Hello, Welcome To The Forums. Have A Bit Of A Sit Down and Introduce Yourselves

madmat

Soup Nazi
Hello...Since we're going to see a rise in membership a new member suggested an introductary thread to let everyone get aquainted and I think that's a fine idea.

I'll start the ball rolling. I'm Matt Harris and I'm a soon to be 41 tech head. I've been into electronics since the tender age of 2 when I repaired the phonograph at the Oakland Childrens Hospital so that I could hear Walt Disney records (no lie) while I was staying there after extensive reconstructive chest surgery.

I'm an avid gear-head and I've been working on cars and such since I was 5. I was lucky enough to have an ex-motorpool mechanic as a teacher. I personally see PC's as a blending of the 2 ideologies as a computer is both mechanical and electronic.

I didn't start with computers until 2000 (6 years ago this month in fact, March is a big deal for me and computers) and I picked it up like a duck to water. I had my PC broke open the week after I brought it home and was busiliy upgrading and have pretty much been doing so ever since.

I met Rob on another forum and we hit it off. I'd recently lost a gig writing for another site (no fault of mine, the site owner just stopped caring) and needed to find a new home and happily here it is.

The rest, as the wags always say, is history.
 

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Hey all, as you can see I'm new here..........;)

I'm just a old retired Army vet with not much else to do but mess with computers a bit. I've been building comuter off and on for about 20 years and have gotten into modding and water cooling over the past 5 years or so.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I'd like to welcome everyone to the forums. This should prove a busy month, which is awesome! Sbrehm, you remind me a lot of Matt. He's hardcore into modding and WC'ing also.

I am a 22 year old computer geek who enjoys long walks on the beach [ladies call me], working on the website, toying with hardware, coding/hacking and of course gaming.

Technology is great and ever advancing, so it's a great hobby.
 

maddmaxx

E.M.I.
I'm older than dirt ( my SS# is 3 ) who got into computers about the same time as madmat. I took to it like a rock to flying but by sheer will and determination I am skimming the surface.
I used to do reviews and tech writing for a tech review site also. The same one in fact.
I have some minor modding skilz and I am a full blown Techead. If it's tech I'm on it.
Speed: If it goes fast I'm interested. You say your lawnmower does 0 to 60 in 3.2.:eek: I want to see that sucker.
Navy Vet.:techgage:
 

Jakal

Tech Monkey
Hi, my name is Jared Graham, and I'm a techaholic. My first time was with a 386 when I was about 5. Here I am at 21 and I've built at least 5 computers from scratch. Updated and reconfigured countless others.

Computers are an expensive hobby, and I've been quite lucky. I had a side job working in a retirement community helping people who had no clue how to work a pc. Word spread by mouth and they were all very generous with the paycheck. My last big project was building a CAD pc for a small company my father works for.

I'm not too big on the modding part, I just don't have the space, but I'm pretty good at troubleshooting and helping others with their problems.
Just remember to plug it in before you call someone.;)

I'm working towards an Electronics degree, I never liked programming so Computer Science turned me off. Actually, it was having to take Calculus 3. I hope to work for a major computer company some day. Then start up my own computer shop when I retire.

Welcome, everyone, to the forums and hope you enjoy your stay!
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
Rob Williams said:
I'd like to welcome everyone to the forums. This should prove a busy month, which is awesome! Sbrehm, you remind me a lot of Matt. He's hardcore into modding and WC'ing also.

I am a 22 year old computer geek who enjoys long walks on the beach [ladies call me], working on the website, toying with hardware, coding/hacking and of course gaming.

Technology is great and ever advancing, so it's a great hobby.

Canada has no beaches silly boy.... Right?


I am a 25 year old dork. I work for Miller (Beer) as well as Rob. If it plugs in, more than likely I have messed with it and quite possibly ruined it. Computers are my life, aside from my wife and 2 daughters. Then comes XBOX or beer, both are fighting HARD for my attention. Then comes baseball and any other physical activity. I live on a farm and am Windows XP certified. I also am close to earning my Computer Engineering degree from Purdue University in good 'ol Indianer.

