Quotes Some trenchant observations.
I was born in London and grew up in Sydney, Australia and Rochester, Minnesota. I studied engineering at the California Institute of Technology, math at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and computer science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. My math research was on the mathematics of music theory; the computer science work was on programming languages. I’ve worked at Philips Media writing software for compilers, interpreters, and digital video, Cerwin-Vega! designing loudspeakers, E-mu Systems writing software for digital audio, at the MAMA Foundation recording and producing jazz CDs, at Expertcity and Citrix writing network software. I have taught physics at Muir and Marshall High Schools in Pasadena and Dos Pueblos High School in Santa Barbara, algebra at Santa Barbara City College, and operating systems at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
You can send me mail at misterduncan1 at verizon dot net. Here’s info on my address in Santa Barbara. For prospective employers, here’s my résumé.
Objective-C: Dynamite! An article about Objective-C, extolling the convenience of dynamic typing.
Objective-C Pocket Reference (2002, O’Reilly & Associates) A concise but complete description of the Objective-C programming language. Commonly known as the "fox book".
The Analytic Impulse (1988, JAES) Award-winning paper that examines the continuous and discrete Hilbert transform, its application to the Dirac delta function and to the design of loudspeakers.
Combinatorial Music Theory (1991, JAES) My Masters research. Discusses scales, chords, and fingering patterns from the perspective of the physicist or mathematician.
The Z-Board (1992, AES) Describes the Z-Board, a new kind of MIDI controller that expands, generalizes and abstracts the fingerboard interface of string instruments.
TLA Overload Are we running out of acronyms? Does PDA mean Personal Data Assistant or Public Display of Affection? Check this list.
Gear Ratios A simple (I hope) explanation of bicycle gear ratios, what they mean and how to calculate them.
Aspect Ratios The only place you will ever find a comprehensible and comprehensive definition of the slippery term "aspect ratio". Discusses resampling issues for digital video.
Time Codes An explanation of what the hell drop frame means and how it is used.
MPEG-1 Pictorial Guide A graphical guide to the ISO 11172 (MPEG-1) digital audio/video standard. Here’s a PostScript version.
MPEG-2 Pictorial Guide A graphical guide to the ISO 13818 (MPEG-2) digital audio/video standard. Here’s a PostScript version.
Here you will find links to other Web sites devoted to topics that interest me.
Nite Grooves A groovy group of people who can’t stay at home on Wednesday nights.
UCSB Triathlon Team The funnest group of people in Santa Barbara. (Yes, funnest is a word!)
Gear Ratios A simple (I hope) explanation of bicycle gear ratios, what they mean and how to calculate them.
You know you’re a triathlete when... Collected from rec.sport.triathlon.
You know you’re a cyclist when... A similar list.
Motivation A list of motivational sayings for athletes, from rec.sport.swimming.
On Stage Some photos from my musical history.
David Lindley This LA-born white boy plays reggae better than the best of the Caribbeans. His album El Rayo-X (Spanish for “X-Ray”) is the single best album I’ve ever bought. Clean, clear, and upbeat. Sounds like a mango tastes.
Ry Cooder The musician’s musician. Plays American roots blues and jazz. His drummer Jim Keltner is also one of the best.
Grateful Dead They brought real polyphony to rock and roll. So many different styles...or was it just one big style?
String Cheese Incident I didn’t really think another band this good would come along so soon after the Grateful Dead. But here they are!
J.S. Bach Our Master. The Well Tempered Clavier is the Old Testament of keyboard music.
Ludwig van Beethoven The Sonatas are the New Testament of keyboard music.
Jessica McAllister An amazing jazz singer, with a pitch and expressive range and timbre that will give you goosebumps.
Debra Farris Debra really has the knack for giving each song its individual flavor.
Bruce Goldish Another Minnesotan finds his way out west with a guitar in hand.
Antara & Delilah The reigning queens of Santa Barbara music.
Heather Stevenson What an amazing voice...you have to hear her at the Presidio Chapel.
Bent Myggen Bent, and a bit twisted.
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman My favorite work of historical writing. I wish it went on forever, like history itself. Follows the life of a single French nobleman in the 13th Century, but encompasses the entire age.
The Fourier Transform and its Applications by R. N. Bracewell Sets a standard for technical writing. Saved my butt as an undergrad, and inspired me as a researcher.
Gödel, Echer, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter One of the great books of the century. Primarily a discussion of Gödel’s Theorem about the limitations of mathematical systems, but seasoned by many other intellectual cultures.
Chaos and Fractals by Peitgen, Jürgens and Saupe Clear simple explanations of the basic framework of chaos theory. A lot depends only on high-school math. If I’d read this as a teenager I could have gone in quite a different direction.
Programming Language Processors by David A. Watt Shows how simple compiler design really is. This book got me started on the path that lead here to UCSB.
Nature, Man and Woman by Alan Watts The only guy who makes sense when he writes about Zen. A true prose stylist too.
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim Shows how important real drama is in the stories we tell children.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Shows how important real drama is in the stories we read as adults.
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol The best short story ever.
Tilings and Patterns by Grünbaum and Shepard Another book that might have changed my direction if I’d read it earlier. Great example of building an entire field of math from the ground up.
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson My childhood favorite. I still am Harold.
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino Fantastic short stories, in all senses of the word.
William Shakespeare Here you can look up phrases in a big Shakespeare database. “What is the city but the people?” [Coriolanus III.i] And what is Shakespeare but the words?
Urban Legends Why do we believe what we believe? Sometimes stories propagate forever. Here are some of them.
Quotes Some trenchant observations.
(The background pattern for this page was created with a program I wrote to examine tiling patterns first explored by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher. To get a closer look at it without all the autobiographical fluff, click here.)
