Just who is Peter D. Hipson?
Peter D. Hipson is a
teacher, author, consultant, and developer, who lives and works in New
Hampshire, in the northeastern part of the United States. He holds a
MEng in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Asian Institute
of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok (see their web page at http://www.ait.ac.th),
Thailand. AIT is one of the leading engineering and management
institutions in the world. Peter has an undergraduate BSEE (in
communications).
Peter’s original field
of expertise was electronics and communications. Though today he does
less work in the field of computer hardware, he is still considered a
competent electrical engineer who develops hardware projects for his own
use.
First involved in
computers in the early 1970’s where he performed work at the hardware
level on mainframe computers used for inventory and management.
Subsequent work with mainframes continued until the mid-1980’s.
His work with micro
computers dates back to their inception in the early to mid 1970’s.
Achievements in the early microcomputer field include patents for
development of microcomputer technology dealing with secure software
techniques, and advanced work in data encryption. Other work included
the development of interfaces for early microcomputers allowing the then
simple computers to work with a number of different devices.
Peter’s post-graduate
work included work in the use of computers in management, with specific
emphasis on the role of Industrial Engineers and computers. His work
included time with Goodyear Tire and Rubber, where he researched methods
to use computers in the tire-manufacturing process. At the same time, he
did research work on the management of computer centers.
Past work experience
includes serving as
AIT’s system administrator (AIT, at the time, used
IBM mainframe
computers), teaching and lecturing (undergraduate, graduate, and in
corporate environments), consulting, and authoring many books and
articles on software development and systems administration. Work in
security began at AIT, and has continued since.
Current work includes
teaching undergraduate classes at
Franklin
Pierce
College
in Rindge, New Hampshire, and lecturing in the corporate environment.
Other continuing work includes working as a consultant (both application
development and systems administration), and writing books and articles.
Other work includes writing books on various microcomputer related
topics (see below for more information on Peter’s books.)
One of his current
projects is Safe Kids on the Internet, a program which
teaches children and their parents how to use the Internet safely.
Hardware work included
the design (with Thomas Westheimer) of the CopyRighter CPU, a patented
hardware design allowing execution of encrypted software. The design had
commercial and government applications. Peter has extensive experience
with hardware, system configuration, and design.
Peter developed the
first PC and Windows mapping (GIS) applications. Descendants of his
Windows GIS products still enjoying success in the market today, almost
15 years after initial development. Peter also developed the first
non-Windows PC based mapping program, and pioneered the use of
microcomputers for GIS, mapping, high speed graphics, and geographic
database techniques. These programs were created in the mid-1980’s,
after the personal computer had developed sufficient computational power
to drive the application’s need for performance.
Peter’s work in
database techniques, both for general applications and for GIS based
systems is used frequently in the development of both GIS and other
business-based applications. Several database books by him continue to
sell well, despite their age.
Virtually all work in
the past 15 years has primarily been in the Microsoft Windows arena, at
all levels: administration, programming and user.
A valued member of the
Microsoft’s beta-test team, he has helped to test and develop products
including: QuickC for Windows; Visual C++ 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 4.0 (and
every subsequent release of Microsoft’s programming platform—Developer
Studio.) Microsoft systems software tested includes Windows CE, Windows
3.0 and 3.1; Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and 3.11; Windows 95 and Windows
98; and Windows NT 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0, and 5, (both Workgroup and Server
versions), Windows 2000 and Windows XP. He also tests a wide variety of
other products from both Microsoft and other companies for business,
industry and home applications. He is a member of Microsoft’s ExpertZone
(at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/,) a limited
membership group of computing experts that provide unofficial support
for Windows users. He was a member of ClubIE, a team leader and board
member of ClubWin, the two predecessors of the Expert Zone.
As an author, some of
the titles written include Mastering the Windows XP Registry,
Microsoft BackOffice 2.5: The Complete Solution, The Windows NT 4 Server
Book, Advanced C, What Every Visual C++ 2 Programmer
Should Know, Database Developer’s Guide with Visual C++,
Visual C++ Developer's Guide, and Using QuickC for Windows. A
fully detailed list of his book titles is included later.
Other books that Peter
contributed to include Programming Windows 95 Unleashed
(published Sams) and contributions to other titles as an un-credited
contract author. Sybex has published his books on the Windows registry,
the latest registry book being published in 2002. He was also the series
editor for Que’s BackOffice Special Edition series. Books in this series
included titles such as Using Microsoft Site Server, Special Edition,
a book that is an important publication in the field of Internet
commerce
Additional works
include the Expert Guide to the Windows NT 4 Registry book,
published by Sybex late in 1998 and Mastering the Windows 2000 Registry,
released in January 2000 by Sybex. His book Mastering the Windows XP
Registry was one of the first Windows XP registry books available.
These Sybex titles have continued to be very good sellers over the past
few years.
He is often a speaker
at conferences and user groups including Boston University’s WinDev
Windows developer’s conference held each year in Boston, Massachusetts
and in Santa Clara, California. In 1998, he was one of the panelists on
the WBUG Technical Presentation on the future of Windows given in June
of that year.
He writes from time to
time for technical publications such as the Windows Technical Journal,
and often assists other authors in their writing, and serves as an
editor and technical editor for authors and publishers.
He has been a member,
in good standing, of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since
1983. He is also a member of Microsoft’s Expert Zone and was a member of
ClubWin (where he led the Windows 2000/Windows NT teams). In the past,
Peter was also a board member for ClubWin.
Some of the books
written by Peter D. Hipson include those listed below. Those with a
hyperlink are currently available from the publisher, or any bookseller.
Those without a hyperlink are out of print, but may be available at
amazon.com. (A list of articles, older books, books with
contributions by Hipson, and non-computer related publications available
on request):