ThomasSchneller

ThomasSchneller

A little bio:

far away in the past I studied electronics and this was the first time, I came in contact with computers. It was the time, when the first c64 came into the shops. In the university we had the choice to attend to computer trainings on a free basis what I did. Main topic was assembler programming. Somehow a little bit boring, but we got an account on the Uni computer system which I liked a lot.

Can't remember, what OS that was, but must have been some unix system as it allowed multi user access. Anyhow, exploring the system and it's commands I tried some of them and suddenly the system was screwed up. Uggs. Asked the teacher to heal it, but now chance. He needed to call the system administrator to get it working again.

My first expierience with try and error..... Smile :)

Then a computer-less time started. I worked on a theater as an sound engineer for six years and all of the equipment was pur analog. Then I changed my focus of living to Munich and went into the postproduktion business. That's making soundtracks for movies. And this was the time, I bought my first computer:

A Amiga 500.

Wow. I was fascinated again. Somehow this machines have an mythic character. You say something to them, and they respond. That was also the time, when I got my first modem. One of this ancient devices where you put the phone onto it and it connects with an unbelievable speed of 2400 baud to an other machine. And I found a dial in point, where it was possible to chat with other people!

Then I heard about sampling. And needed to get one of this devices. It was a 8bit sampling unit and I was able to record 10 seconds of sound into the computer. And was able to cut and past, to mix and to change the volume and stuff like that. This was an other WOW. And I immediatly knew, that is the future of sound engineering.

Suddenly later I was sitting with a college during lunchtime and told him about this technology. And he said, interesting, we should give it a try. Some month later he and I was founding the first full digital postproduktion studio in Germany, powerd by a wave frame audio work station. That was a 383/33 MHz PC running Win 2.87, connected to the audio hardware by token ring. Featuring 8 channel audio recording, a mixer with 16 channels and a sampler with giant 8MB of ram.

Was working well, but during the transition to Win 3.1 trouble started. Days of work just disappeard in /dev/null and the backups where not usable as well. That was the time, when I dived deep into the computer space, looking to trouble shoot the system together with the people who manufactured it.

Hard time, but gave me a lot of inside view about computers and how they work. Again I changed my orientation and went out of the audio studio business and went into synchonisation. Meaning, I wrote dubbing scripts for foreign language- German dubbing jobs. And worked as director during the recordings of the scripts. Crazy job, much fun but finally, when I realized, that I am currently doing the 768 episode of bold and beautiful I realized, I can't do that until the end of my work live.

So I wrote shoals of applications and send them by fax to computer companys. Finally Compaq responded and I was hired as an engineer for quality assurance. Got it!

Out of the dark of the audio studio reallity into a new world. Testing Win 95, Win 98, Win Millenium and then was bored again. So I looked for other opportunities and was elected to be an ISP manager. Dealing with the ISP vendors, wanting to have their software pre-installed on Compaq units. My task was, to qualify the software, send to me an to release it for usage in the software images we produced. Kind of an interface work:

Vendor -> inputs software Software test Ok -> input into the release system.

No -> returne to vendor.

And so on. Basically an easy task, but a lot of communication was required. This is where I got my expierence how to deal with different people with different interests in different locations of this world. Good learning.

In between I made myselfe familiar with different technologies:

HTML PHP Mail services CGI Internet protocols

an so on. Everything, what is needed, for internet related subjects. And I believe, that was my first close contact to the Linux world. I didn't realise that at that time. It was just needed so I looked into it. What I realised was, a lot of web services are running on Linux boxes. So it was logical to get familiar with that. So I installed some Linux versions on test machines but wasn't really satisfied. Desktop expirience? There wasn't any. Was good luck if I good the xserver running on one of the machines.

Anyhow, was good enough to run web services.

Then live changed again. Compaq was bought by HP and my position was taken over from someone in the states. So I was elected to take care about R&D.

R&D means, to get the knowledge for the team, needed to get the job done. First task was, to manipulate the OS pre-installations for the needs and requirements of the definitions how it should look like. So I went into VBS programming which is a good choice in the MS space as you can easily do anything you like with a few lines of code. The other object was Install Shield to pack and release software pieces needed for the pre-installation process.

Was ok, but somehow boring again. But than my boss came to me and asked, if I am interested, to step into the Linux space, as HP has desided, to do some pre-installation on one of the Laptops models. And I said YES!

Rushhour started. And now, after nearly some 18 month, I love Linux. I went deep into that. And still gave my colleges some overview, what this is all about. Giving trainings how to use Linux. Explaining the source (I have written an overview of the birth of Linux for them) and so on. Now I am have an LCP1 approval. But I am still at the beginning of this story of my live.

Funny enough, some time ago, I was reqested to develop a low cost open source solution for Linux on HP Laptops. So what I did was, to go into conclave and check the available options. And finally found Ubuntu.

And now I am an advocacy of the idea to have an free OS, available for all people, everywhere, anytime and in the language of your tongue now and here on this earth.

Best regards

Thomas


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ThomasSchneller (last edited 2008-08-06 16:32:30 by localhost)