dcantrell Real Name:  David Age:  26 Resides:  Atlanta, Georgia Occupation:  Software engineer at Internet Security Systems

Favorite website(s):
Hate the web, but I find I spend a lot of time on it.  Usually poke around Slashdot, friends' web sites, www.cockeyed.com, www.vgcats.com, eBay, news.google.com, and so on.

Favorite book, movie, or TV show:
Book:     The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Movie:    Jaws
TV show:  Deadliest Catch

Favorite game, application, or program of all time:
GNU screen is hands down the coolest hack in the world.  So simple yet so useful.

What are you playing and working on right now:
I'm answering this questionaire on my PowerBook G4.  Currently that's running MacOS X, but it usually runs Linux.

What is your current screensaver, background, or wallpaper:
Screensaver is usually xlockmore on random, but with the stupid modes disabled (like the art deco one).  Wallpaper I don't get in to much, but at work I have a screen capture from Final Fantasy VII and at home I have some Gatecrasher artwork.

What's so special about your computer (room):
It sports many platforms.  I try to use whatever computing platform is not mainstream.  My server is an x86 running Linux because other people use it.  But I have SGI equipment, Sun equipment, this PowerBook, and other not-so-popular architectures.

How many computers do you have:
   workstation:  SGI Octane2
   laptop:       PowerBook G4
   scratch:      Dell N series workstation of some sort
   server:       Dell PowerEdge
   misc:         Sun Ultra 60, HP C360 PA-RISC, Sun JavaStation, a handful of SGI Indy workstations, IBM ThinkPad

What was your first computer:
The first one I used was an Apple IIe.  The first one that I could call my own was a lowly 286 made by Seiko Epson.

Do you remember the first program you ran on it (or the first game you played):
Nothing exciting on the IIe.  I think it was AppleWorks or maybe one of those Carmen Sandiego games.  Likewise for the 286.  Nothing interesting for the very first thing.

Geekiest moment of your life:
Yesterday!
 
When did you first realize you were a geek:
When I got this email.

Have you ever said anything geeky that someone else did not understand:
Yes! All the time.

What is the funniest/most bizarre computer/Internet/geeky experience you have ever had:
I get confused with David Cantrell in the UK a lot.  We are two entirely different people, but we have the same name and for some reason a lot of parallel interests.  That's generated some interesting emails in the past.

The strangest was a few years ago when someone emailed me about a web site on my server.  It belonged to a user on my server and discussed some sort of wireless pcmcia antenna modification.  The page mentioned someone else by name and referenced the person giving some sort of EE tip.  The email I got was asking if I had contact info for this person because she thought it was her brother who she hadn't talked to in like 20 years.  I emailed the user on my site who gave me an email address and then I passed it on.  Apparently it was her brother and the family was reunited at Thanksgiving.

What is your favourite quote:
"Careful Jack, most things in here don't react too well to bullets." --from The Hunt For Red October

If you were a computer program, you would be: why:
A fork bomb because I like attention.

What do you do when you are (heaven forbid) not at your computer(s):
Think about getting to a computer.  Wondering what I'm missing online.

You have a time machine that can only be used once. If you use it you will not come back. What date would you set it to, and what ONE thing would you take with you (not a computer):
I'd go back to December of 1999 and tell myself to not leave school to go work for Walnut Creek CDROM.  "It's not worth it!" I'd say.

I'd take a toothbrush with me because I wouldn't want to share a toothbrush with my 1999 self.

David, who is the project leader for Peachtree Linux, a small Linux distribution, has a website worth visiting at http://www.burdell.org/. David, who claims he can float on water, sleeps once a day, consumes carbonated beverages, can write code in C and other languages, and understands both POSIX threads and sendmail's configuration system.