Ernest E. Rothman is a Professor of Mathematics at Salve Regina University (SRU) in Newport, Rhode Island, where he is also Chair of the Mathematical Sciences Department. Ernie holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Brown University and held positions at the Cornell Theory Center in Ithaca, New York, before coming to SRU. His interests are in scientific computing, applied mathematics and computational science education, and the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X. Ernie lives in South Kingston, Rhode Island with his wife Kim and two Newfoundland dogs Max and Joe. You can keep abreast of his latest activities at http://homepage.mac.com/samchops.