Missing Link

It’s not often that I take the time to acknowledge when someone has had an impact on my life.  Certainly there are quite a few people who HAVE made an impact on it,  some being Ryan Phillips (history teacher in high school), Bill Herman (principal),  Sergeant Major Poe (TAC at St Johns), MattyP (very close friend from St Johns), Ann (very important person in my life / girlfriend / awesomeness).  Those are a just a few who have had a very positive impact on my life.  Each one of them deserves recognition here,  and perhaps a story of their own (I have plans for writing stories about all of those mentioned above, to be honest).   Today, though, I’m writing a post about someone not listed above who I consider to be a good friend, and just plain awesome: Kyle Purple.

Kyle is a geeks geek.   He loves World of Warcraft,  is a computer scientist like me,  gets a kick out of obscure star wars references in family guy (actually, I think he gets a kick out of everything in that show), and looks just like the PC from the Mac vs PC commercials.   It’s awesome.

I met Kyle about two years ago,  in the foyer of the core building at SJC when I had 15 minutes to kill before my computer architecture class.  He was sitting on a sofa, and I sat on one nearby and started a conversation.   I knew he had to be a computer geek like me, just by looking at him.  I swear I don’t mean that as a putdown,  it isn’t.  I knew instantly that he was a cool guy, and I was right.  Turns out he was waiting for the same class.

We were in a lot of the same classes throughout the rest of my time at SJC, at least as far as computer science courses went.  I convinced the computer center to ask him to work there as an Admin,  which they did.   I then got him assigned as my successor on my (successful) honeynet project,  which basically meant I had to teach him everything I knew about honeynets and how to administer the one I had set up on the campus network.  Yes, I realize that 99% of you have NO CLUE what a honeynet is.  The other 1% should pat yourselves on the back; you’re geeks.   Purple, that means you.  You too, Ann.

Purple also was in my software engineering class,  which was awesome because he was assigned to document my code.   That’s a good thing, because if anyone has ever read code I’ve written you’ll know it comes rife with comments that are useful only in making people laugh.  The hardcore programmers who read this would probably then say I’m an idiot for not producing usable comments in my code. To them I say:  I do write usable comments in code that is going to actually be used for something, but for academic projects whose scope is small I find them tedious, and I alleviate that tedium by amusing myself.

I then got Kyle hooked up with a job at Infotex on the NOC (network operations center) staff.  I was, at the time,  slated to be the NOC manager there.  They even offered me the job and had brought me into the loop on the insides of the business.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately…) I had to turn down the offer so I could pursue Proxito full time.   Kyle stayed on for a good 9 months after I left, though,  which was great because I could talk to him online while he worked the noc shifts.  Good times.

When I was up in Rensselaer for Ann’s graduation,  Kyle came to find me when he heard I was on campus.   He was very drunk, and wearing a Pirate hat.   Ann and I have since taken to calling him Cap’n Purple.   That’s what the picture at the top is all about.

My only regret is that I didn’t spend more time hanging out with the good Cap’n outside of class and work.  Oh well,  there’s always the present.     Hey Cap’n, lemme know when you’ve got some free time so I can take ya out for some drinks!