Hello all!

fstroupe · August 29th, 2007

I guess I should do things right and do the introduction thing. You will see by this post I am long winded. LOL

My name is Frank, and I am "fstroupe" all over the web, and occasionally "knutsaac". (kind of a long story, the name of a DnD character) I have been into forums for probably six years, and have been registered at somewhere around 50 of them, and moderator of three.

I am an old fart, will be 49 in less than two months. The first computer I ever operated was an IBM 150 in a basic programming course in college...it used punch cards (do not spindle, fold, or mutilate) and probably used as much energy as an average house. My first PC was a Tandy 1000 with an 8086 processor, two 5 1/4" floppies, and no hard drive. About that time, a friend of mine bought Windows 1.xx. I thought that it was silly, and figured it would never go anywhere. I was out of computers from 1991 to 1996 (very broke due to a divorce and taking a $12,000 pay cut after leaving the US Army), and got back into things with a smoking 533 mHz PII.

I did my first build in the spring of 2002, an Athlon 2500+ on an Abit NF7-S Ver2. It's still the best mobo I have ever owned...a great overclocker and Soundblaster quality onboard audio. I have built several since then, and besides the rig in my signature, I have a couple of A64 3200+ rigs with Abit boards.

I have been a reviewer and forum moderator at The Overclock Intelligence Agency for over four years. I review pretty much anything, but am kind of the resident audio and gadget guy. Besides being an avid listener, I also record music. I guess you could say that I am a musician...but that is very loosely interpreted...in other words I suck at it. I am also the news poster at OCIA.net.

I also am a reviewer at ThinkComputers.org, and have been since May. I've mostly just reviewed digital gadgets there, plus a few cases and a Lacie external HDD.

Plus, I am a forum moderator, and content contributor at The Free Information Society. I've been there for a few years, and have contributed several bios, a couple of essays, and several recipes.

As I said, I've been around forums for a long time...I like to help noobs...I am pretty anal about simple explanations...drawing stick figures and the like. I am mostly a hardware guy, not really into networking or programming. I also game, but haven't been doing much of it for the past several months, I'm mostly into FPS and some RTS. I am also anal about spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and usually proofread my posts a couple of times before submittal. If I am pissed about something, I usually sleep on it before posting.

I live in NE Mississippi not too far from Tupelo, I spent seven years as a paratrooper in military intelligence in the US Army, and have seven grandkids from two daughters...I also have a son who is a professional student at Mississippi State University, and another who is presently in the US Army.

I guess I've bored you enough...