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Vic Cross

This page is very much historical now. I almost never kept it up to date, partly because it was all hand-drawn HTML. I started a blog, which you can find here, which is updated a little more regularly than this ever was!

Things about me you'll find here:

Home
Computing (Linux | S/390 | Hercules)
Motorcycling
Kit Cars

What's New

So much has happened since the last time I updated this page! Yes, I have been quite slack. To help out, I think I'll add date headings to the updates so that you can tell when things have been updated (and how out of date they are).

8 January 2003: After a really nice Christmas and New Year back home, I've returned to Auckland to restart work. Rested and refreshed (yeah, right), I can now get stuck right in to the project! Also, bought a local motorcycle magazine to get some more ideas on weekend adventures.
20 December 2002: Back home for Christmas! Looking forward to catching up with family and friends.
26 November 2002: I've arrived in Auckland for the first real stint at Air New Zealand. Looking forward to getting in amongst it and working on a good project. Also looking forward to seeing some of New Zealand!
20 November 2002: Anyone says 'jetsetter' and I'll be really mad (I prefer International Man of Mystery!). After arriving back from Auckland on the 14th, Susan and I flew out to Honolulu the next day. Now, after a few relaxing and enjoyable days in Hawai'i, we're back home for another couple of days. Then I fly out again...!
10 November 2002: Today I'm flying to Auckland, New Zealand, to spend a few days with the IBM team implementing Linux/390 at Air New Zealand. It's a preliminary to me joining the team for three months to help in the design of the solution. It will be good to get involved in a real Linux/390 project!
3 September 2002: Well, the World Tour is over! So many highlights, so little time to talk about them! The photos are in the gallery.
One of the best moments was talking to Mum from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, and both of us wishing the other Happy Birthday (it was 30 August in Amsterdam, and 31 August in Brisbane).
17 August 2002: What a week! Washington DC; Miami and Orlando, FL; Calgary, Alberta Canada. Over 6000 miles in the air, and another thousand or so by car (and several dozen on foot)! I'm exhausted, but ready for SHARE 99 here in San Francisco CA!
10 August 2002: The Redbook is in the can! This book was easily as enjoyable to work on as the last one, but for some reason the time seemed to go much quicker this time. Thanks again to all the members of the team; I think we've created another excellent book.
PS: The book was published on 17 October 2002!

The abstract of the book, plus links to download, are on the IBM Redbooks Web Site. Go straight to the page by clicking here.
What's a Residency? What's a Redbook? Find out at IBM's Redbooks website.
Where is Poughkeepsie, anyway? Check out a map here.
6 July 2002: I'm about to depart on the longest overseas trip I've ever taken. Eight weeks in total. My second IBM Redbook residency, followed by a week of travel within North America, then the SHARE conference in San Francisco, a few days in Europe, then a day in Singapore on the way home. Looking forward to the trip? YEP! Looking forward to being away from home? NOPE! Still, I know it will be a great experience. Bring it on!
25 August 2001: I'm back! I've returned from Poughkeepsie, New York, USA, where I was working with a team of professionals from around the world on a residency to write a Redbook on Linux on S/390. I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the experience -- thanks to the other members of the team for your help on the project!
PS: The book was published on 20 December 2001!

The abstract of the book, plus links to download, are on the IBM Redbooks Web Site. Go straight to the page by clicking here.
Read about my residency experience here.
What's a Residency? What's a Redbook? Find out at IBM's Redbooks website.
Where is Poughkeepsie, anyway? Check out a map here.

Home

Home is in Kuraby, a suburb on the southern outskirts of Brisbane, Queensland. I have the pleasure and honour to have a lovely person called Susan as my wife, and while we have no children at the present time we do have a corgi named Chelsea.
My study is where I get away from it all, and my garage is where I get away from the study!
These links really need to be updated... Another task to occupy my Copious Free Time (TM)!

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Computing

You guessed it -- computer geek!
By trade, I'm an OS/390 Networking Systems Programmer, who also does a spot of Linux (hence the Residencies). I do quite a lot with Linux (the PC kind, as well as the S/390 kind) -- my main server at home uses Linux to bring you these web pages and to provide all of my networking needs for the home office. My Internet connection is managed by another Linux machine acting as a router/firewall.
Linux is an important development for the mainframe community. An unfortunate thing about working with mainframes is not that they are dead (as everyone says), but that people who should know better are believing the "mainframes are dead" talk. Consequently, there's little work in Brisbane for OS/390 people, which means that I spend a large amount of my time away from home. Luckily I don't mind cold weather, and abovementioned wife and dog are patient and understanding. However, Linux is bringing about a change to this, as it provides a way for companies that are not "traditional" users of mainframes to be able to take advantage of all of the fantastic availability and performance features provided by the mainframe technology. Plus, the traditional mainframe companies can use the hardware they are familiar with to bear on 'new' problems, for a much better cost/benefit ratio than other platforms.

