About

This is my personal blog. All content here is created by me. I do not accept or run third party content. I do not run AI-generated content though I may use AI-related tools for editing assistance.

I’m a computer scientist, software architect, and longtime Internet engineer who’s been building and breaking networks since the early days of TCP/IP. As a student at MIT I co-developed the PC/IP, the first TCP/IP stack for personal computers (the IBM PC). I also created the earliest text-based network analyzer (Netwatch), and later wrote an early SNMP MIB compiler. I was a co-founder of FTP Software and an early contributor to the Internet, I helped launch one of the Bay Area’s first ISPs, was involved in the IETF and served on the Internet Architecture Board. I also built highly portable protocol stacks at Epilogue Technology.

I also demonstrated one of the earliest “Internet of Things” devices - the “Internet Toaster”, controlled via SNMP in 1993, along with Simon Hacket.

I currently work with microcontrollers, sensors, home automation and full-stack systems, with occasional detours into PCB design and development. I enjoy programming in CircuitPython, Python, Ruby, C and C++, and work with Docker and similar technologies for backend work.

I’m a technologist who’s interested in appropriate and responsible uses of technology. Tools should not harm you more than they help you.

As the world changes, I’m particularly interested in environmental hazards, which ties in with working with sensors. I’m also designing “ambient information devices” to help make information easily available without overwhelming the people who need the information. I also have strong interests in food, nutrition, food security and health, which often tie in with one another.

I’m active at PDX Hackerspace in Portland, OR and occasionally offer workshops there and at CETI Institute.

Random bibliography:

• Netwatch
• RFC1055 - A Nonstandard for Transmission of IP Datagrams Over Serial Lines: SLIP
• RFC1862 - Report of the IAB Workshop on Internet Information Infrastructure”
• RFC1636 - Report of IAB Workshop on Security in the Internet Architecture
• Local Area Networks - John McNamara & John Romkey
• Geek of the Week
• An Analysis of TCP Processing Overhead - Clark, Jacobsen, Romkey, Salwen
• The Desktop Computer as a Network Participant - Saltzer, Clark, Romkey, Gramlich
• Toast of the IoT: The 1990 Interop Internet Toaster - Applin, Romkey
• The Internet’s First Thing: John Romkey’s ‘smart’ toaster - interview with Jeff Elder