Use this thread to introduce yourself. Say a lot or a little. Here are some sample questions to help:
You decide what to share!
I’m Lex Berezhny, one of the LBRY developers. I live in Grafton, NH and my favorite smell is cold air and peaches. Favorite programming language is Python and Dart. No Go.
I’m Grin. My real name is Alex but everyone’s been calling me Grin for over a decade. I really enjoy poking fun at Lex for how much he likes Dart, even though Dart is a very reasonable language to like. I also love sushi.
Who Am I?
I am Walid Mujahid. That is actually written and pronounced وليد مجاهد, but yeah.
I am a Muslim. That one statement should say it all … My loyalty is first to the one and only God that created everything and who Himself is outside of all creation, space, time, and anything else possibly imagined. Then to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
I follow Quran, Sunnah, and the first 3 generations of known-to-be-noble-pious-and-knowledgeable Muslimeen.
My priorities in many “things” I do follow this order -it is quite general, but by “things” I mean “duties” and how I prioritise going about them-: Myself, my family, the world-spanning nation of Muslimeen -starting from whatever locality I end up in, to the entire globe-, and then everyone else.
How did I get here?
Umm – my father and mother? By the will of the one-and-only-god-creator-sustainer-of-all-worlds-and-anything-else-imaginable? Hacktoberfest?
Where do I live?
The United States of America. More Specifically, Florida. However, I really hope and pay that that fact changes soon. Possible travel destinations: Japan, Malaysia, and or Egypt.
What is my favourite smell?
Well, I am not going to ask if I can list multiple.
I like the smell of fried tofu, boiled chicken, the smell of the pastry فطاير shops that can be found throughout my home city of Damascus, and a few other smells that I cannot remember at this exact moment but are definitely my favourites 
What are some of your favorite programming languages/technologies and why is the answer Go?
First off, my answer is not Go. Sorry to disappoint.
I actually have 3 favourites. The first being Python and I do not think that will ever change. Erlang comes up next and then C. I need to work to improve my skill more in the latter two, though. When I learn it, Rust would be added to the list as well. I just know it 
I love functional programming and lean towards the more general declarative paradigm.
I am not a big fan of object oriented for some reason, but I think that is mainly due to my distaste for inheritance. Small things can ruin overall experiences for me. I try to stay SOLID and I love composition.
I am a fan of Uncle Bob along with his Clean Architecture.
I am also a fan of microservice architectures.
I love Docker.
IDEs and text editors are very annoying. My computer is filled with them for some reason -I actually know the reason
I have worked with some JetBrains IDEs, to Visual Studio, to Vi/Vim, Nano, to Notepad, to Eclipse, to Android Studio -which is just IDEA-, to Notepad++, to Atom. Not all at once, of course, nor even in that order, but spread out through years.
The thing is, despite all of that, I think I am slowly converting myself to Emacs. Oh, and to whoever is listening, I am starting to think Emacs is “better” than Vim 
Anyway, back to Docker. Since early in my experiences with it, I have been fascinated by its potential to revolutionise my various local -even team- development environments and workflows.
I tinker around with Raspberry PIs. I have various ideas every now and then.
One of the most prominent things I have been pondering on doing with the Pis is moving the main bulk of my development environments, workflows and tools so at the base of it all, it looks something like this:
All-headless + Arch Linux ARM + Docker + Emacs + some list of tools that should not go past 5 + my friend DigitalOcean for anything else processing/computing intensive.
I am a Linux person. I am not a big fan of Mac, but I have no big complaints against it. I do not like Windows. I have had to work with it regularly over the past year. Though, I have to be thankful for Powershell. It makes things bearable.
I need to get more into open source projects. I have been thinking of Python core development and Linux Kernel, but have gotten to neither. Due to the Hacktoberfest, I found LBRY and so I start with it.
There are many technologies that interest me.
Blockchain and similar technologies is one. Especially when it comes to Decentralised Autonomous Corporations/Entities.
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and the more specific field of NLP -especially when it comes non-english - are all areas of interest to me.
Outside the more immediate areas of technology …
I have interests in many fields of study, research, and subjects/topics. Of them are:
The 12 areas of study of the Arabic Language. The various areas of studies/sciences of Islam. Of them being the Sciences of Quran and Hadith.
Almost all areas of mathematics.
I am fascinated by the Japanese language. I would not mind adding that to the list of languages I have -not a long list. Same with Spanish and slightly French, just because. I would add Mandarin, but spoken chinese sounds almost as uncomfortable as spoken English feels.