Thats the Darkster....who are you!?!
 

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
I am also a dork and I an 37. I have no friends in the real world so I rely on the internet for any "adult" contact. I am a US citizen that moved to Canadastan with my Canadian wife. Since then, my interest in PC's has grown tremendously as it is my only real hobby now. Hopefully, I will be able to indulge in my other love, which is cars, very soon as we just bought a house. I am only Windows 98 certified at the moment, but I am hoping to WHQL certified by years end. And this is a pretty cool forum you have here.
 

leecho7

Partition Master
Hey everyone, the name's Lee Cho. I'm from Baltimore Maryland (home of heroin and the STD capital of the world... we'll treet you right in Baltimore).
I'm in my early 20's currently working on my secondary education degree, so that I can start teaching inner city school kids about stuff.

I used to 'work' with cars a long time ago. I knew how to double clutch before I even had my learner's permit. With my knowledge in cars, when I became legit I started to experiment with computers. As some have already mentioned, there is some similarities between computers and cars. So it only became naturally for me to take up this very expensive hobby.
I'm not too big on overclocking or fancy modding or whatever. But I know how to trouble shoot. (Unless it's with agp cards requiring a power connector for it to function properly... still embarassed about that... ROb knows what I'm talking about.)

I just recently got into video production, and bought my self a pimped out professional video camera by selling one of several of my left nuts. So I've been studying more into rigs built for graphics/video editing and... I know I'm probably gonna get stabbed and/or shot for saying this, but I've been using my iMac G5 more than my PC.
 

BLuKnight

Obliviot
Hi, my name is Adam and it's been 3 years since I've touched Java... oh wait, that's a different meeting.

Anyways, I'm 28 and my first score was an 8088 computer with the green monochrome screen. However, that wasn't enough. After that first hit, I had to have more. I then moved onto a 286/8(?), 386/25, and 486 DX/2 66. And then the Pentium arrived and my addiction was sealed.

I started out as a gamer and that's grown into a computer technician and computer programmer. I'm a Senior at Brigham Young University (I've been a senior for a while... I really hope I can finish up my degree sometime soon.) and hope to graduate the end of Fall. I also work in a Network Operations Center doing computer support over the phone.

I've been married for 5 years. If I disappear from the boards, it's because my wife is from Brazil and we vacation there. (My parents in law don't have a good enough internet connection to get my by, and internet costs them by the minute).

Overall, I'm happy with life. I try to pipe in as I can to help others, but my schedule is erratic. I'm very sarcastic, so I hope I don't piss anyone off.

That's about it. It's been fun to read others' introductions. Keep 'em coming.
 

Flipi

Obliviot
Hello, although my name is Razvan everybody calls me Flipi, so can you. It is a nickname that has a long story and it is not that interesting....

So, about me, i am 28 soon to be 29, and live in a country that you would call the 3rd world, maybe you've heard of it maybe not.... Romania. (yes it in Europe...) and I am an architect working hard to make a living.

Since we've had acces to computers here (1989 - freedom year, we've had a nasty comunist ruler) I had to dig in and nowadays there couple of my friends, relatives and people I scaresly knew run succesfully computers assembled by me. And of course that it teaches you lots of things about the subject.

I am a mild gamer, but loose some hours a day into tech stuff, I try to find info for my projects and to incorp[orate them into my designs, but it a hell of a job because the money is not too much and with the apartment I bought there are couple of things I have to solve

Been living together with my future wife for 7 years now, i can call her my wife although it not official. Maybe we'll have time this year.

