RedLine - In racing terminology, when you redline an engine, it means you are revving it just about as hard as it will rev, so it seemed an appropriate POD handle.  ;-)

1. REDOINK! - For Deuch racing.  GROUIK !!  OINK !!
2. REDTOBED - Originally meant to be "Red To Be Dead" I use this handle when doing "Insane Races", such as Cobb on Fallen, where the name originated.
3. RedLine-Beta1 - Used on the GS-II when it was first released, I now use this nickname when I'm working on a project.

How It All Began: "Your name is Splinter, but your real name is Hamato Yoshi, you lived in Japan and you weren't a rat..." - Anyone remember the Turtles ?  Great cartoon.  ;-)

I joined IO around September of 1997.  Dad had just got a P-II 266, and POD came free with a bunch of other software.  Now, the last time I had played games was about 1.5 years before, on the SNES/MegaDrive platform, so needless to say even the POD OEM version (Running on DirectX2 and an ATI Rage II) blew me away.

Around this time I was introduced to the Internet (At work) for the first time, and so I did a search on POD, not really expecting to find anything.  I found Snakeeyes Site and the Offical Ubisoft site, and would later find Qball's.  Fastforward about a month, I get the Internet at home, see the big 35MB patch and download that sucker.  It doesn't work.  Now, from what I have heard since, I may have unknowingly made POD history that week: I e-mailed Ubisoft Tech Support twice, and each time I got a reply within two days.  Needless to say, I have POD running fine, and continue to keep up with the patches.

Now I am beginning to learn HTML, and make a POD site.  At this time I don't have a focus, just to make a site with information on that isn't out there already.  I also somehow meet up with Jagger - I think it might have been because I always get permission off people before I link to their sites on my links page, and around this time I must have e-mailed Snakeeyes, Qball and Jagger (And perhaps Desiato) to ask if I could link to their sites.  This is important, because Jagger and Snakeeyes would hold the key to the path my POD Experience would take.

Anyways, bringing the story rapidly to a close, Snakeeyes began to wind down his site just as I began to "find my feet" in the POD Community (I also began working as an IT Technician around this time), and so I began to do the POD Tech Help thing, and that basically brings us to now.  ;-)  Now, having learnt HTML, Java and JavaScript, I am learning Perl and prepairing to move to my own Domain Name.

A little about me: I've always been interested in computers, since around age 10 when I messed with a Commodore 64.  It's one of the few memories I have, sitting up late reading the Users Manual and trying some sample BASIC programs.  Around this time I started playing the guitar as well, and I've kept that going too.

As far as music goes, I like pretty much anything that I consider to be musical.  Some types of Rap/Trance/etc are too repetitive or too "computer generated" for my tastes, but other than that, anything goes.  My CD collection ranges from "Best Country of 1988" to stuff like Sepultura.  It goes from pop music like Shaggy or Ocean Colour Scene to old school metal like Iron Maiden.

I have always been, and will always be, a metal head at heart, and I have my older brother to thank for that, listening to his music through my bedroom walls.  So consequently, on the guitar, I play mostly heavy metal and blues/rock (Chuck Berry is da man for that genre), though I enjoy power ballads, and have been learning lots of Nirvana (RIP Kurt - As always, "Come As You Are") of late.  Also started to look at some of Joe Satriani's stuff... man that guy is a Guitar GOD !!  The day I learn just one of his tracks all the way through will be one of the best days of my life.

POD Stuff: As far as a "POD Claim to Fame" goes, I did come 12th in the Pod Rave (The last Offical Ubisoft POD Contest), but that is a false reading because in that race, you could take points off your opponents, and the big racers were so busy taking each others points, I just kinda slipped in there.  ;-)  I also programmed the GS-II SkinSwitcher, helped Naraka and Cook with the POD World Cup, I am racing in Derf's POD World Cup II, and am running the Team POD league at the moment.  I enjoy racing with pretty much everyone, regardless of who wins or looses.  I'm not too keen on racing under pressure, I prefer to just go on the GS and have fun.

It's really impossible to pick a favourite/least favourite track and car, but I will say I love the Fuego and love to hate the Shark, even though I can finally race with the Shark - Only took me like 9 months to get the hang of it.  ;-)  Cocoon will always be a favourite of mine, I think it was the first track I showed any promise on, besides a lot of people don't like it, so I could always do well in the "Old Days" (Pre-Qball's Ghost Gallery) on the GS on this track.  ;-)  Factory is something of a paradox for me, as I really can't get the hang of it with a "race" car, but it's by far my best track with the Deuch.  I think it was designed for the Deuch.