Profile

My name is Thomas Pfau. Most of my friends call me "Tom". I live in New Jersey. I am a Christian and a Conservative and I tend to vote Republican.

"Bit Decay" (aka "Bit Rot", "Software Rot") is a term I picked up from the Jargon File many years ago. It is defined as "Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if ‘nothing has changed’." I have been a computer programmer for over 25 years and have seen plenty of instances. It's quite prevalent especially when the IT staff is predominantly made up of junior programmers.

I have been married to my wife Karen since January, 1982. We have four daughters, three cats, a dog, a gecko, several fish, and we are currently out of birds although there are about eight burried in the back yard.

I play guitar in a band called 9 Feet Tall.