DrFox.com

The webpage of Dr. Jon R. Fox

My name is Jon Fox and I'm an applied physicist and computing technologist.

Applied Physics

I am a thin film process engineer with Gulton, Inc. I am currently involved with thin film thermal printhead product development at Gulton. I pattern thin film conductors and resistors on ceramic substrates all day long. I work with Six Sigma quality methodology, process control statistics, and lean manufacturing methods.

Before August 2007, I was a scientist with Research Support Instruments, a small business with a branch in the Princeton, NJ area. I was also a Visting Research Collaborator at Princeton University's Applied Physics Group and at times (when funding and need allows) an Industrial Partner of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials. At RSI I developed a number of micro-fabricated devices as well as worked on plasma physics instrumentation.

I've microfabricated a wide variety of structures with 'thick' photoresists, including micro-lenses, micro-prisms, micro-scale retro-reflectors, channels, capillaries, micro-ribbon speakers and microphones. I've worked with electroplating equipment to 'electroform' structures from UV-resists, a kind of poor man's LIGA. I also have a lot of experience using anistropic etches to make trenches, through channels, and vias in silicon.

Coding

I'm also a GNU/Linux user and I develop scientific software with Python, C, FORTRAN, Pascal, Javascript, and C#. I've written a wide variety of python apps, including CalTech Interchange Format (.cif)-writing scripts, Python Numeric analysis scripts, and general Linux utilities. I'm also working on microcontrollers (TI MSP430 and Microchip PIC16Fxxx) and embedded Linux (VIA, Intel Xscale) for both hobby projects and system integration work at RSI. [more on python].

Net Service Administration

Previously these webpages were served dynamically using the Zope Web Application Server running the Plone Content Management System. I've migrated away from Plone after some frustrating upgrade experiences that left all my data behhind.

These pages are dynamically served as Python common gate interface (cgi) applications called by the Apache Web Server running on Debian GNU/Linux. The Python script that generates this page takes advantage of kid python templating and sqlobject for object-relational mapping to a MySQL database storage backend. I am certified as a Linux Professional through LPIC. [more on linux]

I'm a big proponent of Open Source (read free as in freedom) Software for the small business, home office, and home user.

Hobbies

I also am a licensed amateur radio operator, call sign KC2ODW, and frequent the N2RE repeater on the 2m band here in Central Jersey. I'm working on my General license and hope to have that ticket in late April. I also have an interest in homebrew transceivers for the HF. I'd like to build a software definable transceiver.

I also love riding my bike along the Delarware and Raritan canal, especially at lunch time in the spring and fall.

About this website

This is website is where you can find my contact information, my blog, and anything else I produce fit for web publication. I bought the domain drfox.com in 2002. The previous owner still maintains a web page here. I am not affliated with Leslie P. Fox, M.D.

This website, and all of the internet, are better viewed using a free open- source web browser like Mozilla Firefox .

If you have questions or comments email jonfox AT drfox.com or drjonfox AT gmail.com.

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