Paul Panks

I originally wrote HLA Adventure to learn assembly language programming. Years ago, I started out on a Commodore 64 (programming in BASIC). Since then, I have moved on to both Windows and Linux programming. I discovered Randall Hyde's High Level Assembly (HLA) while searching for a freeware BASIC interpreter. That's how I learned about HLA and assembly language. I have been writing for most of my free time, and adventure games have always been a pastime of mine. Ever since I played Zork in 1982, I have loved solving adventure games. I began writing them starting in 1994, and since then have written well over 30 adventure games on a variety of computing platforms. "HLA Adventure" evolved out of an idea of mine to create an open source text adventure game. I had played MUDs previously, and loved the interface and writing style of LP-MUDs. When I wrote my first large ad... (more)

The Further Adventures of HLA

In April of 2003, I stumbled upon Randy Hyde's Web site for HLA (High Level Assembly). I was originally sent to the Web site via Google, a popular search engine. I wasn't searching for Assembly Language; rather, I had been searching for a freeware BASIC interpreter. Although I found "HLA Basic" (Randy's BASIC interpreter written in HLA), I was suddenly interested in learning more about HLA itself. Within a few weeks, I had learned just enough of HLA to write a typical "hello world" program. I was quite surprised at the robustness of HLA; indeed, it was far more flexible than the... (more)

Climbing the Linux Mountain

Sometime between the years 1995 and 2004, Linux reached the mainstream of computer users the world over. No longer was it all about Microsoft or the Mac. Now there was a new sheriff in town, and it was a penguin packing some serious heat. The average user indoctrinated into the Linux way of computing will no doubt find themselves climbing a mountain at first. Like any new operating system, finding out even normal tasks and discovering what does what constitutes the learning curve process by which we all must understand any system. Linux is not a black box. There are no super secr... (more)

The Vanishing Bits

I often wonder what happens to data when it gets erased. Just where does it go? What happens to it? Does it "vanish" completely, or does it still exist somewhere, perhaps in the memory bank of the expanding universe? My theory is this: everything that is erased has been recorded by time and, given enough technology to go backwards, we should be able to recover lost data (if we are able to travel backwards to the point before it was "permanently" erased, that is). Quantum Mechanics Meet "Panks Mechanics" Most of the data I have lost over the years resulted from poor handling of di... (more)

The Ubuntu Experience

Ubuntu Linux is a new experience for me. Having used only Red Hat's Fedora Core, I was anxious to try out the recently released Ubuntu 5.10 (available from Ubuntu's Website at www.ubuntu.com). I was not disappointed. After waiting approximately 45 minutes to download the 617 MB ISO file, I quickly burned it to a CD and rebooted my computer. Within a mere half an hour, Ubuntu was successfully installed on my system. Ubuntu 5.10 opens with an attractive background display resembling a swirling, luminous horizon surrounded by clouds. The bottom half of the picture looks like an ocea... (more)