NOTE: I'm not adding new content at this site any more (as of June 2011). What's here now won't go away, but I'm posting new stuff on my blog.
Welcome to my website! I've tried to separate the content on this site into reasonable categories (see the links below), but don't expect them to be completely consistent or inclusive. After all, the point of a personal web site is to be able to put up your thoughts about whatever strikes your fancy, right?
Downloads: If you came here looking to download one of my programs, they're here.
Shameless Plug: If you're interested in fantasy roleplaying games, you might like to take a look at the web site of PT Games, Inc., a company my friend Tim Plum and I formed to publish gaming materials for the OGL System (formerly the d20 System). If the first thing that jumps to your mind at this point is "What's the OGL System?", I talk about it some in the RPG category of this site.
Contacting Me: Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, suggestions, etc. about this site. I can't guarantee that I'll answer, but I try to be open to interesting discussions. You can send e-mail to feedback@peterdonis.com.
Computers: Programming, operating systems, security, and other stuff that only true nerds should find interesting. However, there are also a lot of links to sites which deal with broader issues like digital copyrights, which should be interesting even if you're not a nerd. I'll also post software that I've written.
Math: It's a toss-up whether this is more or less nerdly than the computer stuff.
Miscellaneous: Items that don't really fit in the other categories.
Philosophy: Not quite as heavy as the title might make you think -- but close. You have been warned. :-)
RPG: Thoughts and comments about D&D, d20, and roleplaying games in general.
Science: Actual science stuff, but there will also be some comments about why I think science is important, even for non-nerds.
This web site is maintained using Quanta on a Linux machine. With the exception of whatever downloads on my Computers page are usable in Windows, no Windows tools or applications or any other things even remotely connected with Windows were used in the creation, design, and maintenance of this site. The XHTML code and CSS style sheets on this site have been validated using the online validators at W3C.
This site supports the Viewable With Any Browser campaign. I haven't checked it with absolutely every browser out there, but I have with enough of an assortment to be reasonably sure. Besides, it's not that hard to write non-browser-specific HTML as long as you don't use broken tools (see the reference to no Windows tools above).
(By the way, I should also note that, strictly speaking, "viewable with any browser" also assumes that the browser you are using is fully standards-compliant. If you're viewing this site with Internet Explorer, for example, you may notice that this page looks a bit different than it does in, say, Firefox. That's because IE isn't quite compliant the way Firefox and most other browsers are. See the reference to no Windows tools...)
I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation's campaign to say no to online censorship. Freedom of speech is supposed to mean just that, and the Internet is the best platform for freedom of speech yet invented, precisely because anyone, anywhere, anytime, can put up a website saying whatever they like. Yes, people do need to be held responsible for the consequences of what they say (for example, if a site like Wikileaks publishes information that endagers ongoing US military operations, the US has a right to seek remedies for that--not to mention that, even if Wikileaks itself may not be legally liable, people who leak classified information to it certainly are). But to pursue specific remedies for specific cases is one thing; to try to censor the Internet itself is quite another.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.
Robert Heinlein
The fact that the Internet makes it much, much harder for the idealistic do-gooders to control the surly curmudgeons is a feature, not a bug.