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	Kory   News   Links   Projects   Settings			Who are you? I'm Matt Fairfax. I was born in 1978 which makes me 25 at the moment of writing this (we'll see how often I update =). I am a rather ecclectic person with a wide range of experiences in my background. I was raised deep in the country in South Carolina and thus have some small traces of redneck in me. I'd like to think that this has given me a bit of a practical and down-to-earth side. Growing up I was always more interested in science and books. I became a bookworm when my parents offered me and my siblings $100 each to not watch TV for a year. At some point during that year, I read C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia" and forever became a fan of fantasy. I also got into computers at an early age when we were introduced to Applesoft BASIC in my school's gifted and talented program and took to it like a duck to water. It was also at this time that the desire to become a game programmer was kindled in me. Throughout grade school I was a straight A honor roll student. I was fascinated with music and joined Band as soon as I could. I initially started out on trumpet but switched to french horn my sophmore year in high school. I really loved playing in the marching band and I made a lot of memories there. In my sophmore year we marched in the New Year's Day parade in London and in my Junior year we managed to win the state championship for marching bands. Also in high school, I enjoyed participating in both the school plays and in the French play. At various times I played the characters of Sherlock Holmes, the Mad Hare, a dead Spanish Conquistador, and even had to wear a dress! In college I studied Computer Engineering and my grades weren't quite as hot. I also joined in a couple of the choral groups on campus and even rode out to Colorado to sing at the Air Force Academy with one. In my free time I enjoyed hanging out with my friends, playing ping pong, and online gaming. I got introduced to roleplaying and anime and even took some martial arts early on. I was still in college when I met and married April. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and we never reached our second anniversary. The divorce left me with 3 adorable cats, Sam, Ted, and Storm, and while I wouldn't trade them for anything, I do have to admit that it is fairly odd for a single guy my age to have 3 cats =) Since leaving college, I have worked as phone support for a large inventory and maintenance software product, as a web developer, as a programmer, as the IT manager for a small company, and currently I am doing database programming of various types. In my free time I tend to spend a lot of time working on various independent game development projects but I do still find the time every friday night to host a small lan party. Favorite Game: Half-Life Deathmatch - classic but still awesome Favorite Book: "Master of White Storm" by Janny Wurts - a heartwrenching tale of what one man will do for love Favorite Authors: Robert Jordan - his Wheel of Time series is one of the best and deepest fiction I've ever read, Anne McCaffrey - I love the people in her Pern series. When the Masterharper dies, it upsets me every time. Favorite Music: "All Star" by Smash Mouth - I grew up on Christian music and still quite enjoy various artists like Jar sof Clay and DC Talk but when I heard "All Star" in "Shrek" it instantly became my favorite song Favorite Sports: Frisbee Golf, Ultimate, Whitewater Canoeing, Ping Pong, Bowling, Pool, and Volleyball What is the purpose of this web site? My goal for this site is two-fold. First, I wanted to provide a portal page that would load fastand display a lot of useful information. Secondly, I wanted to provide a site where other peoplecould quickly build and customize their own custom page. Towards the first end, members have several things displayed in a right side menu that are usefulwhen you open your browser. The first is a list of "Notes". These can be anything from a simplereminder to yourself to take out the trash or to check out a website that interests you. It also worked quite well as a task list (I used it to keep me on track building this site). These notesare completely private and no one will ever see them. Below the notes is a link to check your emailusing my hosting service's web mail system (my own system is in the works). This link also displaysthe current number of messages sitting in your mailbox. Also below the notes is a simple messagingsystem that allows you to send and receive short messages from other members. This is very usefulin allowing you to share information or reminders with other members without all of the overhead ofa message board. The second goal is achieved by my dynamic menu system. I have created a number of different templatepages. The member can then add as many menu items powered by these template pages as they desire.For example, both my Links and Stuff pages use the "Links" template (a list of categorized links)but they each contain separate information. And, if I wanted, I could add a several more pagesthat also use the "Links" template. This dynamic menu system allows members to quickly customizetheir own section of Rusty Code with little or no knowledge of web development. Over time I willcontinue to add many new template pages, allowing for even more variety. How can I try out your special member access? I have created a special user for this purpose. Simply click the "Login" link in the far rightof the menu bar and enter "bob" as the Userid and "bob123" as the Password. Feel free to play aroundwith the different options but please do not use any profanity or innappropiate language. How can I become a member? Member access is granted on a case-by-case basis. If you are intersted please email me at matt@rustycode.com and we can discuss your becominga member. What does "Rusty Code" mean? Honestly, nothing. I was looking for a domain name for my personal site and one for my businesssite (contract work). I considered drakanfyr.com since my online alias is "DrakanFyr" but Iwas concerned that if my online alias ever changed, I would have a stupid sounding domain.However, thinking about "DrakanFyr" reminded me of the other alias I go by in games I haven'tplayed in a while, "Rusty". And since I am a programmer and a web developer, "Code" also came to mind.I ran the name rustycode.com by a few friends and all of them liked it and thus rustycode.com wasborn. In the future this site may end up being dedicated entirely to my business but for now I amchoosing to use it as a personal site. I think your site is cool. How do I get in touch with you? Hehe...seriously though, you can email me at matt@rustycode.com.I also go under the AIM screen name of "Farmer M". Any and all comments are welcome so feel freeto contact me.