Why I am howardjp

A few weeks ago, someone asked on Facebook why my username is howardjp. Off to the left on this blog, you will see links to my accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, GitHub, and Twitter. All of them use the username “howardjp.” Also, my Google account is “howardjp.” And this is on my Mac:

howardjp@thermopylae:~$ whoami
howardjp
howardjp@thermopylae:~$

And here is my personal server:

howardjp@byzantine:~$ whoami
howardjp
howardjp@byzantine:~$

When I can select my username, I will pick howardjp. The reason is that when I was 16, I received an account on the Miami University network and in 1996, they were an OpenVMS-intensive campus (both Alpha and VAX, Linux was making some inroads, however). So usernames were limited to eight characters and the standard was the first six letters of your last name, your first initial, and your second initial. I was howardjp. And ever since, if I can pick my username, it will be howardjp.