About the Site
Every 2-3 years I decide to refresh my site with a newer version of content, functionality, and design. This time I chose to create a low maintenance, professional profile site. Past versions have included technical scripts, tutorials, message boards, small open source packages, and even forums. This page provides more information about the site, what the names mean (Tarwn and Tiernok), and a brief glimpse into the time and work that went into this refresh.Building the Refresh
This refresh felt relatively fast, given my limited graphic and SEO abilities. As I continue to add on to the site I will expand the log below.
The Names - Tiernok and Tarwn
Once upon a time in the early 1990's I was logging into a local BBS and needed a name for my account. Unfortunately there was another "eli" already in the system, so I picked a name at random from a D&D character I had once played. Which brings up all sorts of other questions, I'm sure.
History of the Names
Before my interest in computers, I was a student with a penchant for reading and a strong imagination. I started playing D&D with some people in a local after school group, which naturally tied into my enjoyment of fiction and imagination. When I got a little older I played the precursors to the massively multiplayer games that are so prevalent today. These games were text-driven and often had in-game toolsets for administration and world-building. After being given responsibility for a building position in Elendor MUSH, a Tolkien-based world that is still be in existence today, I was invited to help administer a server for a smaller game. During this period I helped build the largest city on the server, which in those days meant writing interesting and diverse text for each 'room' you could walk through, descriptions for looking in different directions, and creatures and population to wander the city. The city's name was Tiernok, and with several thousand distinct rooms and several hundred types of creatures and items, my creativity received quite the work-out.
As time progressed and I signed up for email accounts, websites, and domains, I continued to use the name 'Tarwn' because it was guaranteed that no one else was using it (up until a couple years ago Google only listed search results that were directly related to me) and it meant I wouldn't have a random suffix of numeric digits that I would forget regularly.
Technical Mastery
In the 2000-2002 period I was working full-time on my Bachelors in CS as well as taking on NSF grant projects that, had a master's program existed at the time, would have been positions that were out of reach for an undergrad. Though the university curriculum was C and then Java-based, the jobs were generally classic ASP with occasional embedded VB work. While picking up these new languages, I spent time at Tek-Tips, a technical website with an ASP membership that numbered somewhere in the 10,000 - 18,000 range. After watching the forums for a while I started to get involved, using it as a tool to expend my own skills as I tried to help others.
For a 3 year period of time I dominated the short-term MVP list for the ASP forums, driven by my curiosity and the joy I had from troubleshooting and finding solutions to the problems posted. This drive caused me to climb to the top of the short-term MVP list and set up permanent residence, as the forum grew to nearly 30,000 members. Though I began answering less often and finally left altogether in 2007, my name continues to be on the long-term list for the ASP forum as having received the most member-votes (stars) in the history of the forum.
LessThanDot.com
I continue to use and publish under the name Tarwn when I post articles and forum entries at LessThanDot.com. I have used the name for so many years that I answer to it as easily as my given name and sometimes find myself signing the wrong one on emails to my friends and family.
