Todd Tolhurst

Welcome

Hello, I'm Todd Tolhurst, todd@toddtolhurst.com. You can read all about me on this page, in which case you probably have way too much time on your hands. You should do something more worthwhile, like collecting slide rules.

Professional

I'm the Director of Development at Maine Information Network and InforME, which operates the official web portal of the State of Maine, Maine.gov. I have experience in a variety of areas, including database internals, database applications, communications, operating systems, and of course, World-Wide Web application development, which is what I do most of the time.

Seal I am an ordained secular humanist minister, as well as a Maine Notary Public, and I perform wedding ceremonies from time to time. If you are looking for a wedding officiant, you can email me.

I am also a Dedimus Justice. If you are an elected or appointed official in the State of Maine, and need a Dedimus Justice to administer your Oath of Office, please contact me.

Personal

I've dabbled in photography since I was a kid growing up in Rochester, NY, hometown of the Great Yellow Father, Eastman Kodak Company. Darkroom work has always had a special magic for me, but these days I shoot exclusively digital. I have, however, experimented with Polaroid Image Transfers.

I'm an amateur radio operator and a Life Member of the American Radio Relay League.

I hold Amateur Extra class license WA1M, and I'm an ARRL-accredited Volunteer Examiner, which means I help administer FCC license examinations for prospective ham radio operators.

I'm fond of Robert Heinlein's science fiction, and his character Lazarus Long in particular. I used to have a nice random-quote-from-Lazarus link on this page, but Virginia Heinlein, the writer's widow, asked that I remove the quotations, so they're gone now. Instead, you can try the Quotable Heinlein site, which seems to have obtained permission to post the exact same material and a whole lot more. Or better yet, go buy some of Heinlein's books and read them.

Politics

My politics run toward the libertarian, and I believe in the rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution -- all of them -- especially those that some people think others can't be trusted with, like owning a gun, burning a flag, or speaking your mind on the Internet.

I'm a Life Member of the National Rifle Association and a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

I'm also a member of Mensa, the international high-IQ society. I find that this tends to confuse certain people who equate NRA membership with room-temperature IQ. That alone is worth the annual dues.

Yeah, what he said...

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined or determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty-so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator-and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advatages of a universal decree."
-- Cesare Beccaria, 1764