Home Page -- Tom Davis

Last updated: December 18, 2021

bill and al

Me with Bill and Al

Yup, that's me (on the left), and no, I didn't do this with Photoshop. It's a photo from the San Jose Mercury when Bill and Al visited Silicon Graphics a few years ago. In spite of the fact that I obviously impressed them greatly, I have not yet received an invitation to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom. But I still wait by the phone every day, hoping they'll call.

Thanks to the encouragement I gave him at this meeting, Al finally amounted to something and won an Emmy, an Oscar, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Stephen Hawking

Another brush with greatness

That's me again (on the left). I don't even remember why he was there, but Stephen Hawking came to visit Silicon Graphics and I scammed an invitation to the meeting. Standing behind Hawking, from left to right are me, John Mashey, Dave Orton and Kurt Akeley.

I was a principal scientist at Silicon Graphics. Now I'm retired, so there's not much on this page having to do with computer graphics; it concerns only my money losing interests.

There are some interesting documents from my career at SGI that are worth including. Two were world-famous for a short time, and are still worth reading.

Free dynamic geometry software for Windows or Mac: Geometer Software.

Rubik's Cube

I've written a program to help solve and learn about Rubik's cube. It currently runs on a PC or a Mac with OS X. Go to my Rubik's Cube Page to download the program and/or documentation.

Hackenbush

Here is a program to let you play John Conway's game of Hackenbush against the computer. It runs on Intel-based Macintoshes or Windows. Click here for more information.

Birds

I have taken many photos of birds from all over the world and this page is an index to those photos, where the birds are organized in evolutionary order. The main page points to sub pages that contain, again in phylogenetic order, particular orders of birds.

Photography

Here are some pointers to pages of photos that I've taken on trips over the last few years:

Trip report from a birding trip to Cuba in 2017
Trip report from a birding/photography trip to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and Antarctica in 2017
Trip report about a couple of days of birding in Argentina in 2017
Trip report from a birding/photography trip to the Bahamas in 2016
Trip report from a birding/photography trip to Panama in 2015
Trip report from a birding/photography trip to Jamaica in 2014
Photos from Botswana
More bird photos from the Palo Alto Baylands
Photos and trip report from a trip to Thailand (in 2010).
Preliminary page with bird images taken on a recent trip to Brazil (in 2006).
Bird photos from a trip to Brazil in 2005.
Photos a trip to Belize and the Florida Everglades, 2005.
Bird images taken at the Palo Alto Baylands with a Nikon D2x.
Photos from Bodie, a ghost town near the California/Nevada border, and from Mono Lake.
Backyard photos: Lesser Goldfinch, House Finch, Hutton's Vireo, Dark-eyed Junco, Ants tending Aphids
Egrets and Nightheron at the Palo Alto Baylands
More Egrets and Nightherons from the Palo Alto Baylands
Digital photos from the Palo Alto Baylands
Digital photos from Costa Rica (2003)
Digital photos from the Farallon Islands (2003)

Images from the Galápagos Islands (1994)
Images from the Galápagos Islands (1997)
Digital photos from the Palo Alto Baylands
Images from the Galápagos Islands (2001)
Florida, Trinidad and Tobago, 2004
Images from Costa Rica
Costa Rican Butterflies
My Favorite Photos

Here is some advice for beginning photographers. It's now better than half-baked; I'd say it's three-quarters baked, but still far from completely baked:

35mm Photography for Beginners

Travel Stories

A cycling trip with Ciclismo Classico to Sardinia and Corsica in 2012

Birding trip to south Florida with lots of photos, 2009

Visit to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, 2005

Costa Rica, 1996
Costa Rica, 1997
Costa Rica, 1998
Costa Rica, 2000
Costa Rica, 2001
Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, 1998
Italy 2000 (language classes)

Earthwatch Trips

Costa Rica Earthwatch Trip, 1998 (caterpillars)
Peru Earthwatch Trip, 1999 (hummingbirds)
Ecuador Earthwatch Trip, 1996/7 (birds)
Ecuador Earthwatch Trip, 1997/8 (butterflies)
Ecuador Earthwatch Trip, 1998/9 (birds)
Ecuador Trip, 1999/2000 (birds)
Ecuador Trip, 2000/2001 (birds)
Costa Rica Trip, 2002 (first half; dry forest)
Costa Rica Trip, 2002 (second half; as tourists)
Costa Rica Trip, 2017

Mathematical Circles

I am interested in coaching outstanding high school students in mathematics. For the past few years I have been leading mathematical circles in the San Francisco bay area. Here is some material about the circles themselves, and some material that can be used to lead such circles: Math Circles

Mathematics Curriculum Suggestions

Here are some ideas I have to improve the mathematics curriculum in secondary schools. Comments are welcome!

See: curriculum.pdf.

Puzzle Source Code

For what it's worth, I wrote some code to solve the soma cube and the pentaminos puzzle by brute force. Here's a page from which you can download the C source code.

The Caveman Diet

Here are some notes about what I eat. I've been quite happy with the results, and I've been following this diet since December of 2003. Your mileage may vary!

Main caveman diet page

Learning a Foreign Language

To help stave off senility, I've been trying to learn foreign languages for the past few years. So far I've worked on Spanish and Italian. Here is a somewhat serious document with some suggestions for learning any foreign language (the examples happen to be in Italian), and you can view an Acrobat version of that document here: learn.pdf or the PostScript version here: learn.ps.

A number of people have found it to be useful; perhaps it will also be useful for you.

Triathlon, Running and Cycling

I do a lot of triathlon, running and cycling. Here are a few reports written about some of the more interesting events.

Burning Man

Here's the story of Burning Man, 2002.

Here's a page with our Burning Man, 2002, art project: The Octavepus.

Here's a page with the Burning Man, 2003 art project: The Flickertron

Here are some photos from Burning Man, 2003
and (with stories) from Burning Man, 2004
and (with stories) from Burning Man, 2005
and (with stories) from Burning Man, 2006
and (with stories) from Burning Man, 2007
The Burning Man Ultramarathon, 2010.

Contact Information:

Email: tomrdavis@earthlink.net.

Snail mail:

23250 Via Esplendor #V66
Cupertino, CA 95014