About me
I'm Luca Cristiano, better known online — and to friends — as Zekromaster. I'm based in Salerno, Italy.
I like to understand, build and fix systems of all kinds — from complex software to sociolinguistics to building bikes.
I keep this capsule mostly as a way to scream my thoughts into the void and maintain an online presence that's under my control rather than hosted on someone else's silo.
Zekromaster, online
I think of myself as a hacker in the old meaning of the word.
I code, both for work and for hobby. As a hobbyist:
My main focus has been on modding Minecraft beta 1.7.3
I have also contributed to Retroachievements
I'm always happy to review a patch before a friend sends it upstream, and in general appreciate chances to improve the software I use.
I'm the proud operator of a small homelab, built on Ansible, sweat, old machines and patience: one day I might write up a virtual tour.
Zekromaster, offline
I play Tabletop RPGs and have since late middle school: I've spent a few years as a Forever DM, but that curse has been broken somewhere in my early 20s.
I am an amateur bartender, and keep a well-stocked liquor shelf that allows me to prepare at least half of the IBA recipe book on a whim, plus some more. Combined with a general love of cooking, I dare call myself a great host of dinners, snacks and aperitifs.
I'm an adventure cyclist and also get around by bike on the daily. My longest tour has been 4 days in the inner Salerno province, but I'm looking forward to travelling more with my two-wheeled companion.
I'm an avid reader, anime watcher, and gamer, and like to think about the medium and how it's used just as much as I enjoy the content itself:
Check out my videogame accomplishments
A brief, bullet-point manifesto
- I share many positions with both Effective Altruism [1] and Stirnerian egoism [2], something I think is less contradictory than it sounds;
- Most software can sustain itself on a free-as-in-speech model [3]: I reject the premise that proprietary software is a necessity in the modern market;
- Technological progress should not mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater: old doesn't mean worse, nor does new mean better;
- Knowledge is meant to propagate. You can't know in advance which knowledge will be useful — the more you produce and spread, the better the odds it reaches the hands that need it;
- Language can tell you a lot: what one thinks, where they grew up, who they respect and who they learn from. Humanity is its languages;
- Things took a turn for the worse when we became always online and always available: the internet should go back to being a "place";
- Learning to hack something together yourself is twice as satisfying as just having someone do it well for you;
Geek Code
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GCS/H/P d+(++) s+: a->+++ C++ UL+++ P+>++ L+++ E- W+++ N++ o K w--- O M- V- PS+++(++) PE--(-) Y+ PGP++ t+ 5 X+ R+++ !tv b+>+++ !DI D+ G++ e+>+++ h-->++ r z? -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Contacts
PGP keys are available through WKD given an email address on the zekromaster.net domain.