geekabit

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About the author and this website

Article by Maarten Tromp | Published , updated .

Hi, my name is Maarten Tromp (also know as geekabit), and I'm the person behind the geekabit.nl website. I'm a tinkerer, tech professional and music enthusiast who enjoys a cup of tea.

As a child, I've always wanted to become an inventor when I grew up, like Professor Barnabas from Suske en Wiske and Gyro Gearloose from Donald Duck. They were always inventing amazing new things. Now, years later, I realise I've become that inventor. Only, it's called hacker instead.

The term geekabit was coined by my friend Morten who needed a way to communicate to his girlfriend that he needed some time on his own to geek out. The word not only covered that perfectly, but also sounded like the (then-emerging) 1 Gbps network standard. Later, with his permission, I adopted this brilliant word as my nickname.

An impending move made me realize that changing internet service providers would mean losing the email address I was using. To establish some stability, I registered the geekabit.nl domain name and set up my own mail server. This would ensure a consistent email address for the foreseeable future.

Some years earlier I had set up a webserver, but used it as digital playground rather than something worth viewing by anyone else. One of the first things actually aimed at visitors was a virtual tour of my student house. Over time the website evolved into a showcase for my projects and music. While so far this has made me rich nor famous, I do enjoy doing it.