Are we living in a simulation?
Short answer: no.
The less than long answer:
It does not matter.
The long answer:
Even if this was a simulation, one would still have to act properly. As long as one has the faculties to reason and make choice based on what can be perceived, one is going to need to make choices between the perceived right and wrong steps. This will be the case regardless of whether this is a simulation, dream world, or not.
However, this world very much real. It a shadow, though, of two things that are equally real. This world is the shadow of heaven and hell. We all have freedom of choice as limited as the brainpower we have to think and we are also locked into whatever has been predestined overall, both at the same time.
For as long as this world lasts, one is going to have thought, make decisions, and be responsible for the “freedom” the power of thought and consciousness brings.
This world is a test and full of possible “business” investments. If you can decide between things, no matter how fake someone could claim that ability is, you are still responsible for the final decision. And, the ROI one will definitely find out, after one is dead and wakes up again.
None of that would change, for as long as the ability to think exists and the ability to choose. Even if this was a simulation.
Then again, the world is full of people who do want to think. Maybe they are the ones in a simulation. Perhaps those who are truly unable to think are in the real world while the rest of us are in an in-between world. 3 groups, 3 worlds, and who knows many alternate worlds within each
I’m Oleg Silkin, one of the many contributors to the LBRY project.
I found the project through a friend, and initially began doing small bounty work, but quickly realized the value and potential that LBRY holds in solving the issue of content/service fragmentation. But if you’re asking how I got into Computer Science as a whole, I would really have to credit the show Silicon Valley, for showing me that you can make millions of dollars just by building an app to recognize pictures of hotdogs.
I’m currently in the process of moving from Chicago to Framingham, MA to attend schools in the area.
At the moment, I am dual majoring in Computer Science and Math, and plan on getting a Masters in Computer Science so I can make myself useful in the realm of Quantitative Finance.
Overall I just love solving problems, and try to raise the bar for myself with every project I embark in.
Specifically, I love Artificial Intelligence, Parallel Computing, Distributed Systems, Compression Algorithms, and so much more. In the Mathematics sector, I love Statistics, Numerical Analysis, Theoretical Computer Science, Probability Theory, and so on. What I love more than anything though, is coming up with problems that have never been asked before, and trying to solve them.
When it comes to programming languages, my favorites are C, C++, and Python, though I’ll use others when it makes sense to. My favorite piece of technology would be my IBM ThinkPad T60, which I’ll use to write C programs that are required to have the highest level of optimization.
If this was all a simulation then whoever designed it is certainly creative.
Glad you found us Oleg and even gladder that you get it! I see you’ve made it into our chat so I’ll talk to you further there.
Thanks Jeremy, glad to be a part of the project!
My name is Grayson Burton. I am a C++, Lua, and x86 assembly programmer. I am interested in mathematics, theoretical computer science, and general programming.
I had checked out the site before, but finally made an account. Thought I might as well introduce myself!
I currently live in Santa Rosa, California, USA.
Coffee. I am practically addicted to coffee.
My favorite programming language is Lua. A specific implementation of it, LuaJIT, is one of the fastest dynamic languages (or implementations) out there, and Lua is super small and embeddable.
Two more pieces of technology I love: finger trees and real-time deques. These are purely functional data structures whose operations are all constant-time in the worst case. Amazing stuff!
I wish the devs would’ve added saving and reloading.
My name is Graylan, I’m a moderator/bugtester for a decentralized crypto currency called litecoin cash , and group leader of a community hosted hybrid/paid decentralized file service on IPFS catering to decentralized applications DTube/DSound on the Steem blockchain. Lastly, I witness for another DPOS currency called Smoke , and provide IPFS to users inside that blockchain .
I have been following lbry’s progress over the course of 2018. Recently I joined the discord chat. After reading the technical documents I was impressed about what is already possible using LBRY Blockchain using only PoW. So I downloaded the .deb and started looking at LBRY’s github.
I currently reside in Greenville, South Carolina.
I like go, python, php, javascript and java. Vint Cerf spoke about peer to peer technology at a google conference. His conference had a lot of influence on my thinking about internet commutations.
Could go either way. Perhaps we all have our own simulation, similar to our perceptions of reality. As many people can view things differently coming from different walks of life.
My name is Logan Campos. I accidentally became a python developer roughly 5 years ago.
