Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?

[Anonymous]

Are you proficient in other languages?

[Anonymous]

It looks like he put in his first hour of work, and is now in the 2-hour workout block.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

Thanks, Jeff! My theory was that you have a liberal arts background. You don’t write like an engineer. 😉

Another pet theory and prove me wrong; you were/are a voracious reader?

Trying not to fan girl out here.

What do you read?

I have always enjoyed reading and read a lot. These days I read a lot of historical novels. I am currently reading "The Land Beyond the Sea" by Sharon Kay Penman.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Are you proficient in other languages?

I have studied French and Arabic. I was once conversational in French and pretty good at reading, writing, and speaking Arabic. But I am really bad with languages and can't really do much with either of them now. These days even English is a challenge.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like he put in his first hour of work, and is now in the 2-hour workout block.

Nah, just made a quick trip to the grocery store. I will be spreading out my exercise today.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened on 6.30.17 to garner so many posts? I've tried Googling news events and a very cursory search of this site and come up with nothing.

I have never figured out what happened then. I assume it is some sort of glitch. Based on traffic stats, it doesn't appear that there was any out of the ordinary traffic that day.

Thanks for answering this! It’s something that I’ve been startlingly curious about.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

I'm curious when you did this program. I'm curious if you were there when a close friend was.

[Anonymous]

Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

I'm curious when you did this program. I'm curious if you were there when a close friend was.

I was there for the 1986-87 school year, then went to Kuwait for 1987-88, and returned to Georgetown for 1988-89.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you could write a book, about the insights of the dmv, Nanny Diaries like

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you have been subpoenaed for log data? Could you talk about it of you had been?

We have been subpoenaed several times. I've been told by our lawyer that I shouldn't broadcast the specifics of a subpoena but I can warn the targets so that they can contest the subpoena if they want. The problem is that I normally can't identify the targets in order to warn them because they are always anonymous. Very often we get threats of subpoenas which some people seem to believe will intimidate me. It actually doesn't bother me and I have no problem with people who believe they have been harmed using the legal system to seek remedy. I think it is cheaper and easier if they just contact me to discuss the issue civilly.

We also get lots of threats along the lines of "If you don't remove such and such posts I will sue you." I just laugh at those and, if anything, am even less wiling to remove the content in question.

Thanks, that was fascinating. I have some follow-up questions: Are you typically subpoenaed for all posts from a specific IP? Or are they posts more limited to a subject, such as give me all posts where this IP talked about their kids? Do you have a sense of what sort of cases they are used for? (I imagine divorce?) Do you ever follow the cases to find out what happened?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you could write a book, about the insights of the dmv, Nanny Diaries like

I don't know that I actually have that many interesting insights. It might be the cure for insomnia, however.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

I suck, too. I had to google the explorer - very cool. I have a Taylor acoustic and a strat and a pretty nice fender combo amp. I should really play them more...

[Anonymous]

When did DCUM begin?

When you founded it, did you intend for this to a full-time job, or did it just evolve?