Greetings all!
Wow, new member here at quakeone. Since TLTQ went down I have only been a regular at
http://runecentral.com Happened to see someone post a link to here and decided to come and visit. It took me 1 hour to go through this thread! I guess I should say something about myself too...
My name was not orginally created by myself. I had a friend of mine call me that one day. I had a lawn and garden company for 10 years. I was out working one day (by myself) working as hard and fast as I could to get the job done. I had a walkman strapped securely to my waist and was jamming to some Metallica. I was mowing a Motel 6 and underbid it to get the work. He happened to see me and pulled over and motioned for me to come over. I stopped and said, 'What's up?" He said, "Man...your one crazy cracker!" I laughed and realized that I must look like a partial idiot working like I was.
The name meant more to me as I thought about it because I used to spend my time cracking programs in assembly language. Finding ways to bypass the security measures in programs so I could copy and play the stinking game. I thought long and hard about it and decided to make it into one name. "Crazycracker" Then I thought that it was improper english and replaced the "y" with an "i". Then I alternated the case to make it look like a ransom note that was cut and pasted together. Then born my alias, "CrAzIcRaCkEr".
I first started online in 1983 when I got my first dial-up modem. It screamed at 300 baud. I mainly connected to local BBS's to chat, post in forums, and play some online text games like Empire. This was on a 286 machine with 1 meg of memory. I think it had a 8mhz processor in it (turbo mode). As time went on, the modems became faster and I bought everyone one of them 1200, 2400, 9600, 14400, (skipped the 33,400) and then went 56k (cable user now). UPDATE: Fiber coming in 2010!!!
I orginally was a Castle Wolfenstien player. Then Doom was released. OMG! I loved it! I played until I beat the game on nightmare level (very difficult even today). The Quake came out. I downloaded a copy and soon after decided that ID Software deserved my money, so I went and purchased a copy in early 1998 when it made it to the $10 bin at Best Buy. I had already played and beat the game in the first two difficulty levels when I started searching for any updates out there.
Thats when I came across Gamespy. I downloaded gamespy and set it up and found 100 game servers! OMG! So I started trying the populated servers one by one until I came across one called igloo.com. Igloo was a start map only DM server (unlimited frags). It was full 24/7 with a bunch of noobs (including my self). If you played at the server long enough, you eventually would be the leader because the game would never cycle. Clayborn would of loved this!
Igloo went down in 1999, so I began searching again for another quake server that was busy. I came across two that I found very amusing. Marlinspike and Gooland. Both were rune servers, but with different config settings. From 1998 to 2000 I used a Gravis Exterminator gamepad. It had an analog joystick and eight buttons. I did OK with this setup, but could never beat Weird, Slot, Quazy, Gohan, and a few other players. Weird was riding me one day and told me that, "You need to get rid of that physichotic joystick". So I tried the mouse for a week and realized he was right. My frags nearly doubled in a month.
Moving on, I now am a Shmack fan and visit very few other servers. I don't mow grass anymore and never set my dreams on doing it all my life. I always had my dreams set on working on computers or with computers. I sold the business and my big hydrostat and put myself through college. Most of my computer classes were boring because I was overskilled for them. I just needed the degree. I graduated about 4 years ago and now work in a bank in the Information Security department. My job is to prevent CrAzIcRaCkEr'S from finding their way into our banks secure data infrastructure. <---Imagine that! LOL!
It suits me well though. Since I have done it myself, spent most of my childhood writing programs and break others written software, it seems natural to me to identify weaknesses in a security system and find ways to improve it.
Finally, I am 35, married with child. Quake is not my only hobby. I also built and maintain a few websites on the side...
My dads campground -
http://rockyfallsevansville.com
My High School Graduating Class -
http://reitz89.org
My daughters gymnastics team -
http://acrosgym.com
My church -
http://the-cathedral.org
I subscribe to many newsgroups and get my news and downloads the real old fashion way. Forget Kazaa, Limewire, etc.
Oh yeah, this place is great too:
http://slashdot.org
You will only see me online late at night during the months of June-September. I own a jetski and love to spend my time on it during the summer months. The Ohio River is 5 minutes from my house, but I enjoy going to Kentucky Lake much more. My jet ski is a stand-up style and I love to do freestyle tricks on it. If your interested in what this is all about, check this
video. Absolute blast!
Well, thats me and my life. Thanks to the rest of you for sharing!
Cc
