/usr/bin/whoami

Name
  • Andreas
Location
  • Amsterdam (The Netherlands, Europe, Planet Earth, Milky Way, etc.)
Interests / Hobbies
  1. Computers / Security etc.
  2. Programming (currently mostly Python. Prolog and Java (yuck!) for uni)
  3. [mostly English] Literature (also some SciFi, which may or may not be (called) literature)
  4. Music (metal, some rock or even pop etc.) / movies (mostly serious ones)
  5. Electronics (fixing things, sometimes making stuff)
  6. solving problems, personal ones, or the world's. Or dreaming of doing so.
  7. etc.
Disinterests / dislikes
  1. (most) Electronic music
  2. Java, and other corporate hypes that have no real benefits over contenders.
  3. for the rest, the usual: disloyalty, injustice, spite, malice, stupidity, ignorance. (in order of importance).
  4. etc.
Principles / Beliefs
  1. Vegetarianism (mainly because of the meat industry)
  2. Free Software / open standards (and openness / transparency in general)
  3. Privacy (mostly towards strangers, or it would kinda contradict openness...)
  4. Environmental friendliness (e.g., low power computers, riding bicycles instead of other means of transportation)
  5. Laziness: don't re-invent the wheel, rather do something useful -- there's so much to do, heck!
Favorite books (no particular order)
  • Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger (more interesting than his most famous, if only because it got less attention!)
  • The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolaño
  • War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy
  • novels by Franz Kafka
  • Walden - Henry David Thoreau
  • Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Favorite albums
  1. Ascendancy - Trivium
  2. Symphony Masses Ho Drakon Ho Megas - Therion
  3. Turn Loose the Swans - My Dying Bride
  4. Viva Emptiness - Katatonia
  5. Enthrone Darkness Triumphant - Dimmu Borgir
Favorite movies
  1. Requiem for a Dream / Lile Dit Ca -- both shocking, but simply imperative to watch!
  2. Un Homme Et Une Femme -- a romantic masterpiece
  3. Six Degrees Of Seperation -- thought provoking
  4. Donnie Darko (though mysterious)
  5. 2001 A Space Odyssey -- see above
Operating systems I use / used (in chronological order)
  • Debian GNU/Linux -- the mother of all distros, has set the example for others (even though not all follow it..).
  • Ubuntu -- this one should (and does..) take over the world. (Debian based distro for desktop usage)
  • Windows, which I despise -- for technical reasons. Nevertheless I can work with it if necessary (which mostly means working around limitations).
Favorite software (in order of revolutionary-ness -- to me)
  1. screen - sort of a window manager for text mode which also allows you to control programs from different locations (in combination with telnet/ssh).
  2. vim - plain-text editor, many features for efficient editing with the least keystrokes.
  3. mutt - excellent mail-client for console, with GPG support. Can convert eg. HTML, Word and Powerpoint files to plain text automatically.
  4. cplay - console mp3/ogg/flac player, very simple yet effective. No fancy features but has a very efficient interface.
  5. zsh - shell with very nice interactive mode features (eg. different forms of autocompletion, even for Debian package names).
  6. mc - Norton Commander-like file manager.
  7. elinks - text mode browser / links2 - graphical browser (fb and X).
  8. LIRC - remotely control computer with infrared devices.