About Me

Personal life

I live 4 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts I am 21 year old male.

I am a college student getting a B.S in Technical Communications at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. My focus is mostly on [[http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Technical_writing Technical Writing]/Communications) for the computer software Industry, although my education also includes work with an emphasis on the biotechnology industry. My other area of interest as a hobby is in Sound Recording and Audio Engineering. I like hanging out HA learning something new and spreading knowledge. I also enjoy help maintaining the wiki, whenever I have spare time. I enjoy discussing technology, current events, politics, philosophy, music or anything in general. Private Message me if you ever need anything. Additionally I know how to code slightly and have written algorithms in C and C++, although I enjoy writing more. I mostly just like working with basic web standards like HTML, CSS3, and XML. I generally prefer Discrete Mathmatics and Statistics over Calculus. I find Calculus highly annoying and aggitating at times (I wasn't a very good math student). I consider myself be a "semi-audiophile" and I regularly ABX when I can't decide.

Technical Skills

Programming Languages: C/C++, HTML/XML
Operating Systems: Windows, UNIX (Linux)
Software: Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org, Adobe Framemaker, Emacs, Putty, Doxygen.

Note: I am not familiar with the Mac OS/X operating system, nor do I have any experience reading or working with the object-oriented programming languages of Java or C# (typical trend amongst sofware companies looking for programmers these days).

Technical Writing

Society for Technical Communcation Organization dedicated to science and writing art of Technical Communication.
Wikiversity Technical Writing course good for people new to the profession in regard to writing effective technical documentation in general.
Effective Documentation how effective documentation is the key if open source projects are to thrive.
Getting a Tech Writing job this article describes how to get a Technical Writing job even if you have no experience.
Technical Writing jobs technical writing jobs search provided by indeed.com.

Hardware

My hardware specs:

Pentium III 600 Mhz
128 MB Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 video card
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 PCI soundcard.
Sennheiser PCX250 noise-cancelling (closed-cans)
Boston Acoustics 2.1 speakers with discrete subwoofer
Dual-boot Windows ME / Kubuntu.
Windows:
- Cdex 1.70 with cdparanoia libraries for ripping.
- fB2K v0.8.3 for listening.
- Burrrn! for cd writing
- Vuze/newsgroups for downloading.
Linux:
- Rubyripper with cdparanoia libraries for ripping.
- Amarok for listening.
- k3B for cd writing.
- Ktorrent/newsgroups for downloading
My encoding habbits:
- Vorbis 1.1.3 libraries -q 7/8 for HD storage
- FLAC 1.13 -C 5 / 6 level for archiving my CD's
- Lame MP3 3.98 for compatability
- MPEG-4 LC-AAC for Playstation 3 media

Websites

Audio Websites:

Icecast Streaming links to open-source streaming stations on the net (MP3, HE-AAC, AAC, Vorbis streaming)
1980s.fm a cool retro commercial site that brings you back to the 80's. (MP3, Vorbis streaming).
Pandora Account my account on pandora radio for (MP3 streaming)
Last.fm a cool social networking audio site with free full length tracks (MP3 streaming)
Musicbrainz Database essential for metadata and tagging your records
Amazon MP3 commercial website with DRM free single track's and full albums encoded @ 256 CBR or Lame -V 0 presets. All Track's are either $0.89 or $0.99 cents each.
ITunes Music popular Itunes music with DRM free track's and albums encoded at 128 kbps ITunes AAC encoder or "ITunes Plus" 256 kbps AAC. All track's are $0.99 cents each.

Lossless Audio Websites:

HD Dowloads a list of websites offering losless audio downloads (pay or for free)

Musical Interests

My musical interests are:

Music
Classical
- Use of classical music in diverse genres (indian and chinese classical)
- Film Compositions/Scores (post contemporary and popular themes)
- Pieces by famous classical composers of Classical Era and before (Bach, Tchaikovsky, etc).
Electronic
Ambient
- IDM/Braindance
  - Squarpusher
  - Mu-Ziq
  - Venetian Snares
  - Mouse On Mars
- Big Beat
  - FC Kahuna
  - The Chemical Brothers
  - The Crystal Method
  - Fatboy Slim
  - The Prodigy
  - The Propellerheads, etc.
- Chiptunes
  - C64 SID
  - Amiga
  - Super NES
  - Sega Genesis
- Netlabels
  - Kahvi Collective
  - 8-bit Peoples
- Electroclash
  - Felix Da Housecat
  - Fischerspooner
  - The New Deal, etc
- Electronic Dance Music
  - Full-on Psychedelic Trance/Goa Trance
    - Infected Mushroom
    - Astrix
    - Vibe Tribe
    - G.M.S
    - Ananda Shake
    - Sesto Sento
    - Visual Paradox
    - The Misted Muppet
    - Goa Gil, etc
    - Astral Projection
  - Progressive House
    - BT
    - Sasha
    - Way Out West
    - Hernan Cattaneo
    - James Zabiela
    - Bart Van Wissen
    - Luke Chable
    - Andy Moor
  - New Skool Breaks
    - Meat Katie
    - Plump DJ's
    - Dylan Rhymes
    - Koma and Bones
    - Elite Foce
    - Evil 9
    - Andy Page
    - Uberzone, etc
- alternative/indie
- 80's rock/pop
- funk
- jazz
- blues
- new wave
- new age
- hip hop, etc.

HA Questions

Questions that I will answer:

Ogg Vorbis technical questions (I am not a xiph zealot). I just like the project
Questions reguarding other codecs like AAC, lossless, etc.
Thought provoking R&D questions, provide insight, or ask questions
Information pertaining to CD ripping and audio hardware (including sound cards)
Questions related computer music applications and software (sequencers, hardware, etc)
General/technial questions reguarding CDex.
Music discussion forum related stuff or usage.
Other thought provoking topics (replaygain, dynamics range, mastering, etc)
Questions were I can help people.
Pokes at humorous topics.