Geeking Out

I'm a big computer geek. Most of my free time is spent online browsing the web, chatting with people, and playing bughouse. When I get a project in mind I have the programming and web design skills to do it, assuming I have the time.

My main computer is a dual 1.2GHz processor, dual 300 GB hard drive, HushPC with no fans (it's one big heat sink). I have an AG Neovo monitor on a swinging arm. There is a wireless G network connecting my printer. Back in Pennsylvania I had a Phaser 8400 solid ink printer, which came in very handy for large LP print jobs. I didn't bring it with me to Fairfax though. My operating system is WinXP and my browser of choice is Firefox. I use Microsoft Office for word processing, Adobe Creative Suite for graphics, and notepad for HTML coding. My chess server interface is Thief.

I've had a co-located server at Velocity Server for about 4 years now. The server is a dual 1 GHZ 1U rackmount with two 120 GB hard drives in hardware RAID 0 (mirroring) plugged into multiple redundant OC3 lines (with 400 GB upload/download available monthly). It runs Debian GNU/Linux stable and hosts 20-30 websites.

I'm also into hacker culture. It's unclear whether I'm a hacker or just a hacker groupie... I have more computer knowledge than most hackers I meet; however, I'm not the type to break into systems. I've done a few minor hacks: e.g., I figured out how to be first in line registering for classes online every semester at RIT. Since 1997 I've attended as many hacker conventions as possible. I enjoy learning new technologies and techniques in the seminars, as well as hearing entertaining war stories from the more daring hackers. I've missed only two DefCons since DefCon 5 (the next one will be DefCon 17) and attended Beyond HOPE, HOPE 2000, H2K2, and the Fifth HOPE. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to HOPE Number Six because I was studying for the bar exam (held two days later). I've read 2600 off and on for over a decade and attended a handful of 2600 meetings. Yeh, I guess I'm a hacker groupie.