Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

I am a student who is currently studying Security and Risk Analysis at Pennsylvania State University in the United States.

I currently run TrekWeb Internet Services, and have worked with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Office of Information Technology as an on call systems technician and server administrator.

I am an avid user of Ubuntu, and have been using and supporting it since the release of 9.04.

Contact Information

Contributions

• I have contributed via IRC to assisting users with basic Ubuntu support within #ubuntu since I registered on freenode in January of 2010.

• I have been an active member of the Ask Ubuntu support site since February of 2011, and have been providing support to users there for some time (click here for user profile).

• I have donated funds to Canonical in small denominations since I began using Ubuntu.

• I have worked to find and fix bugs in several packages within Ubuntu, and have contributed in part to current Projects run by other members by working with them to attempt to confirm/reject bugs within their projects (StackApplet is one of them, run by George Edison).

• I have successfully backported the Debian Sid / Precise version of ZNC, and IRC bouncer software, into Natty and Oneiric within a PPA. The same software has been approved for backporting to Oneiric, and may be backported to Natty, pending the fix of a bug that prevents building of the sources on Natty.

• Within the past few months, I began working with bugs actively. I joined the BugSquad on March 28, 2012. On May 29, 2012, I was added to the Ubuntu BugControl group for work on the 'nginx' package, and primarily use Bug Control powers for nginx-related bugs.

Future Goals

I plan to continue to provide support to users via a wide array of support outlets, including IRC, and AskUbuntu. I plan to continue to find, identify, document, and attempt to fix bugs that I locate within Ubuntu and the software it supports. I also plan to expand my technical knowledge regarding packaging and backporting software to older Ubuntu versions, and plan to actively work with projects and teams to successfully package and provide Debian Packages to Ubuntu for their projects.

Testimonials

If you know me and have something nice to say about me, please leave a comment here.

Thomas Ward is active in the Ask Ubuntu chat rooms, providing assistance in a number of areas - but most notably, he taught a two-part series in the Ask Ubuntu Classroom on packaging. The class was very thorough and covered many aspects of the packaging process. Thomas has also been very helpful in sorting through bugs for StackApplet, an AppIndicator-based application I wrote. -- George Edison

A packaging guru, Thomas is often on the Ask Ubuntu Chat room looking for a chance to help out someone with packaging or just hanging out with the community. Apart from that, he has been very useful in solving some of the more difficult questions, flagging (alerting mods) to things that need to be dealt with, and training (as George mentioned) - he doesn't hesitate to help others learn packaging, server slang, and other difficult topics. -- Roland Taylor

Thomas hangs out on Ask Ubuntu, answering questions, and generally being an all-around good guy who loves Ubuntu. He's more than happy to help someone who has a question. I recommend him for Ubuntu Membership with no reservations. -- James Gifford

Thomas has been a substantial contributor contributor to Ask Ubuntu. As well as providing very high quality answers, he can often be found in the Ask Ubuntu Chat, where he never misses a chance to help a user. Also, his packaging class, part of the Ask Ubuntu Classroom project, was outstanding. As an Ubuntu Member, Thomas would fit right in with the rest of this great community. --Stefano Palazzo

Thomas has been with us on Ask Ubuntu for a while now, but he really came into his own with the packaging classroom he held earlier in the year. Sharing skills like this is probably the most valuable thing somebody can do. He has also been helping keep the site clear of bad posts, flagging up 245 issues to date. Thomas is clearly a knowledgeable, helpful and well rounded community member and I'm sure there's a lot more to come! Keep it up! -- Oli