| Today's interview is with InsanePoet/IrishCream. Interview 6 will be published on the normal forthnightly-Tuesday schedule. How did you find out about CCN?
It was many years ago. At the time I had just gotten into coding. I didn't access to the Internet, I didn't even have an email address. So I went to a public library Googled "Christian" and "programming" (or something along those lines) and found CCN. Why did you join?
I wanted to work with other programmers interested in game programming. Why are you interested in game programming?
Well, I was interested in game programming initially when i joined 5 years ago. 'm not entirely interested in programming now I'm more interested in design work. Why is that?
I feel that I am more suited for design work and project management. It's not that I can't code, I just don't maintain an avid interest in it. Other than interest, what led you in the design direction rather than programming?
In design there's a lot of administrative and organizational work. not only do I feel able in those categories but I enjoy organizing things... as odd as that may sound When did you become interested in programming?
When I was about 16 I maintained that interest until I was about 18 I've had a few run ins with programming over the years It's something that I probably should invest more into make it more of a skill and less scattered knowledge What kind of job do you have?
I am an IT Coordinator for a small municipal state office. If it's technology, it's my responsibility. Do you enjoy it?
Well, I've just started, but I'm enjoying it so far. They hired me to really organize their network, as it is in a state of disarray. It should be an interesting job When did you become interested in computers?
Well, my interest in computers started when I was about 12 or so. To be honest, my childhood was less than golden and because of that, I got into computers. Long story short... kids are cruel. I stayed inside my house and eventually I found hobby in computers What was it about the computer that interested you?
Computing with me started with video games. When I was about 10 or so, I got a Nintendo for Christmas complete with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. Eventually our family got a computer when I was about 12. It was a 386 with about 4 megs of RAM ran Windows 3.0. I had a natural interest in the computer. When we received a AOL 1.0 diskette in the mail we didn't have any actual connection to the Internet, but I wanted to install it anyway because it was all new to me. AOL 1.0 actually contained a virus And the next day the computer wouldn't boot up. one of my older sister's friend was a computer guy he upgraded our computer.. gave us Windows 3.11 and a bunch of games (which were not legal). So as you can see, my interest accelerated from there. What operating system(s) do you normally use? Why do you use them?
Essentially I use want I need to I've tend to use both Windows XP and Mac OSX Linux on occasion, but I don't like "monkeying around" too much, so that tends to act as a deterrent. What other things do you enjoy doing on a computer?
More often than not my computer is a giant jukebox. I have a huge collection of music albums copied on to my computer. In terms of technical related things I mostly use my computer for research and writing technical documents, but thats more job related. Do you prefer Email or Instant messaging when communicating with someone?
I prefer face to face communication by voice. What kind of Email/Chat client do you use? What's it's name?
For chat I use GAIM [GAIM is now known as Pidgin, and has just released their 2.0 release --editor's note]. GAIM can handle a sundry of chat services as well as IRC.
I just use the Firefox browser to access my webmail sites. What are the specs of your home and/or work computers?
Pentium II - 233 MHz, 16 MB of ram... 2 GB hard drive... just kidding.
Processor: AMD 64 3500+ @ 2.2 Ghz
Ram 1 GB Corsair XMS series... forget the clock speed but it's fast.. at least it was a year ago.
320 GB hard drive Western Digital Cavalier
ATI Radeon X850 XT Motherboard: Asus M2V Are you running the 64bit version Windows?
I am not, I am however aware the operating system are only designed to handle certain hardware and that Windows XP Pro is for 32 bit processors. However economically speaking, the demand for 32 bit processors these days is low so therefore their price is not proportional to their capabilities. It was actually cheaper to buy a 64 bit processor. Do you have a game console? If so what is it and why did you buy/get it?
I got a Gamecube 2 years ago. I hardly used it for the year before I then gave it to my little bro. I got it because I was bored.. not a good reason. What was your first Game console? The Game Cube?
No. It was an Atari something, then the NES. Do you touch the graphics field of computing very often (such as modeling, or 2D art, etc)?
I do a lot of pixel art and I spent 1 year as a graphic design student. Most of that was print related though. Do you believe in freedom (primarily in software) the was the FSF believes in it?
To an extent, yes. Free software is nice and if I ever develop software, I wouldn't mind freely distributing it. However my opinion on open-source: No one cares enough. Everyone is only semi-committed and unpaid open-source products are can be very unreliable, time consuming, and frustrating. I would never implement a "free" solution like that in a professional environment, unless it was just my computer. Do you have a favorite movie or TV show?
I don't really watch TV. What other non-computer hobbies do you have?
Music, both playing and listening to. I play the bass guitar as well as finger around with the piano. I mostly play blues and classic rock. I enjoy listening to Celtic folk, heavy metal (power metal), classical music, and the same genres of music that I play. Other hobbies include writing, poetry, and historically inspired fiction (not historic fiction). By inspired I mean the *concepts* i use in my story are seen in history, but the actual story content is entirely fictional. It's like... fantasy without the fantasy. Take Lord of the Rings, make it historically plausible, and you have what I like to write. How would you describe your relationship with Christ?
Christ is my advocate before a holy God. Although He is many things to me, the most important thing is that he grants me His righteousness; not as a license to sin, but pull me away from the shackles of sin and bring me to his likeness. How do you imagine a way that you could use your talents and experiences to serve Christ?
I myself possess no talents, but only am a steward of what God gives me. God, as he so
wills, grants those talents and takes them away. I try to be pliable to the will of God not rigid in my own will. I try to reflect the words of our Lord, "Your will be done", wherever I find myself and in whatever corner of the earth. I am surrendering my life and submitting to His will instead of being stubborn in my own vision of what I think God's will is. What kind of geeky projects do you see yourself doing within the next couple of years?
I'd like to continue doing game development and maybe go for Pyweek 5. I had a blast on Pyweek 4 although I've been a bit distracted with my new job lately. I feel I haven't been diligent and maybe let some of the people I work with down a bit. But I am sure after I get settled into my new job I will have more mental energy to focus on this. Next weeks interview will be with the much admired, HanClinto! This interview is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License |
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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2 "Oh, bother," said the Borg. "We've assimilated Pooh." "Socialism works great... if there are no people involved." -- Pastor David Ginter, Union Church of Guatemala. My Programming and Hacker/Geek related Blog [This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited May 31, 2007).] |
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