Aside from the computer and architecture I also like to write poems and even tried a little novell, unfortunatelly for you english speakers it is in my native language so you have to trust my words.:D

I like unusuall music, ambinet tipe, but also enjoy a good jazz, classic music or even gothick or doom. I will not talk about cars because I cannot afford them, currently own a Dacia. (it a renault 12 actually a little bit modified over the years by the locall factory, and has been designed in late 70s)

My time online will be very strange as I own my own architecture firm and do not have a strict schedule, so I can be online for days and then be gone for months (that is when I have to catch up with my work ;) )

That's about all if I do not start to mention Sci-Fi, travelling, motor - sports etc etc etc
 
Hi! I'm Steven. I'm 16 years old and I go to high school. Don't know what my future hold for me. I do like computers and science thought. It's great to be part of these forums. :)
 

Lothar

Obliviot
Hi, my name is Tim. I've been around computers for most of my life starting with an 8088 when I was about 5, but I'm not an addict. ;) I'm 26 now. I've built 6 computers from scratch and helped with a bunch of others. Between my wife and I, we've got 7 computers sitting in our "computer room". I'm sure we all have one of those, right? I've been a gamer since the beginning, but really started fulltime with Quake and Diablo.

Recently I've gotten myself into HTPCs and just recently finished rebuilding my P2 400MHz system into a MythTV system in Linux. Still have a couple bugs to work out, but it's nice to be able to put the old system to use again.

I'm looking to get into modding and overclocking soon, so I hope you can all help out with that.

I'm an Electrical Engineer, so I have no friends :p and sometimes I know everything. I have a very dry and sometimes sarcastic sense of humor, so let me appologize in advance.

So that's it about me. Nice talking to you.
 

=CDU=Above

Obliviot
Real name is Jim, I'm 36 and live in Tucson, AZ. Started my electronics background disassembling my Atari 2600....never did work right again.
Dropped out of High School during my senior year. Just never went back after X-mas Vacation. Joined the military as a communications electrician. Ended up in Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Somalia before my honorable in 93.
Got a job as a copier tech for Konica and quit that after 3 years to become a Federal Agent. I've been hunting people for 9 years now. I just do the computer thing as a hobby. Along with three other friends I founded what has turned out to be a very large and successful adult gaming community.

These days I spend the majority of my time either at work or with my wife and four kids.
 

Tech-Daddy

Tech Monkey
Wow! A Fed on the board! My dad is a retired Secret Service Agent! Much respect for you bro!

Hi, Craig here. 36 (today, thanks guys!) years old, living in Plano Texas. Been playing on computers since about '86, started doing it professionally around '96. Bought me one machine (Pentium 100) that I tore apart and upgraded, used it into the ground!

I now work for an international software company during the day doing System Admin work, play with my wife and kids in the evening, and then I mod like a mad man @ night! I've been published in a few magazines, and have a seriously competitive streak in me with regards to computer modding. I have invested heavily in tools and equipment to move the mods into the next level this next year.... we'll see what happens!

See ya around the forums!
 

Rory Buszka

Partition Master
(From where I come from, this is called "Thread Necromancy".)

My name is Rory Buszka. I'm a 21-year-old student at Purdue University in Indiana, in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program. My two primary interests at this time are computer hardware and high-fidelity audio. I've never been particularly popular, though I do have a few close friends. If you met me in person, you'd likely think me somewhat awkward. I'm typically quiet and reserved. Proper introductions are a bit hard for me.

