Ubuntu Wiki

I'm Neal McBurnett and I've been an Ubuntu user, promoter, contributor and distributor since the first release (4.10 Warty), on servers and desktops, for myself and several non-profit organizations. I've been active with *nix since 1977 and have never had Windoze on my desktop

I've been an Ubuntu member since 2007.

Contact

• Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~nealmcb/

• Web: http://neal.mcburnett.org/

• Blog: http://neal.mcburnett.org/blog

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nealmcb

My Ubuntu timeline

• 2004: Try out Ubuntu Warty and publicize the Ubuntu ethic to three local non-profit organizations

• 2005: Switch to Ubuntu full time, and switch local community radio station KGNU from Redhat and Debian to Ubuntu. Help the Boulder Community Network switch from Solaris to Ubuntu. Distribute a few dozen CDs.

• 2006: Become an Ubuntero and file some bug reports. Help JoeyStanford start the ColoradoTeam. Write the identity-selector spec and comment on various other specs. Participate remotely in UbuntuDeveloperSummitMountainView

• 2007: VOIP-in to UDS-Sevilla. Contribute to various LoCo-related wiki pages. Participate in UbuntuOpenWeek. Get basic README update into authtool via bzr. Updated UbuntuConferences and Ubucon. Got involved in the ServerTeam: hanging out in #ubuntu-server answering questions and triaging a few bugs. Organized the Ubucon-Boulder conference, helped out with the Ubuntu/Canonical presence at http://wiki.edubuntu.org/TIEColorado, helped organize server blueprint ideas for Hardy ServerTeam/HardyIdeaPool, and worked on the ColoradoTeam/Tshirts design and helped broaden the scope of the t-shirt page on the wiki. Had a blast at UDS-Boston. Contributed a bit to https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu-jeos with a bzr patch and a package on PPA. Presented Talk for Boulder LUG: Contribute to Ubuntu

• 2008: Still active with the Server Team, involved with web-based GUI admin proposals and virtualization. Continuing to help the Colorado team - helping Jim and Bryan again with their big presentations to the educators of Colorado at the major Colorado K12 technology conference: TIEColorado08. Reprised Contribute to Ubuntu talk for the North Colorado Linux Users Group. Attended UDS-Intrepid in Prague. Went to OSCON in Portland. Helped mentor the US-NH loco team. Planning for the next Ubucon in Boulder.

• 2009: Was less active in Ubuntuland while I wrote ElectionAudits and worked with Android, but still pitched in a bit here and there with the Colorado Loco and the server team.

• 2010: Helping Boulder Community Computers (http://bococo.org) get started up providing Ubuntu instruction and desktops to the community using the FreeGeek model.

• 2011: Still pitching in to Colorado Loco, reporting bugs.

• 2012: Attended UDS-Q. Wrote testkernel.py command to automate steps in installing and booting into a new kernel, e.g. for repetitive git bisects like https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/906993

• 2013-2017: Continue participation in ColoradoTeam, reporting bugs, spreading the word to other user groups, etc.

Member of

• ColoradoTeam

• Launchpad Beta Testers

• Ubuntu LoCo Enthusiasts

Sample contributions:

• spec: identity-selector

• bug: More than 2 GB needed for xubuntu install due to lots of updates

• code: https://code.launchpad.net/~nealmcb/ubuntu-jeos/nealmcb

• wiki: ColoradoTeam/EnhancedLoCoWeb

• advocacy: Talk for Boulder LUG: Contribute to Ubuntu

Synergy with related organizations

I've been involved with related organizations for many years, attending meetings and giving presentations. I often help raise their awareness of each other by cross post meeting announcements, handing out Ubuntu CDs, etc. Here is a sampling.

I was involved with the Front Range Unix Users Group (which was the longest-running UNIX Users group anywhere - April 1981 until 2008) since the 1980's and was on the steering committee for several years. I've been involved with the Boulder Linux Users Group since 1998, and its offshoot the Hacking Society. I'm also enjoying the FrontRangePythoneers, DevOps Boulder and BarCampBoulder, and have been active in the security.stackexchange.com IT security community (as nealmcb). I participate in various data science groups in Boulder.

Other Interests

I taught Artificial Intelligence at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2012 and 2013, and was on the team that ran the Big Data Analysis with Spark in 2015. I was a co-founder in 1993 of the Boulder Community Network http://bcn.boulder.co.us, active with the IETF since 1995, and a consultant on computer security and web sites. I worked on the IDtrust 2008 symposium and identity and trust for http://internet2.edu, after a career at Bell Labs. I've been an IT professional since 1973, used Unix/BSD/UTS/Solaris/Linux since an early Vax version (32/V) at Bell Labs research in 1977, and have never had Windoze on my desktop

I started the ElectionAudits project to help audit elections, using Python and Django and was instrumental in getting one of the best auditing laws anywhere adopted in Colorado.

I speak English, Esperanto, and a bit of Spanish.

See my home page for lots more details.

Testimonials

• Neal is a hard core Ubuntu advocate. As one of the original members of the Colorado LoCo team, he has used his expertise to help build our team, expand our member base and educate us all. His most recent efforts include organizing the first Ubucon in Boulder, CO and helping at both the open source session and the Canonical/Ubuntu booth at the Technology in Education Conference in Copper Mountain, CO. -- JimHutchinson [June 27, 2007]

• As a team leader you're always looking for those unique individuals who will not only be active on your team, but will also take a leadership role when necessary. Neal has done just that for the ColoradoTeam. Besides organizing our recent (and hugely successful) Ubucon-Boulder, Neal frequently takes the reins in helping team members to understand the finer points of GNU/Linux and in spreading Ubuntu to the entire community. -- DavidOvercash [2007-06-30]

• JoeyStanford: +1. Neal has been a steady and active contributor to the LoCo and Ubuntu. 2007-09-27

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