It's me!
Introduction
Hi there, and thanks very much for
visiting! I have no idea how or why you came by but I'm
glad you did. Here you will find a general summary of who I
am, where I am, what I'm all about, and what kinds of
things I'm into. Let's face it, I'm a geek and as you look
through what I have here I'm sure you'll agree. If you're a
fellow geek I'm sure you'll have an appreciation for what
I'm on about here. If you're not at least you may be
entertained and possibly leave knowing a little more about
what makes geeks tick.
Vitals
| Name: |
Eric Russell Balch |
| Age: |
39 |
| Date of Birth: |
May 1968 |
| Place of Birth: |
San Diego, CA USA |
| Residense: |
Chula Vista, CA USA |
| Married: |
Yes, June 2001 |
| Offspring: |
Yes, 1 girl and 1 boy |
Employment
| Employer: |
Qualcomm, Inc. |
| Since: |
June 2003 |
| Role: |
Staff Engineer (Software) |
| Division: |
Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) |
| Department: |
Integrated Platform Architecture (IPA) |
| Group: |
Platform Security |
Passions, Hobbies, and Interests
- All things Macintosh. I didn't start out as a Mac
fanatic. I certainly always thought Apple made good
computers going all the way back to the Apple ][ but I
started off as an Atari guy with my Atari 400. The next
generation for me was the Atari ST. Then the world
changed and those of us not using a PC or a Mac had to
find a new home. For me it was a NeXT computer running
NeXTSTEP. I rode that wave all the way until December '96
when Apple and NeXT merged. Mac OS X being the offspring.
It's awesome.
- Software development. I love the process of creating
something cool -- Useful applications, utilities, games,
etc. -- and the satisfaction that comes with the
realization that you've created something new.
- Collecting vintage computer systems and software and
restoring them to their former glory. I think most people
would be amazed how useful (and fun) these old beauties
still are!
- Arcade, console and computer gaming -- both retro and
current. I own a Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Sony PS2, Sony
PSP, Sony PS3, and Nintendo Wii. I have a HUGE collection
of MAME ROMs and use MacMAME. Some day (given money,
space, and time) I'd love to get a couple choice vintage
coin-op machines.
- Old-school hacker culture. I was there right in it,
before it was specifically illegal. Hacking, cracking,
phreaking, trashing, blue-boxing, BBSing, war-dialing,
pirating, etc. I ran a BBS with two names over time with
a break in the middle for reasons I won’t go into
here. Those were the days: 8-bit computers with 300bps
(or later 1200bps) modems dialing like mad long into the
night and that special “music” of carrier
tones when you finally connected. 6502 Assembly or BASIC?
How quick and dirty can it be? Being the first to crack
that how new unreleased game, priceless! My handle was
“Betaman Jones”.
- I'm into music from several different genres: Hard
Rock, Heavy Metal, Alternative, and some choice Techno.
You can toss in classical, jazz, and some choice blues
too.
- Science Fiction. Books, TV, movies, etc. Specific
genre isn't important but I do enjoy some more then
others -- Anti-Utopian and Post-Apocalyptic being a
couple of my favorites. I always thought it would be cool
to be a futurist!
- Anime. I'm a long time fan. Got my start with "Speed
Racer" and "Battle of the Planets" back in the 70's.
- Movies. I love movies! Yes, I'm kind of a lemming. I
love the big Summer action blockbusters -- I can't help
it! But I also enjoy many of the wonderful independent
and art-house films.
- Radio -- Both FM Rock and AM Talk (at least now that
there is liberal talk) and Satellite (I have Sirius).
Unfortunately despite ratings success, our local
progressive talk station AM 1360 KLSD was flipped back to
the “Sports Talk” format by Clear Channel,
Inc. I can of course still listen to Sirius Left 146 but
I miss the local voices and Air America programs.
- Model rocketry -- I've been into it on and off since
I was about 10 years old. Now I'm sharing this with my
son who also loves it -- although right now he like
playing with the models almost as much as launching them.
I can't blame him though -- rockets ARE really cool!
- Science. I've always had a passion for it and Carl
Sagan's "Cosmos" really brought it out in me. Astronomy,
physics, chemistry biology, etc. I find most of it
fascinating -- I think you can include mathematics in
that although it’s not “technically” a
science.
- Politics. I’ll just put it right here I’m
a LIBERAL -- Yes! I did it! I used the “L”
word. I’m off to the left. I’m a
civil-libertarian. Legalize it. Stay out of my bedroom.
Keep church and state separate. Let gays marry. No war
for oil. Go green. Can I stop now?
- And of course, Pop Culture. Fun to watch and so fun
to make fun of. So many formats that I won’t even
list them here but I will say that I watch E!’s
“Talk Soup” religiously.
Elsewhere on The Web
Favorite Forums
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