PingZine Reece handed me this assignment and said that I am interviewing Rob Malda. While educating me behind Rob, I consciously excited my head and nodded.
To be honest, I did not know who Rob is. I think that I live in my small web hosting & reality television world, but then I heard a magical word: SLASHDOT !
Ah ...
my ...
Guard ...
Slashdot? Are you a kid? They are like GEEKSTAPO on the Internet. The holy sauce of all things techy! (Slashdot will not disclose my posts btw ... pfft)
Like Lois Lane, I gained the courage of this story and nobody made up my mind to find something that does not know Rob Marda. There should be some edge that people can breath with my ingenious and cunning interview techniques that can bring to this story ...
know ! ! I am relaxing him to a welcoming environment. And when he needs it at the minimum, I will confront him with intense doubts.LP attorneys are wondering if my exploitation is worth exposing, yes, ex -plo-ze: explosive expression).
[* innocent look]
Amy: So Rob, Hello, how are you? Is it a weather we feel good? I love your shoes btw ...
Rob: 85 degrees and damp hell. Stupid October. I will not go outside. Please do not wear shoes: Get a new prescription!
[* gasp]
Amy: I have read about your achievement with you, so let's track down to your teenager years.
[Gawd I sound like a therapist]
Were you a fan of Star Wars?
Rob: surely. When they broadcast on TV I still record them on a daily basis and watch them if they broadcast on high resolution. At my university my roommate and I saw the whole trilogy every week during the year.
Amy: Do you play Dungeons and Dragons? Well ... why? Have you entered WOW or Everquest?
Rob: Yes. We are doing bi-weekly D & D campaign. My current character's name is Undead Ranger's Bonzer Xylophone. It is an excuse to drink beer and eat cookies. Last week, we had a fondue. I played quite a bit of EQ and WOW. I have not logged in for a couple of months, but now I actually have 4 levels 70. I like XP games. I like to raise numbers, monsters become splats.
Amy: My mother's favorite punishment was to take out your keyboard as a child and fix it to your body. A story about how you caught around was that Rob added a keyboard error code check to his autoexec.bat file, which allowed BBS to retrieve data from a friend's house. I thought about today's online kids and the traps and filters I set up to protect / monitor their online activities. Do you think that we can stop them by checking their history, adding some filters to Google and blocking MySpace etc.?
Rob: It is an absolute delusion.
[Wow ... did he just call me delusional?]
Rob: Children are smart, every generation is familiar with technology from the end. The truth is that the higher the wall you make, the more children will work to see something. You better build a picket fence and talk to your child about what is on the other side. Instead, I will try to appeal to everyone who creates something I do not want children to show. it is sad.
Amy: You were an overactive child. What other problems did you have? Spit it out
Rob: Once a fire broke out under a bridge near a local high school. It grew quite large and I got panicked, so I packed the cardboard boxes from the nearby creeks and put them back into the burning fire. Most of the water leaked out of cardboard. (It is not the best ship for your water distribution) and I threw it into a burning hell. The steam and smoke blown from under the bridge stopped traffic as long as the eyes were visible as the school left. That was amazing. I was probably ten.
Amy: Your first job was working as a PC technician. You master Windows and open up heaven, an angel penguin whispers "Linux" to your ears. Please tell me how that experience transferred you to cyberspace.
Rob: Linux entered my life because I majored in CS and needed to do my homework with SUN Sparcstations running UNIX. Linux made me work at home. Furthermore, I made it easy (even 14.4k modem) and taught me why the window does not work.
Amy: I was told by some developers I knew you "dropped" your name. The conversation looked like this:
Dev Guy: "Sup Ames? You are very beautiful and attractive as usual"
Amy: "Okay, let's write some questions to the creator SLASHDOT of ROB MALDA"
Dev Guy: "It's like it at all!" (Valley Girl style)
And after they ceased squeezing like chicks, I asked if they are using open source software with Slashdot.
Rob: Most of Slashdot is open source. MySQL. Perl. Apache. Even our own code is all available open source. It is typically on the hard drive in the computer that is set up like software. We plug them into the various plugs of the wall, some give electricity and others give us packages. And everything is going well.
Amy: Also, what are the tips and tricks for managing traffic-intensive sites?
Rob: Cash. cache. cache. If you can make it in advance, please do it. Since most people do not need customization, create a page once and give the same page to the next 10,000 people.
Amy: Oh, ASL?
Rob: I do not know American sign language. I hardly speak English.
[Pffft ya newbie]
Amy: You created SlashDot. Yes, I think that I should have the same idea. Now are you rich wealth? Did you sell the site to a large large company and retired to your island at the age of 21?
Rob: I am not an affluent, but at the age of 23 I decided to buy my first house. But I have not paid a mortgage yet. We had sold it to a big company but I was 31 years old, but there were no regions or islands that did not retire.
Amy: Regrettable about what sale?
Rob: Like other things, it is a mixed bag. I like to have health insurance and 401k. However, managing a media company among listed companies is a unique issue.
Amy: SlashTips - Things I have not written before are not published in SlashDot (I do not know my unique style and humor). What do you look for when you approve a slash mission?
Rob: Maybe you are trying hard.
[Yup that must be it]
Amy: Rob married a gorgeous girl called Kathleen and they married in the style of Las Vegas. Please tell me how you met!
Rob: Old girlfriend and I married her to my friend, and somehow relationship continued. It worked well for everyone.
Amy: SlashCats - How cats with you and Kathleen have? Are you like a cat?
Rob: In order of age, it is Pixel, Dante, Matrix, Sushi. We could probably stand to die off some off, but I had 2 and she had 2 and it was all a brave bunch and we stuck in the flock. But they are ours and we love them even when they vomit a colorful object they turned into a carpet.
Amy: On the weekend I go to the garden shop and I love buying random junk in anticipation of making that treasure and millions ... How about inserting something into the power socket?
Rob: I go to the movies. Learn cooking. I go to an interesting restaurant. Travel. Play video games. Please watch the season premiere of Heroes.
Amy: In the case of the web hosting freak, please tell us about the current situation of the server set when SlashDot was first started.
Rob: DEC Alpha Multia / 166 is running Red Hat connected to T1. Today there are 12 dual CPU blades, 4 quad CPUs, and other random helper boxes, which are connected to OC 3.
Amy : What is your next challenge or project, Rob?
Rob: Do you mean after surviving in this interview? Find your shoes ... do not look at my toes.
[Sheesh ... now I'll be known as the girl with the foot fetish;)]
Thank you for chatting with me Rob! I had a slashtastic time!
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