I have an Internet-wide unique last name. There's few computer-literate Schwerns in the world (and if I have my selfish way it will remain that way!) You might find a mention of my father finishing a race. Or my relative Jürgen who builds yachts. But its basically just me.
And that's handy, "Schwern" is available on pretty much every system. But having your handle be your real name means there's no wall between the Internet and your real life, especially as I finally start to get into non-programming social networks. Sometimes I want to have a secret identity on the Internet. In that case I cleverly disguise myself as "Xwrn" (bonus points to anyone who knows why that name).
So here I am on two social networks.
Flickr
LJ
Well, I don't have such a privilege. Looking for "ferreira" at Google is no help: there should be thousands of pages before some reference to myself. I must force "ferreira perl" to get something relevant. But then I find the link to the Shell::Perl distribution first than my use.perl journal. Will that means that many people look for it and go away in disapointment?
Re:Secrecy resembles privacy, right?
Ovid on 2007-06-28T06:43:11
I have a new nephew. His name is "Riley Lewis". A couple of days later, my housemate informed me that he has a new nephew. His name is "Riley Lewis".
Re:Secrecy resembles privacy, right?
jdavidb on 2007-06-28T12:23:58
My sister has a daughter named Caitlyn. My wife's sister is pregnant with a daughter named Caitlyn. My very small children are going to be confused.
:) Re:Secrecy resembles privacy, right?
da on 2007-06-28T21:06:52
Yes, they will.:) I've enjoyed a pointless hobby of introducing other Daniels to each other. So it amused me greatly to learn that the "Yes, my name is Daniel Allen too" group on Facebook has 48 members.
And I have a few secret identities, but my real one is still pretty easy to find in google. Good thing I'm not paranoid. Much.
Re:Secrecy resembles privacy, right?
jdavidb on 2007-06-29T11:43:19
I live in a bubble, and all in all, it's not bad.
It's "Xwrn" because the symbol "X" (in mathematics) come from the spanish writing of the pronunciation of the arabic word "شيء", "thing", used in algebric text... and the first sound of that word is roughly "sch"...
And yes, I knew it before checking the spelling on Wikipedia... I'm way too geek for my own good.
Re:Bonus points?
bart on 2007-06-28T11:16:14
I thought the X is the same as the one in Xmas, thus, coming from the Greek letter Chi.Re:Bonus points?
schwern on 2007-06-28T20:17:33
While those are very good answers, and you're on the right track, they're incorrect. I'll give you a hint, the answer is googlable.Re:Bonus points?
da on 2007-06-28T21:23:43
http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-332413.html
gives a variety of choices for source-languages: Pinyan, Maltese, Catalan, and Galician.
http://www.public.iastate.edu/user/rjsalvad/scmfaq/mexico.html
suggests it's a placeholder for an unpronouncable sound for Mexican-Spanish natives.
I think it's a xibboleth.:)
