About

     
fdwr is at hot email , Facebook /Piken, OkCupid /Piken, Wikipedia /User:Piken, DeviantArt /fdwr, LastFm /fdwr.

Who?

I write programs for fun, enjoy explorative/adventure video games, invent little worlds of his own, play the piano, love to figure out how things work, and often take them apart to satisfy my curiousity (whether tangible mechanical devices or intagible software).

Qbasic was my first language, which I learned mostly on my own just messing around with commands and reading through the help. Then I was introduced to C by the book "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus", and later dived into the fun of raw assembly to really learn what's happening under the covers (from which I've now withdrawn a bit, after enduring the tedium ;). Currently, I work on a little known thing called DirectX (seriously, so many people give me blank stares), after having graduated from Oregon State University with a focus on graphics.

Why?

Because I'm curious... The SNES was my first real console (yes, I was behind all my friends, who already owned Nintendos/SMS/Gameboys). With the console's impressive graphic effects, catchy music, and great games, I became infatuated with how it worked. I looked everywhere for information on how the graphics were displayed, how the code worked, and what it looked like on the inside. The only part of that which I did find out was what the inside looked like, and that was only because it broke and the repairman let me watch him as he worked my precious toy. Not until I found out about emulation, by means of the wonderful thing called the Internet, did I finally get all the info ever wanted.

With near flawlessly emulated graphics rendering and audio playback, in some ways better than the real thing, what is there left to figure out? A lot! And that is my pointless purpose... PikenSoft is a fitting name to describe what my utils do; they peek into the workings of whatever I happen to be curious about. That is why they mostly view rather than edit, because I'm more interested in knowing how they work than in changing how they work. Of course, to learn how things work, every now and then a little destructive distillation is required ;)

Thanks To...

John McCubbin for writing a front-end for my utilities!
Zophar's Domain for letting the rest of the world know about my utils.
ZsKnight for answering all my SNES related questions and writing an excellent emulator!
AntiRes for a copy of the Super Famicom SPC manual.
_Demo_ for the SPC info, and major contribution to ZSNES.
Qwertie for his emulator SneQr and SNES Knowledge Base.
Yoshi for all his helpful documents.
Gaz for his assembly library and help on protected mode.

Greets To...

Koro, CSF Mania.
John McCubbin (CyBeRGoth), Cybergoth's Domain.
AntiRes, author of SpcTool.
Magnus Runesson, author of Smc-Ripper.
Louis Bontes, author of Naga.
Jay McGavren, Rage Hacks.
Kent Hansen (SnowBro), utility author.
Mike, SNES HQ.
Savoury Snax, author of SNeSe.
Lina Chan, the ever cheerful translator.
and anyone else who emailed me.

Correct Definition of "Hacker"

A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to strech their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. A person capable of appreciating the motivation for expending effort towards a seemingly useless goal. A person who is good at programming quickly. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it .... One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations....
The New Hackers Dictionary, Second Edition 1994, p.218

A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around.

And so, by that definition, I dare call myself one "hacker".

Things Owned, Things Liked