I've used a variety of nicks and handles since the BBS days starting around `93 when I got my first modem. Silkworm is quite recent, I started using it permanently on ICQ and message boards around `99. The meaning behind the nick is threefold:

1) Silk is produced by silkworms, of course. Silk cloth is a valuable commodity and was a pillar of economy in ancient times. Wars were even fought over it. The idea that all of that comes from a lowly insect larva, appealed to me: Big things from little simple things. However, back then I didn't think about the fact that silkworms are boiled to death in their cocoons in order to get an unbroken string of silk thread.
Amusingly, while doing research for this reply, I found this description of silkworms:
which fits me so much it's kinda scary

2) I remembered reading about a Silkworm missile in a manual for an old flight simulator on the IBM PC (I think it was Falcon 1.5), which was used by the Chinese air force, which I thought was kinda cool. Since the more well known US missiles like the Sidewinder and Maverick were certain to be used by people already, I figured this would be more low profile.
I found out a few years later that the Silkworm is the NATO designation for the Chinese "Hai Ying" (sea eagle) or "Fei Long" (flying dragon) surface-to-surface missile (when I picked it as my nick, I thought it was an air-to-air). Nvm, at least it still flies and blows stuff up.

3) Finally, in 1988 there was a side-scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game by Tecmo called, what else, Silk Worm. It's claim to fame was that in two player mode, each player has a different vehicle. Player 1 used a helicopter, whilst Player 2 drove around on the ground in a Jeep. The first time I heard of this game was reading a review in Computimes in the late 80s, a port was made for the Amiga or Atari ST. Back then I really wished I had those machines instead of the crappy 8MHz IBM PC XT I had a the time... Coincidentally, Tecmo now makes the DOA series as well as Ninja Gaiden, which are the foremost Xbox games at the moment.

This post has been edited by silkworm: Apr 30 2006, 12:48 PM