My first computer was a 1994-model Macintosh Performa, with a 33MHz Motorola chip that was like the Motorola version of the Intel 486. The machine also boasted an expansive 250MB hard drive (which was periodically backed up to over 200 floppy diskettes), and 8MB of ram, which was later upgraded to 32MB. It shipped with System 7.1, which we upgraded to System 7.5 and then Mac OS 8. My first computer was an old 486-based laptop with a broken screen, though I connected an external monitor and 33.6K modem. In 2000, I built my first machine, with a 433MHz Intel Celeron processor on an ABIT BM-6 motherboard, with 64MB of SDRAM, a 32MB 3DFX Voodoo3 2000 AGP video card, and an 8GB hard drive. The machine ran Windows 98, and the case was the blue model from the Antec Gemstone series. I've got lots of happy memories from that machine, and some not-so-happy memories (such as the time my case fan failed, and my video card began to give Windows Protection Errors. It was replaced with an NVidia Riva TNT2 32MB.) All in all, it served me well until 2002, when I upgraded. My second machine used a 1GHz AMD Duron on an ASUS A7V-266. In May of 2003, I upgraded my case to a charcoal-colored Chieftec Dragon case (same as Antec SX1040B), and upgraded to dual 80GB hard drives and an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB. And Windows XP. In the fall of 2003 (my freshman year at Purdue), I invested in special cooling components in order to make my machine run silently, including low-speed fans by Panaflo, a Zalman heatpipe passive cooler for the video card, and the first power supply with a 120mm fan. I made this hardware last as long as I possibly could, eventually resorting to a small overclock to 1200MHz, until April of 2006 when I purchased my current machine, a Gateway NX560P laptop with a Core Duo T2300 (dual 1.6GHz) processor and 1GB of dual-channel DDR2 memory.

In 2001, I built my first powered subwoofer after purchasing a book at Radio Shack, and assembled a small stereo system with a pair of my parents' old Fried Products Co. Model Q speakers from the 1970s, which were pretty good for their day. However, before long the old adhesives in the woofers and tweeters began to come apart, so I replaced the drivers. From then on, I was hooked on the world of DIY audio. I discovered a large online community of people like me, who were also into designing and building their own speakers. I went on to build four subwoofers and four sets of high-quality full-range main speakers, some of which were for myself, and others were for friends and relatives. During this period, I also purchased and read a vast array of high-end audio magazines, interested in reading the reviews of components and loudspeakers. I learned how to listen critically and evaluate the performance of my own projects based on various subjective performance criteria, though I lack the sophisticated data acquisition equipment that would be needed to take measurements of my speaker designs. I also spent the summer of 2006 in Philadelphia, PA working for a company called Community Professional Loudspeakers, Inc. developing quality control systems to test passive circuitry networks (the "crossovers" which divide the appropriate frequency ranges of the musical signal to the appropriate drivers) which were used in the loudspeakers. I have never received the impression that they were anything other than satisfied with my work. The experience and knowledge gained from that opportunity has been invaluable to me in my later technical undertakings, including a small model of a hydroelectric generator for a class project. I love working with my hands and putting things together, and finally watching them work at last. I also consider myself a fairly talented writer, and many others have told me the same.

In late 2006, I posted a reply in the companion forum thread to a review of the Altec Lansing FX4021 speakers, explaining the technical advantages of the system's Isobaric driver loading system in the subwoofer. It occurred to me that I might be able to lend my technical insights to the staff of TechGage, so I contacted Rob Williams about the possibility of guest-writing a review. The product I selected was the Altec Lansing PT6021 system, and I had great fun testing the product and writing the review. Rob and others were pleased with the quality of my work, and thus began my long-term relationship with the TechGage organization. My next review (of a case for a Home Theater PC) is in the works, and I'm looking forward to many more review opportunities in the future. I see each review I write as an opportunity to broaden my own technical understanding of the product category, so I work hard to do my due diligence in learning about how to most effectively test a product, and how to present the information most clearly and satisfyingly in the review. Here's to TechGage, and Rob Williams, for giving me the chance to become a published writer.
 
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madstork91

The One, The Only...
hmm rory... so that would make you a guy or a girl? wait... this is the internet, does it really matter? Either way i thought Rob called you a matt... o.0

So hi, welcome to the forum officially I Guess!
 

Rory Buszka

Partition Master
Curse these unisex names...I'm a guy (photo proof provided), and the name was originally an Irish male name. My friend has a brother named Whitney, so I'm not the only one.

I'm also CompTIA A+ Certified, FWIW.
 

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