LWD - Featured Cruncher

It's Friday! Nothing better than surfing the web on a Friday, unless you don't have to work either! Today we speak with Praetorian, so sit back and get to know him a little better.

KingKash: Give us some details about Praetorian? Age, Sex, Student/Career, Hobbies, Interests other than computers?

Praetorian: I am the practice manager for a veterinary hospital. In university, I studied accounting and finance with the idea of becoming an accountant. That did not go as planned, so I stepped in to help my father run his veterinary hospital. That was 10 years ago, and it has begun to develop into a full consulting career opportunity. So between management/consulting and my computer company ?Praetorian Computers? I am kept pretty busy. I am 37, a male, living with my girlfriend, a cat, and a dog. As far as interests and hobbies, two items stand out. I am building an English Pub in my basement so I can kick back and watch my favorite sports teams (Denver Broncos, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Arsenal Gunners), and the rest of my time I referee soccer to give back to the sport that I played for over 30 years.

KingKash: What is a practice manager? It is similar to an office manager?

Praetorian: A practice manager, in the true sense of the job description is different than an office manager. In addition to office manager duties, we meet with suppliers, determine fees for medical procedures, perform all human resource duties, government tax remittances, marketing strategies, business plan execution. Pretty much direct the company, provided the owners believe in our abilities.

KingKash: How did you get the word out about Preatorian Computers? Is it mostly Word of Mouth type of advertising?

Praetorian: Praetorian Computers has been word of mouth advertising at this time. It developed as an additional service for my consulting company. Since I did a lot of the networking for the companies, I decided to provide a full service business, complete with business consulting, computer networking, and now computer sales. I plan on setting up an internet site and selling case mod products and various other types of computer products. In addition, web design for my clients would help to complete the full service approach I hope to provide.

KingKash: English pub as in you are building a brewery or will you have your drinks on tap?

Praetorian: This is strictly a personal private pub. About 1/3 of my basement has been set aside for the pub. The idea is to make it a pure shrine to my sports teams. It will have team flags, all the mugs are team crested, basically a place to go and throw darts, drink a few beers, and watch tv, all in the luxury of a English style pub.

KingKash: How many games a week do you Ref? Were you ever a coach?

Praetorian: Last year I refereed about 3-4 games per week. This year will probably be about the same number, but the games will be higher caliber games. I just passed my referees test and moved up a level, now I will be doing some college and high school games which should be a lot of fun. As far as coaching, I assisted a coach last year for a while, but never really liked it that much. I prefer to have more control and influence on the game, and being the referee puts me in that position. Besides, the kids never listened to anything, and just getting them out to a practice was a pain in the butt.

KingKash: Where did you get the name Praetorian?

Praetorian: In Roman history, the Praetorian Guard were the protectors of Ceasar. I like history, particularly military history, and movies which show the struggle of one to overcome the odds. As such, Gladiator was a great movie which really intrigued me. For consulting, I wanted a company name that had a historical reference, and Praetorian had that. As a consultant, I am the protector of the companies assets and future.

KingKash: Have you had any success in recruiting people to LWD?

Praetorian: Unfortunately not yet. I keep working on my brother to come over from the frogs at amdmb.com, but he has failed to see the light and continues to remain a member of the dark side.

KingKash: Money aside, which of the newest of the Intel or AMD processors would you go for?

Praetorian: That one is easy. Praetorian Computers is selling only the AMD product line. I am currently building my latest generation super computer, which is going to be a double dually (dual boot Suse Linux and XP Pro, and dual processors) so I am waiting for the MP .13 Micron chips to come to market with the faster (333 mhz) FSB..

KingKash: Do you have any help with Praetorian Computers or is it just you at this point?

Praetorian: Officially, I am the company. However, my brother is an unofficial salesman and technician for the company. We live in two different cities, so we are able to extend our coverage some what. I also use his superior networking knowledge when situations require it.

KingKash: What manufacturers/brands do you like and use with Praetorian Computers? (ie. Epox, Asus, MSI, ATI?) Any brands you try to stay away from?

Praetorian: The branding that I am trying to use for computers is simply, reasonable prices for higher quality products. As such, anyone receiving a quote from Praetorian Computers would be quoted for either a MSI or Epox motherboard, Antec cases and power supplies, Ati video cards, AMD CPU?s, either generic or Crucial Ram, and for printers I have had a lot of success with Samsung.

KingKash: What about networking equipment, brands and such?

Praetorian: At this stage, I have been using 3COM hubs and Linksys network cards. I have worked with some of the onboard NICs on ECS motherboards and found them to be unreliable, so the Linksys card is preferred for the time being.

