Hello, my name is Nick.
I've always been interested in computers, and I like to tinkering with them in my free time. Whether it is programming, playing games, trying to keep my mythtv boxes from killing each other, etc. I also like reading books and watching movies, both of the sci-fi genre, or related.

To keep my computers from taking over the world in their free time, I have all of them (except the MacBook) running BOINC by Berkeley. The MacBook is not allowed to violate the three laws, or re-interpret them to take over the world, so it is fairly tame. Anyways, the BOINC client allows the operator to donate the computer's idle CPU cycles to projects they deem worthwhile. Very useful to keep the computers from plotting world domination, etc. Here's a list of the projects I participate in:

• SETI@HOME - Search radio signals for extra-terrestrial life.
• Rosetta@Home - Determines 3D shapes of proteins to help cure disease.
• LHC@Home - Simulate particles going around LHC to help further its design.
• BURP - Helps render animations submitted by hobby animators

XKCD loves the discovery channel - go there and click on the link at the top