Autobiography

Be forewarned, the following is my in-depth autobiography that most people will find far from interesting. Continue reading at your own risk.

In the beginning...

I was born on December 26, 1984. From a very young age, it was obvious that I was interested in computers, electronics, and video games. In elementary school, I was introduced to computers running DOS. Back in those days, we had to type "win" just to get to a graphical user interface (GUI), but even that GUI was far from the Windows that we know today. I would show off in front of my class mates typing commands such as "dir /S" which would fly through listing all of the files and folders on the computer. It was such a trivial command, but at the time, it was so cool.

On my birthday in 1990, my mother gave me a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I was so excited. I became a huge fan of video games and Mario. My aunt and I played Mario every night, calling each other on the telephone at key points to boast about our progress. In the later years, I wanted a Nintendo 64 but my mother told me I would have to buy it on my own. I saved up every penny of my weekly allowance to purchase my very own Nintendo 64. It was lessons like that one that have helped me to understand the value of money.

In 1992, my grandmother purchased an AST Advantage computer. With a small 13 inch monitor, and RAM measured in KB rather than MB, this computer was far from the advanced computers we use today. The computer was running Windows 3.0 at first, but was later upgraded to Windows 3.1 in 1993 to take advantage of increased networking abilities. At that time my grandmother received a free AOL 1.0 diskette. She used that to sign online for the first time. When she let me sign me on for the first time in late 1993, all I can remember was everything being very text-heavy and obviously very slow.

My teenage years...

In 1998, when I was 13 years old, my grandmother finally set me up with my very own AOL account. My first nickname in this digital world was one she came up for me, jaynel13. I enjoyed chatting in AOL chat rooms, messaging my friends on my AOL buddy list, and browsing around the internet. My mother couldn't afford a computer, but I was able to talk her into buying this thing called "Web TV" by Microsoft. It was later renamed "MSN TV" I believe, but we had an older practically first-version of the hardware. Basically, I was able to hook up the Web TV unit to my TV in my bedroom, and I could use that to dial up and log in to the internet on my TV. It didn't take long for me to become engulfed by this immense online world we call the internet.

My first nickname on Web TV was TNelb9. In fact, TNelb9 is my oldest nickname with history available via a Google search. I used TNelb9 even after I was no longer on Web TV as my AOL instant messenger name. In 1998, while using Web TV, I created my very first web page using expage.com. Expage.com allowed you to create websites using a simple editor and once I discovered this ability I starting making many websites. I even did very simple graphic design from my Web TV using ImageMagick.com and CoolArchive.com. As you can tell, even without the right tools, I was still determined to build my own websites. In March of 1999, with my high school career only a few short months away, my mother finally bought me my first personal computer, an HP Pavilion. In fact, it is still in running condition today, although it has been heavily upgraded and is just sitting in storage.

By the way, I was always interested in security on computers and the internet. I signed up at a specific bulletin board service available at Hackers.com and became a very active member under my new nickname, "metaphyber". I still use this nickname today. In middle school, one of the teachers was a huge Clemson Tigers fan. I knew everyone's login name was their first initial and last name, so while in the library one day I did a little experiment. I typed in the teacher's first initial and last name, and the password "tigers". I immediately gained access to the teacher's account, and all of the teacher-only tools that were a part of the network. An hour later, I found myself in the principal office being interrogated about why and how I had logged into a teacher's account. I played it off as somehow accidental and was able to skate free. I was a lot more careful from then on, at least until high school...

The ups and downs of high school...

High school was actually a very enjoyable time for me. By the beginning of 9th grade, I was already pretty adept with HTML (the code behind websites). I joined the high school web page staff, which was a group of guys that kept up with the high school website. They tried to teach me Front Page, but I showed them my knowledge of HTML and they just sat there with their jaws dropped. By 11th grade, everyone who was in the original web page staff had graduated, and it was just me and maybe a few other young people. I became the web staff manager and was the sole student in charge of the web page staff and updating the high school website.

But first, in 9th grade, I had another fun experience with computer security. I was browsing around the drives on the computers in the library, and I noticed that there were a bunch of network drives. I browsed around the network drives, and stumbled upon a few items that I knew I wasn't supposed to have access to. The most important of my finds was an XLS file which contained every student's social security number, whether or not they got free or reduced price lunch, whether they had any library books checked out or overdue, etc. I kept this knowledge private, only showing it to a few close friends. It wasn't until later in 10th grade that I showed one of my trusted teachers what I had found. She threatened to tell the high school administration if I didn't turn this information in voluntarily. So, I went down to the guidance office and was ushered into a meeting with the principal where I explained my findings from 9th grade. I wasn't in trouble at all, but it was very clear that I should stop snooping around the network.

