Trivial Solutions The trivial solution in math is the simple, obvious answer. The fable that NASA spent millions on a space pen while Russia used a pencil is another example. LoseThos uses many trivial solutions. Website: www.losethos.com Owner/President: Terry A. Davis 8144 Sickle Lane Las Vegas, NV 89128 (702)254-4223 tdavis@losethos.com Artist: Cody Rigby Ordering the Registered LoseThos Version: See Registered Version. History: I've been working on LoseThos full-time for 8.4 years. Yes, I wrote every one of the 129,387 lines myself, no GPL code, no linkage or dependence on other code. I am a for profit company, not welcoming code contributions, but feedback is very welcome. See ::/LT/Doc/Acknowledgements.TXZ. Technically, I started LoseThos in about 1993, when I wrote a TASM program that ran in DOS which switched to protected mode on a 486. It did little more than read the keyboard and echo to the screen, but was multi-tasking. I set it aside until 2003 when I resurrected it and worked full-time, seriously, on it. I called it Hoppy because it fit on a floppy and my company name at the time was H .A.R.E. I ran Hoppy by launching it from FreeDOS. A compiler (interpreter at the time) was designed into-it from the start, even before a file system. I put the text of files I wanted to compile as raw data in my TASM assembled module. My first crack at a C interpreter was in SimStructure (key: A18-W50-U50) and I had done expression evaluators many times, so I was not intimidated by writing a compiler. I renamed it Doors and, then, Davos for a little while; I named it J for a year or two; and, finally, settled on LoseThos. (The name was inspired by the scene in the movie, Platoon, where Elias says to Chris, "S**tcan this and this...", referring to dorky standard issue equipment.) If you're curious, download HOPPY.ZIP (278 KB), J051018.zip (357 KB), or LoseThos V1.0 (1.12 Meg). The FreeDOS trick for launching no longer works because the makers of FreeDOS changed it from real mode to v8086 mode, locking it down. For some time-stamped proof 2004 www.webarchives.org/hare (has download), 2006 www.webarchives.org/justrighteous (no download) or 2007 YouTube ScreenCast of Songs. I have weekly Cd-ROM back-ups going way back and time-stamped back-up files on source forge going back to 2008. HOPPY runs from any REAL-MODE DOS. The Visual C project files are just for editing. LoseThos' Public Domain License: I don't mind if companies use LoseThos code with or without mentioning it. That's why it's public domain and not GPL. The wider the usage, the better. It's kind-of like, "no such thing as bad press." I don't mind if people use LoseThos code in other operating systems. The casino people here in Vegas say that reservation casinos do not take business away, they whet the appetite. The more people who learn about partitioning and booting alternative operating systems, the better. You'll have to work to walk-off with LoseThos code :-) I didn't do that on purpose, but I'm not going out-of-my-way to make it easy. Business Plan: I hope to make money with LoseThos in some way following the "dot com" model of releasing it freely to gain popularity and leveraging that down the road. I might sell advertisements, applications or support, but will stick to the LoseThos Constitution. Download the Raw Dictionary File: Dictionary.TXT (44 Meg) Use ::/LT/Adam/WordStat/WsDictGen.CPZ to process the raw file. It comes courtesy of Project Gutenberg. Download the Raw PCI Device File: www.pcidatabase.com See PCIDevFileGen. Download SimStructure, a Free Windows-based Physics Simulator I wrote: SimStrSetup.exe (2.02 Meg) Use product key: L00-W10-M70 I learned with SimStructure that making money directly is nearly impossible. LoseThos would have been even less likely to make money directly, so it's distributed for free. About Me: I was a National Merit Scholar with a 1440 SAT at Arizona State University. I have a bachelor's in Computer System Engineering from ASU, basically, embedded systems, and a master's in Electrical Engineering from ASU, control systems. I worked as a software, hardware and mechanical engineer at Ticketmaster from 1990-1996. I designed a 3 axis stepper-motor-driven milling machine 1996-1997 with a CAD/CAM package for a company I started called Home Automation and Robotic Equipment. I worked for a company named Xytec Corp. 1997-1999. We made FPGA-based image processing equipment for currency inspection, and I installed passwords on the machine in the Bank of England. I wrote SimStructure from 2000-2001 for H.A.R.E. I worked as head software/electrical engineer for a company called Graphic Technologies, 2001-2002, making replacement chips for toner printer cartridges so they could be refilled. All you need to know in life is that God is just. Personally, I'm not sure what I deserve. * "DOS", "Visual C" and "Windows" are trademarks of MicroSoft Corp. * "FreeDOS" is a trademark of Jim Hall. * "TASM" is a trademark of Borland Corporation. * "486" is a trademark of Intel Corporation. * "Linux" is probably a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. * "Platoon" is a trademark of MGM Pictures.