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Hylander

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Hylander at work!

WARNING: Hylander at work!



Welcome to Hustedia.com, the Digital Forge for the Informational Barista hailing from the Lehigh Valley, PA!  My name is Scott B. Husted, also known as Hylander online, and I’m the Editor in Chief / Host here at Hustedia.  I’m just an amateur raconteur and ordinary information, technology, photography, digital imaging, autoracing, gadgets, computers, cars, sim racing, business, investing, football loving guy.

This site is my ‘Digital Forge’, my home on the Internet.  I really enjoy exploring how we use information and how it’s become the catalyst in our society and worldwide economy. I also enjoy writing and sharing this information with social networking and social media.  Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, or a Blog, I find the Internet to be a very interesting place to ‘hang out’.

As I mentioned above in my first paragraph, I’m just an average guy with his own set of interests and hobbies.  My posts will often contain information, pages, posts and entries that I find interesting, and hope that you will as well.  They may simply be brief informational posts, or they may be long, multiple jump pages of a full magazine or journal article length.  The content of these posts will primarily focus on topics relating to information management, but I may extend the topical range and pull a topic from anything that I feel like discussing at the moment, or any news making the headlines at any particular point in time.

I am not a newcomer to the Internet.  I first got onto the net back around 1993 when the hot items were Veronica, Gopher, Usenet and irc.  Mosaic was the web browser and the ‘net was mostly text based.  I first started ‘gaming’ on the Internet back around 1995 with NASCAR Racing from Papyrus, and then moving onto Tribes.  Over the years, I’ve written for numerous sites and done hardware, software, gaming, and accessory reviews of all kinds.  I launched and ran several web sites of various topics and even sold one to a larger network of sites.  I’ve also owned a retail e-commerce store front which I ran for a couple of years.  Most recently, I was under contract to ghost write opinion and editorial articles for a fairly well known ‘tech’ blog which I am not at liberty to disclose at this time.  However, a non-compete clause is no longer in effect so over time I had decided to launch a new site as an outlet for my interests.  This process lead to the genesis of this site.

For my ‘day job’, I am an executive at a financial institution.  I’ve been with the same institution for over 14 years now. I began as a Loan Officer and progressed my way up into my current position as the AVP of Administration.  I’ve had the opportunities to lead and be responsible for several areas of operations including information systems and technology, compliance, fraud, and many areas in between.  I was the Project Manager for implementing our Online Banking program and still oversee it’s operations today.  I’m also responsible for overall regulatory compliance, fraud, Information Technology (PCs, ATM Network, website, Online Banking), and Marketing.  In addition to the above, I also teach classes in economics, finance, and risk management at a local college as an adjunct instructor.

I have a Bachelors of Science in Economics and a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance from Radford University in Virginia.  I also have a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in E-Commerce from DeSales University located in Center Valley, PA.

I mentioned that my posts will primarily focus around the topic of information itself. However, as an insight into a few of my other personal interests, the following is a non-exhaustive list of some other topics I am interested in:

  • Autoracing – I’ve been a racing fan for as long as I can remember.  I grew up going to the local tracks in upstate NY watching stocks, late models, and modifieds at tracks like Chemung Speedrome, Shangri-La, and Spencer.  I also went to Watkins Glen regularly and am a huge fan of American Sports Car Racing.  More recently, over the last several years I’ve become a big fan of Vintage racing. I’m a member of HSR & SVRA.
  • Automobiles – I love automobiles, reading about them, attending auto shows, and of course – owning them.
  • Technology & Gadgets – All of it. Computers, gadgets, electronics, home entertainment, etc.
  • E-Commerce - I have been very interested in the application of technology into business for many years, particularly in terms of E-Commerce as a delivery channel.  Of particular interest to me are the integration of technology in Financial applications, Internet Retail, Google, the Android OS, and Social Media / Networking.  I have accounts with most of the major IM protocols and social networking sites.
  • Photography & Digital Imaging – I took up Photography as a hobby several years ago as an addendum, if you will, to my interest in vintage racing.  Since then, I’ve expanded my photography into several areas.  However, I still primarily am interested in automobile and racing photography.  I also enjoy digital imaging in terms of digital restoration, manipulation, and creation.  I’m a huge fan of Photoshop and Lightroom, which are my primary editing programs.  I am a fan of Olympus and the Four-Thirds / Micro Four-Thirdsstandard. Below are my two websites devoted to my photography interests:
  • Sim Racing – I’ve been a fan of racing simulators on the PC since about 1995/1996 beginning with NASCAR Racing from Papyrus.  I’ve been around and participating in sim racing ever since.  I’ve owned and/or been on the staff of several sim racing websites including High Gear, Sports Planet, PowerSims, MMMGI (Motorsports Media & Marketing Group, Inc.) Blackhole Motorsports, and The US Pits. I currently do all my racing at iRacing.com and believe it’s the pinnacle of all sim racing
  • PC gaming – I love playing games on the computer.  I’ve played everything from shooters, to role playing, to strategy, to space simulation, to fantasy massive multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft.  Some of my favorite all time games include Tribes, Civilization series, the Half-Life series, Left4Dead, and Battlefield series.
    • My online identity is Hylander, or some derivative there of.  For example; [AK]Hylander – My name with my gaming clan tag.
    • The August Knights is the online gaming group I belong to.  I’ve been a member since the mid-1990s.  We are a group of friends, mostly older middle-aged men, who enjoy PC gaming.
  • Business / Economics / Finance / Investing / Entrepreneurship – I have been very interested in these topics since my late teens.  I’ve owned businesses, e-commerce stores, and have been employed in many aspects of the business arena.
  • Football / Sports – I’m a huge football fan, the NFL in particular.  I’m a life long Seattle Seahawks fan (Don’t ask!).  As far as other sports – I’m a Phillies fan, and have a ticket plan for their AAA team (The Iron Pigs) which is located here in the Lehigh Valley.  I’m also a big Virginia Tech Hokies football fan.  I follow the Flyers and Sixers a little, but my interest in hockey or basketball is casual at best.
  • Privacy & Security Issues – As someone who had to deal with Identity issues for my wife going back well over a decade ago, and having dealt with Identity Theft and fraud on a professional level during my career, I’ve developed an interest and knowledge base of information in this area I like to share with anyone and everyone as it’s a very important topic in today’s world.  For those who think their personal information is private – I’m sorry, but you are misinformed.  Your goal should be more about protecting and managing your personal information, versus efforts to maintain a sense of anonymity.  On this site, you will find these articles under the category of “Darkcyte“, which was the name of a site dedicated to this topic that I once maintained several years back.
  • The Lehigh Valley – The Lehigh Valley is my home, and is located in South Eastern Pennsylvania just north of Philadelphia and West of New York City.  Although originally from Elmira, NY, I’ve been living in the Lehigh Valley since 1995 and I really love living here.  It has a little of everything from small town to cosmopolitan atmospheres and the economy is resilient and continuing to evolve from it’s roots in the Steel making industry.  The Lehigh Valley is known as the Easton-Bethlehem-Allentown area, but the “Lehigh Valley” officially includes Northampton, Lehigh, and Carbon Counties in Pennsylvania as well as Warren County in Western New Jersey that includes the city of Phillipsburg. More data is available here at the Lehigh Valley’s Wikipedia page. Hustedia.com will contain information pertaining to business, lifestyle, social, and other activities in the region.