In high school, we had to wear these stupid ID tags. Sure, they were for our own safety, but no one liked them. After they got rid of my findings from 9th grade, I started wondering if there was any other way to get information without a computer. I started off by looking at my ID tag. I was able to decode my ID tag's barcode and it translated into my social security number. I found this very surprising. Basically, I discovered that I could find anyone's social security number just by examining their ID tag. In study hall, I had my friends hand me their ID tags and I would in return present them with their social security number. It was always funny to see their faces light up with surprise when I was able to figure such a top-secret number by simply looking at their ID tag for a few minutes.

In 10th grade, I started taking a special class at our county's career center - Desktop Publishing. We worked on old school iMacs and used Adobe's products such as Photoshop 5 and Illustrator. We designed newspapers, brochures, and other print related materials. However, I was far more interested in the iMacs and the program Photoshop. I quickly became proficient in Photoshop, and decided to try it out for myself at home. I got the program and started learning on my own. In no time, I was making even better looking websites using my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. Around the same time, I was learning to use Perl to make more dynamic websites with news updatable via a news administration script.

Gaming is not just a hobby, it's a lifestyle...

I bought an Xbox on the day that it was released, November 15, 2001. I absolutely loved it. I became even more of a gamer than ever before. I hooked up my Xbox to my computer, and tricked it into thinking I was on a local network even though it was really the internet. I was then able to play via "system link" against people from all over the world. Our game of choice was Halo, and my friends and I became huge Halo fans playing at all times of day.

Also, during school, I had secretly installed Unreal Tournament on the network. My friends and I would all play system link Unreal Tournament games during classes such as Accounting. Sometimes we had up to 8 people scattered across all of the computer classes playing at the same time.

In 2002, Xbox LIVE underwent beta testing. I became an official Xbox LIVE beta tester and came up with my new gaming nickname, "Hellion". In the coming years, I remained a huge Halo fan buying and playing every Halo game. I even made videos by recording my gameplay in Halo and then producing it on the computer. One of my videos landed me my 15 minutes of fame. I was interviewed and featured in the March 2005 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. More recently, I am much more interested in Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2. I am a true a gamer, and I will play anything. In fact, more recently, I have discovered I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, and have completely beaten Final Fantasy XIII. My gamertag on Xbox LIVE is currently "Hellion oD".

Back to high school...

In 11th grade and going into 12th grade, I became increasingly more curious about the security of the computers at school. I did some things that I am not proud of. Basically, I gained access to the high school website's Front Page password. I was then able to update the website from home. However, I never even did that. I just had this thirst for knowledge, but I had no bad intentions or malicious intent. In 12th grade, I was trying to access some more network folders that I came across. There was a program with a list of every high school in the county. Each item in the list was a sever that requested a password. I typed in the password "itssucks". It was basically more of a joke than a brute force attempt. ITS was the group behind the security of the high school computers. However, what I thought was just fun and games turned out to be much more serious.

These severs I was trying to log into ended up being the master server for each school which contained grades and tons of critically private information. In just a few hours I was summoned to a meeting with my mother, the assistance principal, the principal, a representative of ITS, and 2 federal agents from the FBI. It was by far the most stressful thing that has ever happened to me. I found out that even prior to the day's events, they were already montoring my computer usage. I was interrogated over many of my actions from that day and going all the way back to my 9th grade incident. I did not admit to anything, and they had no real evidence that I did anything with malicious intent. I ended up having a court-like case with the superintendent of education over Pickens County. I argued my case, and the high school argued their case. The superintendent agreed with both of us. He didn't feel that someone with my level of intelligence should be expelled, even though the school thought I should be. Instead, he decided to place me on academic probation, and banned me from touching a school computer for the rest of my high school career.

Wrapping up my high school career...

Around the same time that I was dealing with that stressful situation, I had started learning PHP and MySQL. I bought my website "metaphyber.com" and used it to showcase my learning's. You can look up metaphyber.com on archive.org and see my website from its early stages. I've been programming in PHP and MySQL ever since that time in 2002.

