Travis Poppe's Personal Homepage

My name is Travis Poppe, born April 18, 1988. I live in Pocatello, Idaho, a city with a population of about 60,000 people. I can be described as a computer geek bicyclist who is highly interested in science, technology, and philosophy. I am also a science fiction fan, skeptic, and a devout agnostic. Throughout my entire life, starting around the age of four (and quite literally since I can remember), I have been involved with computers. I have always found them fascinating, and I doubt this will ever change.

Lately I've been experiencing a paradigm shift in my lifestyle. I was formerly uninterested in both physical activity and the outdoors, and had very little to do with either. I have now taken a strong interest in both of these things, primarily in the form of bicycle commuting, bicycle touring, and bicycle camping. However, as time goes on, I find myself becoming more open to physical and outdoor activities in general. I have recently been promoting bicycling to my friends as an alternative to motorized transportation and recreation. However, I do not object to the use of motorized vehicles for either of these purposes; I would simply like more people to discover, experience, and enjoy the same benefits I have. That being said, it is my own, personal goal to remain car free.

I am a big fan of Wikipedia, and I advocate the use of open source software and open standards whenever possible. I use both Debian and Ubuntu Linux on my desktops and workstations, though I used FreeBSD on them primarily for approximately five years; I still use FreeBSD heavily on my servers. I have been a FreeBSD contributor since 2003, mostly to the Ports Collection, but I am fairly inactive as of late. Recently I've taken a personal and professional interest in the development of database-driven websites and web applications using LAMP, although I am relatively new to it.

Politically, I consider myself to be a pragmatic, consequentialist libertarian/minarchist and believe strongly in individual responsibility and liberty; I prefer small government (favoring local and state governments) with as little government interference as is practical. People will of course have differing ideas of what is and isn't practical. I do not necessarily agree with every libertarian idea or principle (I do not subscribe to anarcho-capitalism), but libertarianism is by far the closest match to my own political ideology. My views in this respect are evolving rapidly over time, and as such you can expect this section to be updated.

Now that I've covered the highlights, I'll move on to the usual stuff. ;-)

And my favorite game?