KingKash: How did you learn so much about computers?

Praetorian: I did not like paying other people to do things on the computer that seemed rather simple after they were done. The turning point was paying $50 to a guy for reinstalling printer drivers after a virus damaged the originals. My brother was building his own systems at this time, so I went out bought all the parts, and one afternoon he and I built my first system. Since then, I have self taught myself on building, troubleshooting, networking, and everything else computer related. At this time, I am learning Linux (Suse 8.1 professional) so I can break the Microsoft headlock on me. In fact, Suse is being reinstalled on one of my system as I type this.

KingKash: Where did you hear about SETI?

Praetorian: My brother over at the frogs got me going in Seti at first. I originally joined that group, but followed a link from there to LWD, and have never regretted the move over here.

KingKash: When did you start running SETI?

Praetorian: April 16, 2002 was the date I signed up.

KingKash: Why did you start?

Praetorian: I joined up to kick my brothers butt. He and I are both Star Trek fans, and generally all space oriented science fiction shows, so I had to one up him.

KingKash: Is your brother on the LWD Team? And are you still kicking his butt?

Praetorian: No, unfortunately my brother has remained a part of the dark side, he has not seen the light and joined us yet. But I am still working on him. He thought he had me whipped when he picked up a Tyan Tiger and gloated about being able to do 16 to 17 units per day. So I loaded Seti up on the work computers and proceeded to stomp him into the ground. Now I am about 1,000 units ahead of him and for some reason he does not mention Seti much anymore.

KingKash: A Tyan Tiger with Dual procs at what speed?

Praetorian: He went for the MP 2000?s. At the risk of offending any Tyan fans, this has been a disappointing motherboard. After hearing continual complaints about the board, I would not sell another.

KingKash: What was your first machine to run SETI?

Praetorian: My first Seti unit was crunched on a Epox 8K7A+ motherboard with an AMD XP 1900+ processor.

KingKash: How many machines do you run now?

Praetorian: 10 systems in total. 1 ? XP 1900+, 6 ? XP 1800+, 1 ? P3 700 Sony Laptop, and 2 paperweights.

KingKash: What do you hope to accomplish by running SETI?

Praetorian: I would like to become the top Canadian cruncher on LWD, and make the top 1000 Canadians in Seti. That means about 5000 units need to be crunched.

KingKash: What would your ultimate SETI Crunching machine be?

Praetorian: My super computer I am building. Dark blue aluminum antec 1080b style case with side window, 430 Watt antec true blue power supply, probably go radiator cooling on it, if not then go the mod route with blue led antec fans. External Yamaha CRW F1 SCSI writer, I am partial to Epox motherboards and of course the dually MP?s. Since my official stance is anti Microsoft, it would run Suse Linux, and of course the 16:9 aspect ratio flat screen is a must.

KingKash: Would you consider any other distributed computing projects besides SETI?

Praetorian: Yes, I am a member of the LWD Folding Team, but recently found out that Mt. Sinai hospital in Toronto is also running a distributed folding project as well so I will probably look into that at some point.

KingKash: What does your significant other or good friends think about SETI?

Praetorian: My girlfriend and good friends all think I am insane, but that is par for the course.

KingKash: If you could improve anything about the SETI@Home Project, what would it be?

Praetorian: That is simply. Somehow eliminate the cheating that has severely tarnished the project. I also believe that the units that get crunched while a person is a member of another site should stay with that team and not move when the member moves. That has resulted in lots of bad feelings amongst teams and individuals.

KingKash: What do you think the best thing is about LWD?

Praetorian: I believe that LWD has become a model of what only sites strive to be. I have not scene much if any of the infighting that has torn apart other sites. The members here are mostly easy going and that is what I want. If I commit some of my time in the day to read some posts here or join a conversation, I don?t need crap. I firmly believe that life is too difficult dealing with co-workers, taxes, idiots, that I do not want that on the internet. I want to thank the LWD members for making this site the best one I have ever been a part of.

KingKash: Do you have any other comments (free reign here)?

Praetorian: As a final comment, I feel I must officially protest the result of fathertyme?s and my race to 3,000. The circumstantial evidence indicates that there was a unlawful use of the Zurbo button. This incident has left me permanently scarred. After several weeks of investigation, I have no proof that a Zurbo was in use so I will conclude my obligations to fathertyme by stating here that ?Fathertyme is the ultimate Seti cruncher and has a bitch slap to knock you into next week?.


Telling it like it is...