Near the end of 12th grade, the yearbook staff was racing to have the yearbook finished on time. Some idiot on the yearbook staff accidentally deleted 8 pages from the yearbook. The teacher behind the yearbook staff knew me well, and came to me with a cry for help. I told her that I couldn't help because I couldn't legally touch any of the computers or I would be instantly expelled. She talked to the principal, and sent me to the principal's office in the middle of a class. I don't believe anyone has ever been sent to that office with a situation similar to mine. The principal told me it would be fine for me to touch the computers to help the yearbook staff. She encouraged me to do so and even thanked me! I went back down to the class room, and started working on the computer in question. I was able to run an undelete program and recover all of the lost files without any problem. From that point forward, I was taken out of classes quite consistently to help teachers all across the school with their computer problems. My friends at school started calling me Administrator Neal.

I graduated in 2003, and with that was the end of my illustrious high school career. Even to this day I think back about the old times and sort of wish I could be there again, but truth be told, as much as I loved high school, I am glad it's in the past. After my experiences in high school, I was able to put my curiosity in check. Since then, I haven't gotten into any trouble with regards to computers or the internet. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that I am very lucky that my curiosity was cured while in high school and I didn't end up with a serious criminal record.

It gets better...

I started college right after high school. In fact, it was just 1 month after high school in June of 2003. I went to ECPI - College of Technology in Greenville, SC. My major? An obvious choice - Network Security. I absolutely loved college. I thought I liked high school, but college was on another whole level. The truth is, it became obvious that I simply love to learn. In college is where you really start learning. Everything starts making more sense, and you get into much more advanced curriculums. Even classes that I despised at the time, such as Speech 101, helped shape me to be who I am today. Unfortunately, I didn't stick to ECPI for long. I was offered a full time job with Charter Communications making more money than I could imagine at the time. So I took the job and quit my school. However, I never stopped learning. I made it a point to learn as much as I could on my own. I focused on network security, computer hardware, computer software, linux, web servers, programming, etc.

Eventually I lost that job. I went through an odd period in my life where I started working for a band. Yes, that's right - a rock band. I made their website, worked closely with their label, designed their logo, t-shirts, etc. I even designed their CD jewel case and disk designs. I ended up touring the nation with them. That was the most fun and enjoyable experience that I have ever had.

After that, I ended up back in college. Only this time I went to a cheaper college, Greenville Tech. I enjoyed Greenville Tech even more than I remembered enjoying ECPI. I stayed with Greenville Tech much longer, almost a year and a half. There was one little problem though. Almost all of the computer related classes taught me little to nothing. I flew through even the more advanced classes like Linux Administration with flying colors. It came to a point where I realized school was pointless...There was nothing that I could learn from going to school that I hadn't already learnt on my own. I received a programming job offer in Spartanburg, SC. I accepted the offer, and quit school. Only this time, I would never return. Quite often I start wishing I could go back to school, but then I remind myself that it's honestly pointless. As much as I want to go and learn, there is nothing they can teach me. So when I get urges such as that one, I usually find a new skill to learn, or a new programming book to read. These things keep my appetite for learning in check.

During the time that I took the job in Spartanburg, SC, I met someone. In February 2007, I got married. Shortly thereafter, we got pregnant. In January 2008, my daughter Reanna Franki Neal was born. However, the wife and I had many problems. In July 2008, we separated and I moved to Fuquay-Varina, NC near Holly Springs and right down the road from Raleigh. That experience was a good one, but didn't work out. I ended up back home. My wife and I stayed separated, and in December 2009 we finally got our divorce.

Where we are today...

On election day - November 4th - in 2008, I started working with Drew Hannush at Hannush Enterprises in Greenville, SC. I signed on as his Web Developer / Programmer, and have been there ever since. I absolutely love the job and put every ounce of heart into every day that I work. I could not imagine finding a better opportunity. This is my ideal job, in my ideal working environment, with an ideal boss. My friends envy me, but I consider it payoff for all those years of hard work, learning, and putting my all into everything I ever tried to do. My passion for this industry is obvious, and I finally get to put that true passion to good use in every day that I work.

I am happy to finally be on a good path with a great job and a positive direction in life. I have my own apartment, with nice furniture, and enjoy living on my own and supporting myself. My only real problem is that I don't have enough time for everything I want to do. Working, trying to read and learn, keeping up with my favorite TV shows, playing games, and working on my personal endeavours, such as this website, consumes practically every minute of my time. It seems the only option is to cut my sleep short, but that's fine with me. In the words of my good friend Tyler Bye, "Sleep when we’re dead..."