Who is rubin? Since the first time that question was answered on my origional site,
the answer has probably changed. I'm not the same person who went to U.S. Grant High School.
Back then, I was the picture on the right. Its been nearly eight years though, and
I definately look different now.
I now go to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
I also work for the university, designing information systems (databases, and the websites, interfaces, and glue that
hold them together and make them usefull) for UHDS and RCN.
While there at the university, I met my sweetheart Jenn. She is "uber" cool,
but since I suck at expressing things like that (especally here, you never know who reads this stuff :P), its best
for you to take my word for it, and visit her page. There are some really cool shots from her trip to Europe there too.
I used to be an avid skiier, but lately paying for college and skiing a lot have proven to be mutually exclusive. I still
manage to make it up every year for my birthday though, generally to Mt. Hood Medows.
Computers
I am as you probably guessed, avidly into computers. I consider myself a "hacker", but not a "cracker" which is
what people these days think hacker means. (hacker is someone who uses a tool for other than its intended purpose, where
as a cracker is someone who breaks into other peoples computers). In general it just means that I'm into Linux, and I know
how to make a bash prompt hum. In fact I tend to use Linux as my primary OS when possible. More on that later though,
in the tech zone.
I started my computer addiction with the BBS back in '92 - The Simulated Planet. For those
familiar with BBS's, it was a Wildcat board, with 2 phone lines (28.8 and 9600 baud). We kicked BRE ass on the exchange
net every round we played. Also widely known for my custom Trade Wars universes.
From there, I discovered the internet--Gopher, FTP, and Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a largely misused and misunderstood
medium, and has an only partally diserved bad name amung sysadmins and network administrators. I can easily say
that I would not be anywhere near as good with coding if it were not for the close friends I had on IRC who guided me
though the learning process. I started out IRCing on efnet, then Undernet, and finally
helped to found AfterNET, my baby.
Books
I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi, though I don't make the time to read very much for pleasure. I like Isaac Asimov's robot books, and foundation
and Empire series, and Orson Scott Card's Ender and Homecoming books. I've read quite a few other good sci-fi too,
but thats all that pops into my head at the moment (oh, wait, how about Nightfall, Wyrms, The Hacker and the Ants,
Necromancer, and some others). 'Course mostly I read textbooks and technical manuals (I
am in college after
all).
I have also read quite a few short stories, and even written a few of my own which are available here.
Hope this provided some mildly interesting insights. Bet you never wanted to know so much about me eh?
I have a Dell Inspiron 8200, and found 
