BIOSLEVEL was founded in January 2006 by a group of friends who'd met at various LAN parties held throughout western Pennsylvania. Most of them live(d) in or around Pittsburgh and would meet at these LAN parties to enjoy gaming and camaraderie (and, for some of them, sushi).
The members of this group decided to construct a group to hold smaller, tight-knit LAN parties—they didn't want it to become yet another LAN party. Instead, they decided to use their collective knowledge of Linux and gaming to build, in addition to the LAN party, an advocate community based on the principles of open source and free thought.
BIOSLEVEL's journeyman-level understanding of Linux is backed by the numerous collegiate and post-collegiate computer scientists, all of whom have studied the inner workings of the operating system. Many of the members have contributed to open source projects or maintain their own. All are capable and willing to answer questions.
Like other communities, we have our own perspective of Linux and the open source software movement. We may not always agree with each other, but we are always sure to investigate and explain our reasoning before adhering to a principle or recommending an application.
Sean "Obsidian" Potter
sean at bioslevel dot com Obsidian Profile Gentoo
Unreal Tournament 2004, Final Fantasy Series
Finances, LAN Management, Reviews, Design
Sean comes by way of Anti-LAN, one of the three LAN groups that came together to form BIOSLEVEL. He started using Linux as early as when he was in fifth grade, participating and running text-based online games. Currently, Sean is majoring in computer science at Saint Vincent College. For the time being, his night job is bartending and managing a Buffalo Wild Wings in Pittsburgh.
Upon graduation, and possibly before, Sean intends to pursue a career in web design or web development.
Colin "Rhettigan" Dean
colindean at gmail dot com cad.cx Ubuntu
Battlefield 1942/Vietnam/2/2142, Neverwinter Nights, Chrono Trigger, Far Cry, City of Heroes
Sysadmin, Punditry
Colin likes computers. He owns the box.
He has a B.S. in Computer Science from Westminster College in Pennsylvania and is working on his M.S. in Education at Robert Morris University.
Jonathan "Cleric" Daniel
binarycleric at gmail dot com Website Ubuntu
Unreal Tournament 2004, Oblivion, Call of Duty 2
Hey there, my name is Jon Daniel and I write for this site. I am currently employed as a Software Engineer at a company called Wellspring Worldwide in Pittsburgh, PA. I mainly write software that helps manage Tech Transfer at Universities and a number of other institutions, but occasionally I get to do some other fun things at work. I attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania where I received a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and I am hoping to be attending the University of Pittsburgh at some point soon to continue my studies and earn a Masters Degree.
I have many interests including Biking, Traveling, buying furniture at Ikea, Video Games, and working on Open Source projects. Unfortunately none of my Open Source projects have seen the light of day but I am hoping that will change at some point soon. I mostly use Ubuntu Linux or Mac OS X for work and play, but I have been known to boot up my Windows machine whenever I feel like playing video games.
tesseract at drexel dot edu Website Debian
Halo 3, Unreal Tournament, Super Smash Brothers Melee
Reviews
Tesseract is currently in the computer science program at Drexel University. He has over 5 years of experience of System Administration with both Linux and Windows systems. Currently he is working as a Security Specialist at an undisclosed location.
John "flan" Yackovich
jcyack at gmail dot com Yackovich.com Gentoo
Tetris Attack, Super Metroid, Unreal Tournament 2004, Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger
John is a full-time Linux user and alumnus of Shippensburg University with a B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in Software Engineering. John has filled an intern position at Argonne National Laboratory, and during Spring 2008 he led the development of a university-funded GPS-enabled campus tour for pocket PC devices. In fall 2008 he will be beginning a doctorate program at the University of Pittsburgh for Computer Science.
Jordan "Bigj64" Retterer
jordanr64 at gmail dot com Website Ubuntu
UT2K4, Team Fortress 2, Call Of Duty 4
After attending Pittsburgh Technical Institute, Jordan found a job with Management Science Associates, Inc. as a help desk technician. He has recently been promoted to E-mail Systems Administrator. Not being a big linux user himself, he hopes to add "the windows guy" perspective. Also unlike the others, he is an avid console gamer as well as a PC gamer.
Ty "id" Schrimp
deviouswhiteguy at yahoo dot com Website Gentoo
World of Warcraft, Unreal Tournament 2004
Ty is one of the founding members from Anti-LAN. He likes to make comments about things, and is one kick-ass gamer.
