Hello geekhack community!
I just wanted to introduce myself before I jumped into a thread and people thought "Great, another nub come to mooch off our knowledge..."
I joined primarily to take part in the Keyboard enthusiasm I see here on geekhack. I've been researching getting a new keyboard for over a month now, and wish I had found geekhack sooner. I have an easy thousand hours of development in front of me, so I'm looking to get something that will be fun to use and hopefully won't give me RSI. Until now I've only used traditional rubber dome keyboards - had the Microsoft Wireless Comfort Curve 4000 for a few years and it was quite nice, but just want to graduate up to the mechanical world. My keyboard chase, however, I'll save for another thread (which will appropriately be posted in the keyboard forum.)
Over the past ten years I've done a lot of tinkering. It all began when my older brother and I dismantled my old Tandy i386 and he taught me what each of the components were. Soon after, he taught me basic HTML. Years later, he went to college for programming (C++), got burned out, and now barely wants to touch a computer. I, on the other hand, have enough enthusiasm for computers and technology left for the both of us.
About six years ago, I started learning PHP & MySQL. It took a while for me to wrap my head around it at first, but now it's difficult for me to remember not knowing PHP. Over the last few years I've developed several dynamic websites, mostly free for friends, family, and guilds on MMO's. Currently I'm working on a handful of PHP projects including a proprietary content management platform for my company, a suite of web-based business software, an extensible massively multiplayer game server engine, and the first game to be developed on that engine, called Hyperspace Wars.
Other than web development, I also build and service custom PC's (I call them Game Slayer brand), and have built several so far, including my own, my gilfriend's, step son's, mother's, and two friends'. I do a lot of PC gaming (Fallout 3/NV, Oblivion, GTA IV, Dragon Age Origins & II, etc) so I stick to Windows on my desktop, but use GNU/Linux on any other systems (I prefer Crunchbang, Debian based). My Linux history isn't as long as my PC or web development history, and I'd consider myself intermediate at best. I have no problem navigating via the console, however things like building a custom kernel still escape me. I hope to dabble in FreeBSD soon.
Aside from computers, I take a great interest in electronics and enjoy fooling with microcontrollers. Currently I use an Arduino for my electronics projects. I know hardcore enthusiasts consider using something like the Arduino cheating, but I'm just getting into electronics and I think it's a great beginner platform.
I hope to become a contributor here at geekhack, and I look forward to absorbing the collective knowledge of all the geeks here.
