PaulBramscher
PaulBramscher
Email: MailTo(brams007 AT umn DOT edu )
Open Source Interests
* Linux user since 1999. Red Hat 5.2 - 9, FC1-4, AS 3. SuSE 6-8.2. And now Ubuntu.
* [http://libdata.sourceforge.net/ LibData] is a LAMP project I administer on SourceForge enabling academic libraries to easily author subject-oriented web pages. Our needs require a high degree of data granularity & vocabulary control. It's used by several college libraries in Minnesota and some across the country. It's been mentioned on [http://oss4lib.org/ oss4lib] and on the [http://directory.fsf.org/ FSF/UNESCO/] Free Software Directory.
Computer History
I was introduced to the Apple // in elementary school, bought an Apple //c in high school, and ran a BBS (Bulletin Board System) using software named Pseudodel, a port of the IBM Citadel BBS software. It was named the [http://bbslist.textfiles.com/612/oldschool.html Renaissance Fair BBS]. I got onto the French Minitel network and was an early Gopher user (it was invented at the [http://www.umn.edu/ University of Minnesota] when I was a student there). I also wrote probably one of the earliest web pages in Minnesota, using a highly unstable Windows 3.1, winsock.dll and the NCSA Mosaic browser.
Since the mid-90's I've built all of my own computers and have been a technologist with the State of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. I'm currently a LAMP programmer for the [http://www.lib.umn.edu/ University of Minnesota Libraries], [http://www.lib.umn.edu/digilab Digital Library Development Lab]. I installed Ubuntu on my newest development box.
Non-computer Interests
* Camping I've taken several roadtrips from my home base here in the American Midwest to the Rockies, the 4-corners area, the Canadian Atlantic maritimes, New England, etc. Many national parks, state parks, and historic sites. Mesa Verda, Great Sand Dunes, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Crater Lake, Craters of the Moon, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Niagara Falls, Acadia National Park, many others. I've seen enough natural beauty at this point to be a confirmed deep ecologist. If anything is holy in this world, it's Old Growth.
* Folk music Celtic, jazz, fusion, etc.
* Organic food I've been a vegetarian since about 1995, shop at co-ops, farmer's markets, and do a little of my own gardening.
* Progressive politics I'm basically a green communitarian anarcho-syndicalist or something like that. I don't care much for large organizations, whether public or private.