Intron Varia Consultants

Intron Varia Consultants are an informal group of amateur computer programmers. The word consultants should not be taken too literally, since we don't actually consult with anyone but each other. We do not charge money for any of our work; all of our programs are available for free on the Web, and always will be. However, we do accept donations -- see below.

The following Intron Varia programs are currently available:

GedView -- a Windows program for genealogy enthusiasts that displays the content of a GEDCOM file in a friendly and easily-navigable manner. GEDCOM is the standard file format for genealogical data, supported by almost all genealogy software.
WinEphem -- a Windows program for astronomy that shows ephemerides (position in the sky, magnitude, distance and such) for planets, asteroids, comets, and so-called fixed objects.

We are also working on the following. There are no release schedules; we hack at this stuff when we feel like it. We are always open to ideas and suggestions. Please E-mail us with any comments you may have.

Global positioning DLL -- a Windows programming interface that will read latitude, longitude, and other parameters from GPS devices, regardless of whether the devices support the NMEA standards.
Time zone DLL -- a Windows programming interface that interprets whatever time zone information is available to the host computer: the TZ tables if present, or Microsoft's undocumented Registry information if not.
Linux and Macintosh versions of GedView and WinEphem.
GedView and WinEphem versions for hand-held computers and PDAs.
GedView plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

We will share our source code with those who will undertake to give credit where credit is due. Bear in mind, however, that all of our projects are informal, that they come with no warranty whatsoever, and that we do not pretend to conform to the latest guru's recommended coding practices.

We do this stuff because we love to program, and we only work on projects we think are cool and would be useful to people. Our only reward is the number of hits on our unpublicized Websites. Intron Varia owns exactly one computer, a Pentium II-400 machine that is working just fine right now... We maintain fully-licensed versions of operating system and program development software, using our own personal funds.

Intron Varia does, however, accept donations, in any viable currency, from people who find our work useful. Donations are applied solely toward maintaining Intron Varia's hardware and software. There will be no business junkets to Tahiti, no cash bonuses for programmers, no wine-floated dinners at sniffy downtown restaurants. If you would like to make a donation, E-mail us (Paypal coming soon, maybe...). Anyone who contributes the equivalent of US$5.00 or more will receive a nice, personally autographed thank-you note suitable for framing, or for wrapping fish. And anyone who knows what Intron Varia means will receive a virtual halo, just as soon as we invent one.

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This page was last updated on 14 January 2006.