|
Web Stuff About Me
|
|
|
Over my 10+ years on the Internet I’ve left an impressive electronic trail. I’ve been quoted in several articles, written a variety of public texts, and been mentioned in the web pages of many people. Below is a collection of links to various tidbits about me, along with my commentary. Articles and PapersNetwork Appliance's Knight of the Message Boards This is a great article just written about me for Business Week Online. I thought it was done very well and I’m very happy with it, although I thought the line about not holding a job since leaving Network Appliance could have been worded better (I’m self-employed now, and I haven’t even been looking to work elsewhere), and someone else noted that the line about being single made the article sound like a personal ad. Amey Stone (the writer) conducted several phone interviews with me while putting this story together. 'Sex
In Space' Author Defends Book My first time quoted in a news article, this one was about an Urban Legend that they had performed secret sex experiments on the Space Shuttle. The writer contacted me by email and phone before writing the article but it seems like he didn’t believe my real name! Richard A.
Bartle: Interactive Multi-User Computer Games Back in the early days of MUDs on the Internet several academic papers were written about the phenomenon and the players involved. I used to hang out on them a lot in college and I still frequent some of them today. This article includes two quotes from me in the last section (Discussion) circa 1990. Home PagesLisa (aka Nymph) is a good friend of mine I met in 1990 over the Internet (on MUDs, to be exact). Nymph and I had a rocky relationship at first, and we had a falling out in 1991. In 1994 we rekindled our friendship while I was working for Netcom (an early ISP that later became part of Mindspring and then Earthlink) and she was working for PSINet (another ISP). I couldn’t convince her to move out to California to work for Netcom but she did come out for a visit and we’ve been close friends ever since. Trip's Award-Winning Home
Page People Who Admit to Knowing Me Trip was an old friend of mine I met in 1990 over the Internet (once again, MUDs) whom I later got hired at Netcom in 1994 while I was working there. He was also hired along with Bryant Durrell (aka Garrett; see below). Trip and I aren’t really friends anymore, but it’s nice of him to mention me on his web page. He even won an award in part for mentioning my name! TinyMUD RelatedMy early adventures on MUDs were often filled with controversy. This site contains links to some of those incidents: Players voted for awards to give to each other in various categories. I (under my then-moniker SirBruceSterling) was nominated for Most Frequently Connected, Mr. Congeniality, and Most Obnoxious (2nd Place). Lorianna was nominated for Best Role Player. The Garrett Toading / Classic Fiasco Incident This is hard to explain if you don’t know the background, but TinyMUD, later referred to as TinyMUD Classic, was an original TinyMUD many people were fond of. It got shut down for a while because there was no place to run it. For a while at Purdue I was allowed to run it and I “resurrected” it and I and several other players started a project to clean and rejuvenate the database. People who didn’t like the idea referred to it as BruceMUD or PlanckMUD (the machine it was run on was called Planck). Anyway, in this incident Bryant Durrell (aka Garrett, see above) wanted to delete his building from it, and Mizue wanted to stop him because it was a public area, and she @toaded him (a sort-of permanent ban) rather than simply @boot him (kick him off). Players take @toading very seriously, especially since this was the TinyMUD. Mizue did not consult me on the decision, I did not support it, and Mizue wound up losing her wizbit and Garrett and I worked things out. However, the incident turned several people off to the whole MUD and didn’t help my reputation. Eclipse's
General Signature Quote Collection Buried in this list of cool quotes is the following gem: Yes. We fuck. Often, and with great enjoyment of the act. We aren’t married, we use birth control, we use interesting little toys on occasion. We moan like beasts in heat. Life is *great*. -- Bryant, ref. to Erin, on alt.brother-jed. This quote was made by Bryant Durrell (aka Garrett, see above) about his then SO on the USENET group alt.brother-jed. I saw it and started using it in my .signature and then other people started copying it. Brother Jed is one of those roaming college campus preachers in the Midwest; I used to badger one of his fellow cohorts, Brother Max, while I attended Purdue. I even have Brother Jed’s book signed by Max. My MUD reputation was further tarnished by the events described here. Basically, what happened was I wrote a humorous email about how to shut down a particular MUD, FurryMUCK, and instead I accidentally wound up sending it to the admin of the machine. This was not deliberate, because