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My geekcode says UL+++. Linux is my main operating system at home. I run Linux on most of my hardware (even my P/390). Why? It's cheap. It's free. You can get inside it. There's help everywhere. It does what I need it to, without froth and bubble. AND, I can make it work MY WAY!

Redhat home page
SuSE home page
These guys ROCK! The first major distribution available for S/390 came from SuSE. Their documentation is littered with the message "Have a lot of fun!". They GET Linux.
There are plenty of great newsgroups to watch, like comp.os.linux.networking.

Linux on S/390 is a favourite at the moment. I'm running Linux/390 on my P/390 (see later), as well as on Hercules (also see later). Check out my Linux/390 exploits here.

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S/390

I've worked in MVS and OS/390 for about seven years, which makes me a bit unusual -- I'm quite young for a dinosaur! I'm involved in a few mainframe- related things, and I've got my $0.02 to say about various things. If you're interested, have a read.

I am also the proud owner of a P/390! I have finished the buildup, which was documented here. Then came the fun part -- getting Linux working! Follow the effort here.
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Hercules

I am fairly heavily involved in the Hercules 370/390/900 emulator. I run Hercules on many of the machines I have at home. Click here for some pictures -- including what could be the smallest machine ever to run the MVT operating system!

Let me add my name to the list of people who think that Hercules is the greatest piece of open-source software written. I talk up Hercules to anyone who'll listen (oops, I'm doing it again). My meagre contributions so far (I implemented the Divide Logical and Multiply Logical families of instructions from the z/Architecture, and a neat hack to emulate a CTC channel over TCP/IP) do little to repay the debt of gratitude I owe to Roger, Jay, Jan, and all the other Hercules contributors.
Hercules is the first OEM environment to implement the z/Architecture -- what else needs to be said?
Find out more about Hercules at the project Home Page.

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Motorcycling

Early in 2002, I decided I was going to start riding motorcycles. After I managed to get Susan off the ceiling (only joking, darling) I went bike shopping and found a neat Kawasaki ZZR250 to call mine.

Then I went to New Zealand, and bought a bike there! It's a Kawasaki also, a ZZR400 (Japanese Special, a 600 frame with a narrow-bore version of the 600 engine to reduce capacity to 400cc).

The school I went through was fantastic. Thoroughly professional, expert, a bunch of good people. Not only do they run rider training, but they do familiarisation training (if you've been away from bikes for a while and want to get back on, for example), track days, shop days, and advanced techniques training.

Motorcycle Riding School Web site.

Kit Cars

In my spare time (ha!) I'm starting to build a kit car. Once I decide which kit, that is. And where to build it. And how I'll pay for it. In the meantime, at least I can always check out some good web resources (and lament the lack of a strong kit-car industry in Australia)!

Manufacturers of Lotus Seven replicas:

Dare. The TG Sport would have to be my favourite at the moment. This is the car I'd like to build! Probably belongs in the next list, due to its slightly updated styling compared to the original Seven, but it's the 'top of my list'!
Caterham is a name almost synonymous with the Seven.
Westfield is the largest Seven-replica maker in the UK.
Formula 27 was a relative newcomer, making particular progress in the bike-engined range. From the website, it looks like they've been bought out or merged with another firm, but development looks good (check out the KRR, it gives the Dare TG Sport a run for its money!).

No, I'm not just interested in Sevens:

GT40 Enthusiasts Club used to be called the GT40 Replica Owners' Club. There is a 'new' website at www.gt40enthusiastsclub.com that's worth a look.
Quantum make a nice roadster which is derived from the Seven, but has more modern styling. They also make a couple of quite nice Fiesta-based convertibles (Fiesta? What's that? Not an Australian car, for sure).
Dax produce a number of striking kit cars, including the Kamala -- a sleek, modern-looking interpretation of the classic Seven theme.

Kit-Car magazine is Britain's "biggest & best value kitcar magazine". Not sure what's happening, as the website shows the latest issue as July 2002...
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I created a flashy, whizz-bang (not much, I did do it myself) website for my company, and when it came time to do my own, I thought " ... nahhh!!!" Page is totally hand-cut HTML -- and looks it, I know. Never was a fan of "the medium is the message" ;-)