LinuxQuestions.org - hello from Cambridge MA

Hello. I'm new to the forums as a member, although I've been Googling/lurking for years (thanks for the fish, err, answers!). Finally had a question of my own to pose. I'm a newbie here, and a newbie to the gentoo flavor, although I've been working my way to competence with SuSE installations for six or seven years now. I use Linux because I like doing nearly everything the hard way :-). I'm an academic, a social scientist, and enjoy distancing myself from colleagues who still call tech support staff to find out where their emails went. Macho suffering. Anyway, I'll try to help in the limited areas of my experience and knowledge.