Mu-Sly Real Name:  Dave Age:  25 Resides:  Nottingham, UK Occupation:  I'm a freelance web developer, over at  <plug> www.rentamonkey.com </plug>

Favorite website(s):
I Live: http://www.ampfea.org/
I Read: http://digg.com/
I Hear: http://www.thinner.cc/
I Love: http://www.rubyonrails.com/
I Need: http://www.dithered.com/css_filters/css_only/

Favorite book, movie, or TV show:
Book: would have to be "The Tripods Trilogy" by John Christopher - awesome and really captivating, and I read it back in the days when I could still take the time to sit down with a novel.  Unfortunately, I never seem to have time to finish reading fiction these days, so I tend to read mostly non-fiction political and technological books.

Movie: It's all about "Enter The Dragon" - suddenly wanting to leave Mr. Han Man's island, learning to prepare for defeat, oh how so?  When it comes, I won't even notice - I'll just be too busy looking good, having extra-ordinary skills, I don't care if he's not alone, dammit it all, I don't care who he's with, you bloody well put him on the line!  Wooaa-taaaaahh!  *Ahem!*

TV: I generally try and avoid using that mental pacifier device, but sometimes I'm partial to a bit of light entertainment from that Family Guy and his crazy talking dog.

Favorite game, application, or program of all time:
Paradroid.

What are you playing and working on right now:
I've just started building a car park booking system for a small international airport.  I'm using Ruby On Rails for the first time on a serious application, and it's going pretty well so far.  (Don't tell anyone... I'm actually really enjoying my work right now, as a direct result of having this shiny new toy!)

What is your current screensaver, background, or wallpaper:
I don't have a screensaver - the computer is in use, or the screen is off.

Wallpaper is a picture of this cool African musician called Bajaly Suso, who I saw play an amazing little free gig a month or so ago.  Whether you like world music or not, if you ever get a chance to see this guy play - do it!! 

What's so special about your computer (room):
The fact that I have my bass guitar within arms reach, and that it's great for chilling out for 5 minutes to give my brain a rest from coding.

How many computers do you have:
My main machine is an Athlon XP 1800+, running Gentoo Linux.  I do all my web development stuff on that.

Then there's a fairly ancient laptop, running Win2k, for testing my sites in all versions of Internet Expletive.

Finally, there's an old Beige G3 mac, running OS X 10.2 - it's my firewall and router, and I use it for a bit of Mac browser testing too, although not so much since my girlfriend got a nice 12" iBook.

What was your first computer:
Commodore 64

Geekiest moment of your life:
Getting my BSc in Computer Science - it was difficult, because I'm not a natural by any stretch of the imagination.
 
When did you first realize you were a geek:
I've known it for a long time, but only really truly embraced it and learned how to deal with it's power in the last three or four years.  Now I see my geekdom as a positive aspect of my life, and have been a much happier person because of it!

Have you ever said anything geeky that someone else did not understand:
At least once a day, probably more often than that.  You know we're headed for serious trouble when I say "let me try and explain this without getting too technical", although to be fair to myself I think I usually do a good job of interfacing between the geek and the regular human.

What is the funniest/most bizarre computer/Internet/geeky experience you have ever had:
A minor act of terrorism, when at the age of 12 I programmed an old BBC Model B to wait a little while, then repeatedly flash up in large red text "Warning! This computer is about to explode! Please stand well clear!" complete with siren noises, at my kid brother's school parent's evening.  Teacher panic ensued, and I laughed a slightly evil laugh from a small distance away.

What is your favourite quote:
"If one person suffers from a delusion it's called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it's called religion." - Robert Pirsig

If you were a computer program, you would be: why:
I would be "less", because everybody knows that less is more!

What do you do when you are (heaven forbid) not at your computer(s):
I love cooking... and I mean that I *LOVE* cooking!  If I could handle the stress and was better at presentation, I would consider being a chef, but to be honest, I mostly just enjoy making things that taste delicious.
Unfortunately, I'm often too busy to cook every day, but between myself and my girlfriend, we generally make all our own (meat-free all the way) meals from basic ingredients and rarely eat supermarket-prepared stuff.

I write music (usually on my own, sometimes with others), play bass in a reggae band, used to do Jujitsu for four years, now do Capoeira since about a year ago, and I'm rather partial to a good pint of English ale.

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 would go back a short distance (probably 10 years or so) with a box of CDs of my own music.  Then, I would make sure I got to meet John Peel before he died, and get him to have a listen.  It would have been an honour to be played on his radio show, or even just to hang out and have a chat for five minutes, but sadly that's a dream I've had to let go.