- Who is G3head?
- G3head is a user name for Mark Welker, me, who is currently living in North Carolina, in the home town of Andy Griffith and the basis of Mayberry from "The Andy Griffith Show" Formerly from Iowa (incidentally the home of the fictional Radr O'Riely from M*A*S*H and the all too real Tom Arnold)
- Why the username G3head?
- While Mark has been connected to the internet for 10 years now (over half my life) G3head has only been my Primary User Name for about 6 or 7 years now, but I still like it mainly because it's never used. It developed when I got a Beige G3 266 Desktop as a Christmas gift to replace my familys aging Quadra 610. The new system amazed me and with a fast 56k modem I was in paradise. When spending time on sites like ebay I needed usernames and most of the good ones were taken like Blackbird (the codename for the 500 series Apple Bowerbooks) and Macman (dose that one need explaining?). I am, if you can't tell a proud mac user, and self proclaimed mac head. This coupled with the sweet new G3 I had a username.
- Why Macs?
- My Dad has been interested in computers since the 60's or early 70's and in the 1984 superbowl comercial for Macintosh he was hooked so I've grown up with Macs, my first experiances were with IIsi in his office and a couple of classics I would play with in a back room setting them up and learning about them after school. One several occasions when his office installed a network he helped and I got to go with him to a local Apple dealer and played with a 610, I think a centris though it could have been a Quadra. Once he brought a Centris 610 home and let me play old games on it- I remeber being blow away about this thing called a CD ROM and a game called Cosmic Osmo. A while after that we boutgh a Quadra 610 for use at home.
- So you're one of these nutcase mac users?
- If thats what you make it. In my mind the alternatives are few and far between. Windows is at best 5 years behind every other OS out there and the open source movement, while wonderful is still unpolished. However I'm learning to enjoy the benifits of the movement as I dive deeper into OS X (BSD underpinning) and set up older PCs with various linux distros.
- What are your hobbies?
- As you can tell from the site, Macs and Harware hacking are a large part of my free time. Though I am also a fan of music-both playing music on a Cello (used to anyways, been a few years) and playing it via MP3s, CDs, and Records (those big black discs). Some of my prefered musicans are Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffet, Moby, Underworld, Don McLean (I even have a demo record that my Dad recieved from him with a letter), classic rock, and others though I dislike Gospil Rap and popular/boy bands. Reading is also something I do a lot of, techno thrillers are a favorite though most forms of Science Fiction are read as well.
- I admire the outdoors, and being in North Carolina, formerly Iowa, means that theres a lot of it thats fairly undisturbed. I have also been interested in Photography and other forms of media though havn't been actively doing much with those lately. The hobby I'm least active in is electrical engineering, but I hope to remedy that soon.
- More and more I find I'm active in the community with a variety of projects. I've helped with building up the parks and help with the arts council. Outside of the local area I find that I'm getting pulled into politics (and have been asked if I'm a polisci or law major) so I'm a sort of political wonk in training. I highly support what the EFF is doing and I often help explain technology law to people around me.
- Where do you hope to go?
- I'd like to go into Electrical Engineering or another field closly related to computers, hopefully Rose-Hulman. However I am currently enrolled in a community college for an internet technologies degree (2 year) In addition to those degrees I hope to learn another programing language, C/C++ are the ones I hope to tackle but I need to find some good referances to start. Other items on my to do list are learn to fly, do some real backpacking, do some kayaking out of state. I'm hopeing to do some bicycle touring in late summer/fall of 2004. I would also like to publish and teach to some extent. You can't describe the feeling you get when you pass on knowlege to someone else. I guess the easiest way to desciption of where I want to go would be to live a nice life and make a difference, but then isn't that what we all strive for?
- Whats this lab you keep mentioning? Do you mod anything other than Macs?
- The lab is a large part of my home's basment where most of my conputer related activities occur. You can see it digitally here No I don't just mod Macs - nothing is safe. For the most part the lab is being renovated so its easier to live with
- I love the site! Do you have any others?
- I've designed several sites, and help code on others. I'm also developing a site that will hopefully bring me money on a regular basis (or at least enough to pay for the rest of the wearable Mac) The sites are in the order I coded them:
- homepage.mac.com/g3head/ This site, a sort of sandbox for me to learn and expand
- www.applefritter.com A couple of pages in the Hacks sections
- www.mtairynews.com Site redesign and coding. My work stops once you get to the FUBARed pages (subscribe and the epaper)
- www.majdelene.com Developed the design and graphics for a local author.
- www.mountairync.net Did the design, all of the initial content and manage a community site based on Drupal CMS
- Class Websites Some junk pages I've coded for various classes I'm taking. For the most part nothing really special, but some use creative code so I'm posting them. Waste of Bandwidth, Portfolio Viewer, SCC Travel
- Do you have a geek code?
- Yes.
- -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GAT/ED/E/IT/CS d--@ s+:+ a18 C+++$(++++) ULBX++++@ P+ L++>++++ E?(---) W+++$ N+ o+ K- w--- !O M++@ V- PS+(+++)@ PE Y++@ PGP>++ t+(++) 5(+) X R tv(-)>! b+++(++++)@ DI++++ D+ G++@ e(*)>++++ h*(++) r-@ !y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
- Anything else I should know?
- I'm a Humanist- that means I don't believe in a God, I will respect all relegions or lack there of as long as they do not impose them selves upon me. And even though I don't believe in a Hell or a Heavan it dosn't mean I'm going to go on a killing spee (Its been suggested)
- I also strive to be a pasifast- think Gandi. Violence is rarely a solution and while it is human nature to be violent on occasion one has to ignore that fact. However I'm human so I'm not perfect.
- In a way I'm also a mild enviromentalist, enought that I pick up trash, recycle, would like a bio-diesel when I do get a car, Prefer to walk or bike when I need to go somewhere and practice no impact camping. On the flip side I'm not going to avoid meat, we're omnivores and we can't deny that.
- The other small stuff- lawyers are not good for the human race, caffine is good (personaly favories are Jolt, Red Bull, Bawls, and Mountain Dew listed in order of hardest to get in town/favorite drink because it just works that way) Lighted bridges are a bad idea. (the back of my old house is purple because of one) Data should be legally free (hackers ethos) oh and Don't Panic.
