When I entered the Internet in 1995, I suddenly needed a nick for IRC chat and so on. Since I used to play a lot of Blues and Rock on my favourite electric guitar (a black and white Fender Stratocaster), the first nickname that popped up into my mind was Strat. I still have got the guitar, but hardly play any more, because I recently (=1998) found out that perl is by far the better "game". So the nick is alive, while the reason for it nearly is dead... (Update: I started playing the guitar again...)