Wirehead.
I hack things and know stuff.
The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases. - Larry Wall
Hi, they call me
About Me
I became a technology enthusiast the first time I logged on to a BBS in 1992. It was on a Smith-Corona word processor running at 300 baud. That path took me to college, where I met my first VAX, and then I fell to the dark side logging into someone else’s SunOS with default credentials. I’ve been in ever since.
In normal life, I work to protect small business owners and organizations from malicious actors, worse code, and stupid decisions.
Here are a few things I've been working with recently:- Blue Team
- Red Team
- Engineering
- Retooled Technology
- Internet
- Virtual Reality
my interests
The Blue Team methodology is to learn and protect the technical system and those who have a personal interest in it. I try to provide this service in the following ways:
- Monitor for access and perversion of systems as they normally operate
- Eliminate intrusions and issues such as malware, spam mechanisms, and crypto-miners
On the Red Team, the goal is to access and escalate privileges by any means possible. Anything and anyone can be hacked. The question is what the point of it is for the attacker.
- Those who hack to explore, share, investigate are good, especially if the goal is to provide benefit outside themselves to the world at large.
- Those who hack to exploit, harm, limit normal operations of persons and entities that are beneficial at large to their own enrichment are the assholes we think they are.
The point of engineering is to simplify and streamline processes and build new mechanisms to perform old and new tasks in more efficient methods. Here are a couple things I am interested in:
- Efficient small space living, including food and power production.
- Compact, yet powerful computing that helps provide for education and basic needs.
The web, inadvertently developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, left many useful technologies in its wake as it was strip-mined for profit into the spectacle it is today. Not saying anything negative about his work itself, but it is sometimes a thing to escape.
- The Gemini protocol allows for a wealth of text information to be authored, cataloged, and thus shared without the oversight and interference of Big Tech.
- Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) provide ways for communities and old school tech enthusiasts to connect, minus the aforementioned spoilage provided by large corporations.
The Internet has its reasons for existing. The nefarious ones need to be extrapolated and removed by a society that has no use for them. We complain about things like pr0n, social media and the dysfunction it brings on, as well as all manner of ignoble activity. The fact is we bring this on ourselves by how we use the technology.
Virtual Reality harnesses a new way to experience The Network. I currently have interest in Hubs by Mozilla, and despite the ventures into left field by the Zuck, hope we can manage to harness the next level the right way.
a few of my favorite things
Sun Microsystems
I have been a Sun worshipper since the 90s. And I still haven't forgiven Oracle. I once turned down a job as an IT manager at a record company because the other offer promised a Sun Ultra 30. Good decision.
Hail Freya!
After a lifetime of wandering around, I find myself in the Asatru/Norse Pagan camp. Freya is beautiful, ferocious in her actions and retribution, and only accepts the best into her realm.
Debian Linux
It started with Slackware, kernel 1.0.13, and Debian has been my major player for the last decade. Tried Arch, came back to Debian. In other words, I was a Linux guy when it wasn't cool.
Ergo Proxy
I'm not much of an anime and manga watcher, but this one got my attention. The style of the animation and the plot were almost Gibson-esque enough to capture me. Re-L is on my laptop keyboard next to a sticker that says, "Make today your bitch."
Ghost in the Shell
How do you not? Major Kusanagi is a staple. Especially since Ilya got the illustration gig. I love them all. Yes, including the live action movie. I have a chibi Kusanagi in the center of my laptop case.
Beatless
I don't recall how I got into this one, but oh, so glad I did. As the series continued, I realized several odd things about it. But I had in my head exactly how I wanted it to end, and I'll be damned if they didn't finish exactly how I wanted it to. Lacia stands in her monolith on my desk.