This is the web page of Roderick W. Smith, aka rodsbooks.com. On sub-pages accessible from this one you'll find information about me, my interests, and the books I've written. You'll also find links to outside sites I find worthwhile.
I'm a Linux expert based in the Boston/Providence/Worcester area. My areas of specialization include Linux on the desktop, Windows interoperability (including file and printer sharing, remote access, and multi-boot configurations), disk management, and general system administration.
If you'd like help setting up or debugging a Linux system or a whole network of Linux systems, feel free to contact me (rodsmith@rodsbooks.com) with details and we can discuss your needs and my rates. I prefer not to travel far, but if you've got problems that can be solved remotely, I can certainly help with that.
I'm the author of many books on Linux and multi-OS computing. Counting revisions and co-authored titles, the number reaches 20, as of August 2009, so I won't bore you with a list here; instead, see my books page.
Between 2003 and 2008, I was the author of the "Guru Guidance" column for Linux Magazine. A search on that site turns up my articles, but you'll need to register to read them.
To date, I've written four articles for IBM developerWorks:
I'm a competent programmer, although that's not my primary career path. My main publicly-accessible software is GPT fdisk (aka gdisk), which is a program to manage partitions on disks partitioned using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme. GPT fdisk is primarily a Linux tool, although it also compiles and works under Mac OS X. See the project Web page for details.
In addition to my books, published articles, and programs, I've written several Web pages on a wide range of topics. Some of these are so old that I've officially retired them. Those that aren't too stale are:
For the past ten years, I've managed to build a career out of one of my interests: computers. I'm particularly intersted in Linux and other Open Source software. I've written a few C and Pascal programs, but this isn't my greatest interest in the computer field. Instead, I enjoy learning about system administration, networking, and so on, and sharing that knowledge with others.
Another interest of mine is science fiction. I've got a web page with some of my favorite SF books. I'm also a big fan of Babylon 5, which has done more for the medium of TV science fiction (or TV in general) than anything to come before it. Sadly, I don't have as much time to read science fiction as I'd like.
In the summer of 1999, I took up sailing at Community Boating. I didn't really get very good at it in one season, but I did manage to capsize a boat once! (It was a squishy trip home after they pulled me out of the river.)
More recently, I've begun biking regularly along the Blackstone River Bikeway, which is within a mile of my house. It's great exercise and that particular bike path has some wonderful scenery.
Photography is a long-time interest of mine. In 2005 I put together a darkroom in my basement -- something I've wanted to do since I was a teenager! I prefer film photography to digital for several reasons. Film appeals to me more aesthetically, it enables me to create something without the help of a computer, I've always preferred simplicity in my cameras, and replacing my film cameras and lenses with digital equipment would be prohibitively expensive. Although I'm not a big poster of photos in online forums, I do have a Flickr page with a few samples of my photos. Mostly I use that page to demonstrate specific things, such as the results I get from outdated films.
Here are a bunch of links to other things I find interesting:
So, if you've gotten this far and would like to contact me, drop me some e-mail at rodsmith@rodsbooks.com.