1. <H1>Rick Decker</H1>

2. <FONT COLOR="#999999">Silver</FONT>

3. <BLOCKQUOTE><I> "When I first came here (why I came is another story, for another time), I knew it would be a great place for me -- and it has been."</I> ~ Stu </BLOCKQUOTE>

4. <H4><U><The Analytical Engine</U></H4>

5. <BLOCKQUOTE><STRONG> Isn't it possible to teach a <EM>rigorous, disciplinary, </EM>&nbsp;introduction to computer science? </STRONG></BLOCKQUOTE>

6. <FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" SIZE=2> <H4><U>programming.java</U> (Coming soon!)</H4>

7. <B>fun</B>

8. <BR><HR SIZE=3><BR>

A little about me

It's the yeast I can do!

I grew up in northern California - also known as cereal land (full of fruits, nuts and flakes!). Unlike any pre-conceived notions you might have about the northern part of that state, the area I grew up in was as sparsely populated as Aroostook County where I now live. And like "The County", it is predominately agricultural. I lived in Lake County, which is surrounded by Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino Counties. When I lived there in the 60's and early 70's Lake County was the largest producer of Bartlett pears. But due to the explosion of wine on the world scene, most of the orchardists started pulling up the old pear trees and planting grapes. Needless to say, wine was a major influence on the area and me. 

If the background images on these pages seem a little confusing, let me explain. When I first bought my property in Benedicta in the late 70's, one of the first things I did was plant around 3 acres of nut and fruit trees - pears, apples, plums and cherries. This probably goes back to the old "Nature - Nurture" controversy - I'm not sure if it was genetics or just growing up in that environment, I had to grow fruit. 

Over the past half dozen years, I have rekindled a childhood fascination with making my own wine. My brother Joe and I had a (very) mini fruit winery in the cellar of our house when I was an early teenager. Unlike the farmers in Lake County - and also due to our extreme climate - I didn't feel to pull up my trees and replace them with vines. Actually, even though wine - even its name connotes grapes - is thought to be only grape, for years and even millennia there have been many regions (even some that could grow grapes), that have made fruit and flower wines. So, to quote a friend of mine "to make a long story excruciating", the background images on this site are fruits and flowers that I have successfully made very decent wines with. In fact, despite the red tape, bureaucracy, and cost of start-up, I do intend at some point to go into production with Lawler Ridge Winery!

1. I'm a little confused here, I looked at the lab modules on the CD that came with the book - after going to "Rick and Stu's Homepage" on the disk, all I found were 7 links at the bottom of the page.
2. All of these links are external links.
3. <AHREF="http://www.hamilton.edu/html/academic/compsci/cs149/" target="_top"> <B>CS 149 Home Page</B></A>                          <A HREF="http://pws.com:9966/pws/aeonline/course/"target="_top"> <B>AE Online</B></A> <AHREF="http://www2.mids.org/weather/us/index.html" target="_top"> <B>Internet Weather Report</B></A>                   <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/" target="_top"> <B>Yahoo! News</B></A>                                                          <A HREF="http://www.news.com/" target="_top"> <B>c|net Tech News</B></A>                                                                              <A HREF="http://www.saranac.com/" target="_top"> <B>Saranac.com</B></A>                                                            <A HREF="http://www.umich.edu/" target="_top"> <B>University of Michigan</B></A>
1. Here are 2 links to targets within this page: first to the "yeast I can do" header, and second to the words "Lawler Ridge Winery".
2. This is a link to UMA.
3. This is a link to AEOnline.
4. And, a link to a favorite website.