Most of my experience is in designing virtual appliances focused on SOAR(Security Orchestration Automation and Response).
I have a background in information security, specifically cyber threat intelligence.
I am interested in software architecture, software design and overall just hacking all the things.
I was referred by a friend. osilkin98 to be more specific
I currently reside in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
Code smell.
My favorite programming language is Python;
I cut my teeth on Turbo Pascal so it safe to say imperative paradigms just make a lot of sense to me.
I consider myself pretty neutral when it comes to go-to tools/platforms.
I have attempted porting my python to golang, but it just wasn’t the same.
If so, the graphics aren’t too bad.
Who are you?
My name is Alessandro, I’m a computer engineer student for the master’s level degree.
How did you get here?
It will seem strange, but I discovered spee.ch (first of all) through the personal website of a conspiracy theorist. At night I usually listen to podcasts to sleep and after listening to all of my favorite conspiracy theorist, a mad engineer who enunciates theorems as if they were jokes, in search of new garbage to listen I discovered spee.ch!
Where do you live?
I currently live in Sicily, Italy
What’s your favorite smell?
Gasoline above all things, but also rain
What are some of your favorite programming languages/technologies and why is the answer Go?
I still have a lot to discover and study, but I particularly like distributed systems and realtime systems.
In the last year I developed an obsession for iot and microcontrollers. In september i’m going to start a trainsheep in a local company as stm mcu firmware developer.
My favorite languages are python and c, with go I haven’t had the pleasure yet.
Are we living in a simulation?
I don’t know, but if so, if self-determination of the individual is provided, a simulation can be life
Welcome @SK3LA! I hear you are working on a new block explorer. Very excited to see what you come up with!
If you ever have any questions or problems, don’t hesitate to contact me. Cheers.
WHAT A COOL INTRO:joy:
Who are you?
I’m Michael. I’m vegan, but I don’t use Arch.
How did you get here?
I’m prohibited from accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts than the one that has already been banned. After a lot of research I concluded that LBRY was the best alternative for me.
Where do you live?
I live in Zadar, Croatia right now. Next month I’ll live in London, UK, the month after, Dublin, Ireland. Next year? Who knows! Everything I own fits in a suitcase and a carry-on + a guitar case.
What’s your favorite smell?
Probably food. Preferably the kind free of rotting animal flesh and excretions. Did I say I’m vegan?
What are some of your favorite programming languages/technologies and why is the answer Go?
Bash and HTML (if they qualify)! That’s all I know… and by know I mean, I might be able to get them to do what I want after a lot of trial and error and some help from others. Wait, what am I doing in the lbry.tech forum?
Are we living in a simulation?
I wouldn’t be able to tell unless the simulation was written in bash or html, and I’d still struggle…
This is actually my second post, (read my last post bc i want to help the community in any way i can). Anyway I’m an 19 year old fully independent IT consultant living in Monroe, LA. I first found out about Foss through, to be honest, pirating. I was watching a video on reasons for and against pirating and one he said against was the plethora of foss programs that exist. I then discovered linux and have been using FOSS only software for the last 7 years. (NOTE i do have a dual boot of windows for messing with active directory and samba is just easier sometimes lol). As a humanist/nihilist, it wouldn’t matter at all if were living in a simulation because it is real to us. and if i were to bet, that simulation wouldn’t be written in php, which is by far my favorite programming language. Anyway wrap up here because im stating to smell my favorite smell, Cookies in the oven. (that last one is legit i dont want my cookies to burn.)
Welcome @psi! There’s nothing wrong with loving FOSS and still running Windows sometimes; it’s called pragmatism.
Have you made it into our chat room or checked out the Contributing Guide? There’s plenty to do and lots of LBC to be had 
Who are you?
My name is eddi, am belgian and grew up (still am) a musician. Became programmer to finally make some money to support myself and still not good at the making money part. I teach programming to students around 18-25 yo-ish.
I am here both as a artist/creator and open source dev person.
How did you get here?
Always on the lookout for applications/frameworks etc which are open source (libre?), found LBRY and like it, i think it was mentioned by a you-tube creator. Now in the progress of using the platform and taking a look at the codebase.
smell
petrichor?
What are some of your favorite programming languages/technologies and why is the answer Go?
no go (yet?)
not in order: bash, Java (some android), javascript, C/C++ (long time since i wrote), php, gnu/linux, containerization(docker, k8s, ceph)
Are we living in a simulation?
conceptual distortion