User:cky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If there's one place where I'm allowed to write in the first person, the user page has to be it. I'm taking full advantage of it. :-)
This page also serves as a bookmark list of some of my favourite Wikipedia entries.
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[edit] Introduction
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Boston Userbox Party
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I'm Chris K. Jester-Young, a mid-20s software developer, generally known online as cky. I currently live in Auckland, New Zealand.
A fair number of people ask whether my username has anything to do with their favourite band, and here I must regretfully disappoint. Back in 1998, when I started using that username, it just happened to be my initials at the time; it was many years later before I've heard of the band.
My primary interest is to bore anybody unlucky enough to read this page. :-P
[edit] Why I'm on Wikipedia
I started an account on Wikipedia because I am a stickler for spelling and, to a lesser extent, grammatical correctness. Most of my editing, therefore, will be of an editorial nature.
[edit] Shades of Chris
Below is a self-description, written mostly for self-gratification. How many other self- words can a self-centred narcissist like yours truly come up with today?
[edit] My online self
Most of my computing time is spent on the ‘art of coding’. I primarily code in C++, Perl, and Java, and in a distant past, C and IA-32 assembly language. Like many geeks, I play with a variety of languages: currently Scheme, Ruby, and JavaScript, and previously, R and PHP. I would love to learn Haskell and Python soon, as well as x86-64 assembly language.
Most of my work is done on Unix-like systems, mainly Ubuntu, Debian, and OpenBSD; I also occasionally play with OpenSolaris and FreeBSD. I would especially be keen to see some kind of root-crypto system in OpenSolaris, maybe run on top of lofi, which would then replicate much of my current Ubuntu setup (AES/Twofish with XTS over LUKS).
I am a free software supporter, and identify with the movement's ideals. Thus, every piece of software under my copyright is released under a free software licence, usually either the BSD licence or the GNU GPL. In recent years I've embarked on more ambitious projects, with the result that I've released no code for a long time. Since I'm not in the habit of counting chickens before they hatch, I mention these no further.
When not coding, I spend a large portion of my online time playing Trivia (##trivia at freenode), writing poetry (especially structured forms such as haiku/senryu) and blog posts, and chatting to friends on social network services. Because of the volume of typing involved, I decided to switch my keyboard layout to Dvorak in July 2003, to see if it would make my typing more comfortable. It was a highly successful experiment, greatly reducing the frequency of painful wrists resulting from typing. More recently, I have been trying to regain my QWERTY typing speed, with the aim of getting it back to my original (pre-Dvorak) speeds.
[edit] My offline self
I'm an INFP, so I like discovering what people are about, and how to make their lives and relationships more fulfilling. I'm married to an INFP too, and we both enjoy people watching whenever we're out, and discussing how couples interact and what their likely strengths and weaknesses are, and using these data points to improve our marriage.
Another great interest of mine is in music, especially of the classical variety; my favourite composers include Bach (I find the Brandenburg Concertos ever so delightful), Beethoven, Chopin, and Schubert. I enjoy playing the piano, though in an amateurish capacity. In spite, or perhaps because, of this limitation in ability, I have a great love of music theory, the aid of which has allowed me a creative outlet in music (in addition to poetry and software, as mentioned above).
Astrologically, I'm a Cancerian, though my personality appears closer to that of a Piscean; feel free to make of these data points what you will. They are both water signs, which are seen to be very intuitive and emotional. I see this as a counterpoint to the left-brained, analytical side that I use when I code.
Finally, as a romantic at heart, I am a huge fan of romantic fiction. Although no one should be buying me birthday presents (and in fact I avoid publicly disclosing my birthday expressly to encourage this), I always appreciate a good romance novel. :-) Also on the theme of vicarious romance, I enjoy setting friends up when opportunities present themselves, and see myself as something of a cupid.
