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I've really had a hard time bringing this program (DBE) to market.
I designed the data structures and wrote the original version in 1989. Then I
spent the greater part of 12 years homeless, continuing to work during 1997 on it
while sitting in restaurants or parks where I could find a picnic table to sit down
and write at. I didn't have a chance to print any of the source code until 1997;
and by that time it had been about 5 years since I'd even looked at it. In 2001,
I burned my source code printouts to prevent the people who had been accusing me
of stealing it from them from robbing me of it while I went on 'walking trips'
across Pennsylvania; and when I stayed temporarily in Lock Haven in 2003 I was
able to borrow a computer and work on it some more.
By then, I'd looked at long filename Win95 functions, and planned to build API calls in;
but it was 2007 before I finally had a chance to work on it again. I used public
computers to edit my source code; and had perhaps two hours a day, if I was lucky,
to do that. From 2008 on I lived outside, sleeping under the stars -- or a bridge
if it was likely to rain -- and I slept outside through the winter like I had done
for seven years before returning to Lock Haven in 2007.
I added quite a few features to DBE between 2008 and 2010, when I was invited to
take a basement room in Lucy Clymer's house, where I was able to work on a number
of projects over the 16 months I stayed there. Then in 2011, I was back to trying
to get as much time as I could using a computer at Ross Library, working on a few
small but intricate projects; and adding and debugging LFN code in DBE.
In 2010, I started uploading copies of DBE and other programs so that they could be
downloaded; and I started a website (at cqvis.zxq.net) which is now apparently defunct.
This zxq.net server has had so much downtime that it's beyond "sober probability" that
it could get that way unintentionally. So I had to find another free web host; and
t15.org seemed like a great choice. So I uploaded my entire website to cqvis.t15.org
at the end of 2014. And now I find that this server also is not performing well.
So, how is anyone going to read the online documentation when the server is returning
blank pages?
On top of being oppressed by people threatening to kill me, accusing me of stealing
from them, and denying my claim of authorship of my programs, I am further burdened
by having had two websites go down so far without there being even the slightest
possibility that I could do anything to correct the problem -- whatever is causing it.
For the last year, since January 28th of 2014, I have not gone near Ross Library,
nor have I used a public computer to work on DBE. There were too many interruptions;
and the situation finally arose there where it was not possible for me to undertake
any work as demanding as is editing the source code of DBE. So I gave up on it,
until someone let me have a mini 'device' which I have been able to use to make the
latest revisions to the DBE source since December of 2014.
I searched for my program's name and found that there are still people downloading
copies of the last version, from 11-01-13, that I had made publicly available at
various download sites. So, in spite of the fact that I don't want to just give a
new version to scoundrels who will claim authorship of it and threaten, harass, or
otherwise harm people who know they're frauds, I feel that for the sake of honest
folk who just want to download my program and try it out, it is necessary to make
sure that they are provided with the latest-and-best build which I can offer.
So, I'm uploading this archive, starting January 24th, 2015, which contains the
01-22-15 build of DBE. I keep feeling like a sysadmin somewhere at a gateway server
or telecomm provider has been hacking his employer's system in order to block my
traffic on the Internet. Server downtime at zxq.net was almost always said to be
the result of DDos attacks; and although that may be true, I'm suspicious of the
whole situation. And t15.org is now failing to return pages, at least to me at my
location, while the server does not appear to be down for other http requests or
other t15.org subdomains.
What good does it do me, then; really? Uploading a program expecting a slap in the
face for it isn't any fun.
Glenn Merritt
Lock Haven, PA
Jan. 24, 2015
gamerritt@hotmail.com