Chard Nelson's Home Page

Or maybe it won't. There's an awful lot of ignorance and stupidity blowing around the Internet. I support the EFF's blue-ribbon campaign against censorship. I find a lot of the material on the net (and even a lot of the protests against it) really ugly, but not nearly as ugly as the idea that one should be able to control what other people think, say, or write. Stand up for your rights, or you'll lose them!

About me

By day, I'm a mild-mannered software engineer. Until recently, I worked at Fourth Fleet Financial, a small company that handles financing of cars coming off lease. Before joining Fourth Fleet, I spent many years at E-LOAN, Inc., a cool company specializing in online mortgages, home equity loans, and automobile loans. If you're buying a house or refinancing or just want to learn more about the loan process, check out the site. We're one of the surviving, even thriving, dot-coms.

Before going to E-LOAN, I worked for a couple of years at Netscape Communications, before they were purchased by America Online, and long before they merged with Time Warner. Click the spiffy logo to download their FREE browser. And remember: perhaps the best reason to use it is that you don't have to.

[Or if you don't like what's happened with the Netscape browser, check out the open source cousin of it, at the Mozilla project. I use Firefox and Thunderbird under both Linux and Windows, and they work great!]

Before that, I worked at Borland International for about six years. Borland was briefly known as Inprise, but they have since come to their senses at least somewhat, and mostly changed their name back, to Borland Software Corporation. My last project there was a most excellent software-development tool called Delphi.

I have an undergraduate degree from the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley. I also majored in Environmental Science. At the time, I was the only one who'd ever done that particular combination. It's a good bet that's still true.

And before going to Cal, I went to Kennedy High School in Richmond, California (Not to be confused with the one in Richmond, Virginia). My class recently celebrated its (gulp!) 20th reunion. And in case you're curious, you can always find out what the weather is like at the school, from the monitoring station on campus.

I live in California. For those of you who don't, read this column. It's by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle, and it might make you think a little about what "living in California" means. Don't worry; thinking is actually good for you!

Several of years ago, my fiancée and I bought a house! That was an adventure. I sure wish E-LOAN had been around back then! On the other hand, we had an outstanding realtor (Celia Concus), so if you're looking to buy in the area, we can certainly recommend her.

More recently, we got married. That was really, really, really fun. So was the honeymoon. Now we're working on the "happily ever after" part. The happiest part so far is our daughter, Laurel.

Um...about that nickname....

"Chard" is a nickname I picked up in high school. Yes, I'm named after a leafy, green vegetable. It's also short for "Richard." Go figure.

Bears

I have a great fondness for bears. I have a number of the stuffed variety, both at home and in my office. Here's a link to Bear Street, the Gund home page, where you can see some bears and other critters.

About this site

Once upon a time, I ran a wonderful computer BBS in Washington, DC, called SNUBBS. SNUBBS was a virtual college campus called Spiny Norman University, named after a very famous giant hedgehog.

Unfortunately, when I moved back to California, SNUBBS never caught on out here. But I'm determined to make SNUBBS a presence in cyberspace once again. In fact, you can click over to a Virtual SNUBBS page!

In the meantime, here is a bit more about me, the things I like, and the places I like to go on the net. Have fun!

Stuff I like