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About Me

Ubuntu was first introduced to me by a colleague and since then it has become my operating system of choice. From tentative steps I feel that I am now quite confident with it. At home I run Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop. I also get involved with testing Ubuntu Development Releases from time to time. I have tested Jaunty from beta 2, Lucid from Alpha 2 and Maverick from beta 1.

I have ran various gnu/linux operating systems over the years including Fedora, Crunchbang Linux, Zenix, Arch Linux, Debian, Sn0wl1nux and elementaryOS. I would consider my exposure to other operating systems quite broad.

I have also managed to successfully introduce a few friends to the Ubuntu operating system and now serve as their immediate access to help. Thankfully my call outs have been few and far between, a credit to the overall quality of the operating system.

Socially

Outside of computers I have a few hobbies including fitness, photography and reading. My fitness regime includes running, cycling and yoga. I love taking pictures of the natural world with my camera, I find it relaxing and also at the same time challenging to create that 'perfect shot'. I find it also ties in nicely with my interest in photo editing on my Mac Mini. My interest with books comes and goes but when the interest surfaces it does stay for a while. I usually read fiction, with a focus on sword and sorcery. I also adopted a basement cat. Pictures can be found here

Professionally

I'm an IT professional working as a web developer and database administrator. I am familiar with several webscripting languages including: HTML, PHP, XML, XSL, Javascript / Ajax, SQL and VB.NET. I am currently trying to learn more Python. I enjoy coding the backend of web information systems more than doing the user interfaces. I like the challenge of creating code that does something useful.

At work we make heavy use of opensource technologies for our projects. One of our servers runs Red Hat and a few work stations have 10.10 installs on them. We have also set up up a file server running Fedora 15. I think I am very fortunate to be using these different distributions, in that my knowledge and experience can only be enhanced. This knowledge I use when trying to help others.

Ubuntu Participation

Ubuntu Member

My involvement with the community has granted me the privilege to be awarded Ubuntu membership. I would like to thank all those who I have worked with in making this possible and also those who were kind enough to support my application

Ubuntu Membership Board

I hold a seat on the Ubuntu Membership Board. In this position I am responsible for voting on pottential new ubuntu members, valuing contributions from all areas of the community. It is a great honor to be able to do this and I would like to thank those who showed me support when I applied for a vacant seat.

Ubuntu Forums

I am a member of the Ubuntu Forums, where I serve as an administrator. I am the current co-chair with Bodhi Zazen. Here is the link to My Profile. I consider myself active in the support sections of the forum and always like to help where I can. If I see a thread where I can contribute something useful I will definitely post in it.

I also help keep the forums running smoothly in my administrator capacity, mainly dealing with spam, thread maintenance and trouble makers. Additionaly as a member of the Forum Council I have the ability to grant Ubuntu Membership to community members who have made sustained contributions on the forum. I have also got involved with writing small scripts that help enhance the moderator user interface and also speed up some of the more tedious moderation processes. I am constantly trying to help my fellow members of the forums staff.

I have signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct and can be considered an Ubuntero.

Ubuntu Book 6th Edition

Ubuntu Community Interviews

I have revived the Ubuntu Community Interviews as Joeb454 no longer has the time do them. I thought it was a shame to let such a popular project die.

The bottom line reason for doing these interviews is that everyone has a life beyond the nickname and avatar that we see, and it is interesting to find out a little bit more about the human being behind the screen, the blog, or the reputation. To that end, I am picking up on an idea that was borrowed from an idea originally suggested by forum staff member extraordinaire aysiu, and given legs by K.Mandla,further expanded by matthew and then finally Joeb454. I will be asking the same simple series of nine open-ended questions.

Interviews I have performed:

Ubuntu Accomplishments Project

Internet Relay Chat

My registered IRC nickname is s-fox. I am looking forward to getting to know the Ubuntu community members better through this medium. I am usually present in the following channels:

Please feel free to say hello.

Beginners Team

I am a member of the Beginners Team. Being a member of this team has allowed me to enhance my Ubuntu education, whilst at the same time help others with their problems. It has also been a perfect opportunity to socialize with the community and get to know individuals better.

Ubuntu Beginners Team Council

I am a member of the Ubuntu Beginners Council, elected by the Ubuntu Beginners Team. In this role I look to take the entire team forward, making decisions that are for the benefit to all concerned. I am also expected to help resolve internal conflict within the team, if the need arises.

IRC Focus Group

I am lead of the IRC Focus Group. My reason for joining this group was twofold. Primarily I joined this group in order to help users in a real time environment compared to the delay in responses associated with forum assistance. My secondary reason for joining this group was to revive its original purpose of being a support channel, as it had become inactive. I also feel that helping others over IRC is also a good way to build relationships with community members.

Wiki Focus Group

I joined this focus group in order to do more for the community.

A list of pages that I have worked on:

Zenix

Gnome-Look

I have an account on gnome-look, it can be seen here. I like to do photo editing as a hobby. I am attempting to combine my interest in photography with something to do with the community. To this end I am in the process of uploading some of my pictures and photographs as wallpapers for people to use. Some thumbnails are listed below:

Objectives for 2011-2012

Continue contributing to Gnome Look

Keep up my activity levels as a Ubuntu Forum Staff

Continue to keep the Ubuntu Community Interviews going on my blog

Finish the new Zenix website

Objectives for 2012-2013

Keep up my activity levels as a Ubuntu Forums Administrator

Continue to keep the Ubuntu Community Interviews going on my blog

Start getting involved with development projects in the community

Testimonials

Please select the appropriate section below to view / add testimonials.