osric.com technology

I started osric.com as a way to share literature (e.g. White Crow) with a wider audience.

Since I was of a technical bent from an early age and a proponent of DIY, I decided to build a server myself. My friend Jon had done the same, so I could figure it out with some work. I remember picking up parts with Bernie at a trade show somewhere outside Detroit and putting together a 200 MHz Pentium machine. It was 1998 and my first Linux system, RedHat 5.1.

Of course, it didn't work. Well, it worked--but it wouldn't connect to the internet. None of the NICs (Network Interface Cards) I tried were compatible with the operating system. (Corresponding with the creator of the tulip.c driver online was a great experience -- there was a time when software authors didn't mind fielding questions from clueless users.) Finally I found a NIC on Ebay that had been retired from Boeing. It just worked. I like to think of it as osric.com taking flight.

osric.com ran on that machine over a consumer DSL connection under a desk until 2005. Along the way I learned a lot about server security the hard way.

Today, osric.com runs on better hardware and a faster connection. It is still underpowered. I like to think it punches above its weight.

Although I still love literature, today I am much more focused on technology. I have a blog, Accidental Developer, where I write about technical issues and problems (generally with a proposed solution).