Microstupidity

This is the personal website of a person called Christopher Elsby. It was first set up circa 2002, and has changed name and address a few times since then. The present incarnation has been around since about 2008.

I am an experienced computer programmer living in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. I started programming as a hobbyist with BASIC in the 1990s and then moved to a Windows environment using Microsoft Visual Basic, and later C++. Around the year 2002 I established this website as a means of distributing some of my projects, and in due course began experimenting with interactive content using Perl and later PHP. This led me to begin using the Linux operating system, first trying RedHat 8 and then quite rapidly switching to Gentoo. I now also operate some Debian systems. Since then I have been mainly interested in open source, cross-platform development, and have continued to gain experience in system administration as well as programming in a plethora of languages (though alas I now struggle to remember how to do anything in BASIC).

I also have interests in certain areas of mathematics, physics, psychology and philosophy. I enjoy various games including Chess, Bridge, Cluedo, Chip's Challenge, Nethack and BlackNova Traders.

I am a member of Trinity College, Cambridge and St Catherine's College, Oxford.

I am a Christian, worshipping at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge, St Giles Cripplegate Church in London and St Aldates Church in Oxford.

• Name: Christopher Elsby
• E-mail: chrise@chrise.me.uk
• XMPP: The same as the above e-mail address.
• Other instant messaging services: Usually either the above e-mail address or one of the nicknames "ChrisE", "ChrisEsirhC" or "Glarbex".

• Chip's Workshop - A level editor which I have created for the game Chip's Challenge
• MurderSpot - A game similar to Cluedo

• The Order of the Stick - A web comic
• Terror Island - Another web comic
• Andrews & Arnold - A UK-based ISP
• Nearly Free Speech - A web host
• XenVZ - A VPS host
• Nethack - A computer game which is unrelated to what most people will probably think the name means
• Nethack Wiki - A publicly editable website about Nethack

Sometimes I have information that I do not wish to reveal but may later wish to prove that I knew at a particular time. To do this, I publish checksums (currently using sha512) of files describing the information on this site. I then also generate a checksum of the complete list, which I use as a footer when sending emails. Anyone who has a copy of this checksum is then able to vouch for the fact that I knew the information by the time they receive the checksum. The top level checksum is currently a90bc8b7e7da7ff5fccae7cb26bfde80b2bb4ab7571d039fc484ece22cb8240ae9a2024476d5dd8c32db2dd231addaa8f857c01a419f2f39f2b34b1eeba34d06 and the complete list of published checksums may be seen on the proof of knowledge page.