User:Celtikill
From HacDC Wiki
Present
Current Projects
Urban Homesteading
I read The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen, and it got me amp'd. I've started composting, and am launching a hydroponics greenhouse on my back porch sometime this spring. My family (wife, inlaw, dogs) started cooking the majority of our food from scratch. I believe I've roughly cut my food waste by 20%, and my food costs by 30%. More TBA.
Operation Consultant
Since I'm unemployed (sort of, since my "penniless" employer continues to direct deposit and calls me to the NOC at all hours of the night), I'm reviving my consultancy. This involves all sorts of fun projects for clients, but also involves hosting my own web/utility server. Hijinx shall ensue.
Celtikill to HacDC 2.4GHz link
Built proto-router for Celtikill station, sourced parabolic collector, and got topographic info on the LOS. It's almost exactly a 2 mile link, and I'm about 10 meters above the HacDC location at ground level. Nice. Outsourced bi-quad antenna to a better solderer than myself. In limbo.
Linux Frankencluster (aka ClusterF*&k)
Got nifty No Starch Press book for Yule. Hid book in workshop to stave off nightmares.
Operation Workshop
Sifted nutrients for items of value, sorted into well-labeled bins. Began trash mountain for future snow-less waste removal. Need to build out shed, as the Powers That Be insist on such things residing somewhere other than the house. Huge project, involving structural, electrical, data, and access-control. Minimum. Exciting, and not nearly as daunting as Frankencluster.
Past
In The Beginning
In my youth, I had a 101 electronics kit. My buddy Patrick and I wired it up to all sorts of interesting things, most of which exploded in one fashion or another.
I was in 4H, and won several model rocketry competitions in Maryland divisions. Meanwhile, I moonlighted on an elite "unorthodox payloads" rocketry team. We called ourselves "Cobra's Revenge" because everyone knows Cobra is way cooler than GI Joe.
Things Get Rolling
I won the Baltimore Museum of Industry's Mag Lev Challenge [1] at some point. This was with Patrick and some guy from my Fencing class. The track had a pinch at about the half way point. My team won because our train didn't stop dead in the pinch. Also, the Fencing dude was an artist, so our train was wicked-tight.
I won the Junior Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in an epic overtime match against the Mag Lev Artist. We never spoke again.
The Computing Stone Age
I got an Apple II when I was 8.
Why it stank
I couldn't play Wolfenstein, and The Oregon Trail stank.
The Enlightenment
I got a 486SX with 4 Megs of RAM when I was 10. My dad was working his PhD at UMCP, so I had a dial-up to the University. PuTTY sessions at 9600 baud; BBS flame wars; Doom and Hexen h4x0ring.... It was a golden age!
The Turning Point
My dad was consumed with the fear of his computer breaking. For some reason, it broke daily.
He did his best to limit my computer use. This single fact explains why I'm here on this wiki.
I'm quite grateful.