I sent it to the admin of the machine, and as the web page points out, that person knew all about the MUD. What I didn’t know was that somehow the email got forwarded to some higher-ups at the university who did not know about it, and it set off a chain of events that did indeed get the MUD shut down. Internet Songbook: Addicted to MUD Yes, I actually wrote this song as a Weird Al type parody back when I was MUDing way too much. Netcom and ScientologyRe: More PEDagogy (was Re: TIME Cover on Cyberporn) One of my primary jobs at Netcom was dealing with account terminations due to violations of the acceptable use policy. Naturally this made me a natural “bad guy” to most customers and I was often seen as a ruthless and “out of control” administrator (a laughable assertion considering Netcom retained me for over a year). Two accounts terminated were those of L. Detweiler, an infamous USENET poster who annoyed a lot of people over the years. The first two links mention my involvement; the latter two are all examples of Detweiler using my .signature in his postings. The tmp account was terminated not because he “satirized” me but because he was attaching my .signatures to his posts with no other identification at the end of the message, thus making it “seem” like the post was from me. Thus the posts were a poor and abusive attempt at forgery. Fellow sysadmin Bryant Durrell (aka Garrett; see above) and I terminated the nym account when it was discovered the account was Detweiler’s and opened under a forged named. Netcom is not a good example (Was: Re: Files and mail) Re: Netcom is not a good example (Was: Re: Files and mail) A further example of the negative impression some user’s had of me from my duties terminated accounts at Netcom. You have to take these accusations of “unprofessional” with a grain of salt, because they are all coming from people who had their accounts suspended or terminated because of their violations of Netcom policy. Rather than own up to their own wrongdoings they chose to shoot the messenger. The suspensions were always in accordance with Netcom policy; if the suspensions were unfair and arbitrary on my part, they would have been overturned. None were, although several people were let back on after being warned. If users had a problem with Netcom policy or process, their beef should have been with them, not me. Re: Scientology "exposes" Netcom After I left Netcom as an employee I was still a customer and I still posted from time to time. Netcom became partially involved in a lawsuit with the Church of Scientology, which always generates a lot of heated discussion on the Internet. Later when I was looking for a new job I interviewed with Earthlink, another ISP who ironically now owns Netcom. Earthlink was widely believed to be a CoS “front” organization and so people were curious what my impressions were when I visited their offices. The formatting of the quoted post is a little messed up but if you can’t follow it the summary was – Nice company, they do use Hubbard’s “Business Tech”, they denied all being CoS folks, and I didn’t take the job because I didn’t want to move to Burbank. (Also, I had decided that I really want to work at Network Appliance instead.) Sample 1991
ARS: Scientologists and Prozac In one of those bizarre linkages that you can only find on the Internet, here is a post from someone I used to know at Purdue, Scott Goehring, talking about Scientology, and in their .signature quoting someone I used to know on TinyMUDs talking about me. Places Where I Currently Post FrequentlyThe “Toasters” mailing list is a mailing list for customers and users of Network Appliance “toaster” file servers. As a former employee and Network Appliance customer I still post to the list from time to time. Yahoo has a
stock message board for investors in Network Appliance (symbol: NTAP). As a former employee and NTAP shareholder
I post here quite a bit, dispensing technical analysis and investment advice. Miscellaneous WritingsThis is a log of an email exchange on an old mailing list at Purdue in 1991. It’s mostly mindless junk and insults, which is what prompted me to eventually post to the list and complain about the email spam. I was obviously in a bad mood. Also contains a post by Scott Goehring (see above). The only
newsgroup I ever tried to get created, for the now-defunct NAPLPS graphics
standard. The newsgroup failed to be
created in 1993 because we fell 12 votes short of the needed 100 for
creation. Someone decided to include a recent post of mine in this collection. Scroll down to the one about Voyager. Someone asked simply “where is it” and since they weren’t specific I answered in a very snide and humorous fashion. This is an old
short story I wrote way back in 1989 while I was at Purdue for an online
electronic magazine called Quanta.
The writing is terrible, the plot is trite and predictable, and
I’m ashamed to admit I wrote it. My
only defense is I was young. My
writing these days is of a much higher quality. |
||
|
|
||