brianking

My Contact Info

  • Email: <brianking.home@gmail.com>

  • IRC: bkingx on irc.freenode.net

  • Jabber: brianking.home@gmail.com

  • OpenPGP keys: 7CE4ABDE

About Me

I'm a 33 year old father of three living in the United States, in the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. By day, I am a Network Administrator supporting mostly Windows machines. By night, I am a certified geek, dragging the family into my obsession of computers and technology. But I do on occasion enjoy camping and outdoors with the family. Even us geeks have to take a break now and then!

I have been using Linux (Ubuntu, YellowDog) for about 2 years now, but only in the past month have I become obsessed with it.

Enter Ubuntu

Late 2005, I set out to install a network monitoring application to show availability of my network devices. A friend recommended Nagios, which runs on Linux. Seeing as how I had a spare iMac around, I sat out to find a Linux distro that would run on an iMac. I found YellowDog, a Linux distro that fit the bill nicely. The install and interface were a bit convoluted and being a newbie, I had some troubles. But once it was set, I left it alone. Then about a year later, the same friend was mentioning to me a distro called BackTrack (Slax) that I could use to test wireless security applications. I played with this on a spare laptop for about 2 days when he mentioned I should start out with something a bit easier, and Ubuntu was it! At the same time, it came time to move my Nagios install to a better machine. This time I chose a spare G4 PowerMac Server and loaded it with 640 MB RAM. But instead of reinstalling YellowDog, I found the PPC version for Ubuntu. What luck! I installed Nagios and it has been running beautifully since! At that point, I was hooked. I have been using Ubuntu since and have never looked back.

In January 2007, I co-founded the Kentucky LoCo Team. The team started as a small group of three and in the first month grew to 15. In April, we are hosting an Install Fest and Release party on the same day! Talk about overachieving! We also have some big plans for this year. The biggest of which is to complete a Charity project that will focus on providing PCs to people that can not afford to purchase one. Of course, pre-loaded with Ubuntu.

Contributions To The Ubuntu Community

Ubuntu-Kentucy LoCo Team

Goals for Ubuntu-Kentucky For 2007

  • Help the team grow in technical ability and size.

  • Become an Approved LoCo team.

  • Establish a support system for non-technical user in this region (Kentucky).
    • IRC
    • Forum
    • Email
    • Telephone
    • RDP
    • IRL
  • Establish relationships with LUG's in the state.
  • Begin organizing of public demos:
    • Bookstores
    • 'Techy' places
    • Mall Kiosks
    • Career Days

Personal Goals For 2007

  • Establish a standard for SubTeams to accomplish tasks (Project Management).

  • Compile Real-World Documentation for Ubuntu uses in this region (Kentucky).
  • Running Ubuntu Server, move an existing family IIS web site to a Linux CMS system.

Ubuntu Membership Approval

18:18 <    sabdfl> bkingx: you're up!
18:18 <    bkingx> My name is Brian King. I have been advocating Ubuntu since the day I started using it in December of 2006. Before that I was a Yellowdog user. I am a co-founder and a team leader for the Kentucky Team. My Ubuntu pages are https://launchpad.net/~brianking and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/brianking.
18:18 <     etank> wooo bkingx
18:18 <     ranf_> nick ranf
18:18              ~   ranf_ is now ranf
18:19 <    Seveas> mako, did you +1/0/-1 for kkubasik already?
18:19 <  kkubasik> https://launchpad.net/~kkubasik
18:19 <  kkubasik> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KevinKubasik
18:19 <      mako> yes, i know
18:19 <      mako> i just haven't had a chance yet
18:19 <    Seveas> ok, no sweat
18:20 <    Seveas> was looking at other laptop for a bit and thought I missed it :)
18:20 <    sabdfl> bkingx: from LP it looks like advocacy / Loco work is your primary focus?
18:20 <    bkingx> Correct
18:20 <    bkingx> Making bog moves in the Kentucky Team
18:20 <  atoponce> i'm here cheering for bkingx++. he's helped start the kentucky team, which has been a great team. lots of loco advocacy, online in irc a lot, and really pushing the envelope in what ideas can be presenting in spreading ubuntu locally
18:20 <    sabdfl> when did you become active in this regard?
18:20 <   zenwhen> bkingx has my +1. hes's a sharp guy and very valuable to the ky loco team.
18:21              etank agrees with zenwhen
18:21 <    bkingx> sabdfl:  January, when the KY Team was founded.
18:21 <  atoponce> he's another valuable asset, that i plan on using for the US Teams Project in mentoring other loco state teams to get approved
18:21 <   zenwhen> we met the other day to hand out flyers for our install fest. struck me as very professional and committed to ubuntu.
18:21 <    bkingx> ty guys!
18:22 < micahcowa> Folks, my 2-month-old is hungry and my wife is out; if I'm still feeding her at my turn I may ask that you kick me down the queue a bit.
18:22 <    Seveas> micahcowan, noted
18:22 <     etank> bkingx has been one of the driving forces for the Kentucky Team. Lots of great ideas coming from him.
18:23 <    sabdfl> ok, +1 from me for bkingx on the back of strong advocacy and loco leadership over 3+ months
18:23 <    Seveas> nice
18:23              <   geser!i=mb@ubuntu/member/geser ["Liberate tutemet ex inferis"]
18:23 <    bkingx> ty sabdfl
18:23 <    Seveas> micahcowan, just poke when you're back. Until you poke we'll pick others :)
18:24              <   DktrKranz!n=Luca@ubuntu/member/dktrkranz ["Microsoft Windows received signal SIGSHIT, that O.S. is crap"]
18:24 < micahcowa> Ok. If for some reason you run out of folks before I poke, just call me anyway. She can wait a few minutes for her bottle :)
18:25 <    sabdfl> elmo, mako?
18:25              mako is happy with bkingx as well!
18:25 <      mako> +1 from me
18:25 <    bkingx> ty mako
18:25 <      elmo> +1
18:25 <    Seveas> nice!
18:26 <    Seveas> congrats
18:26              etank high fives bkingx

brianking (last edited 2008-08-06 17:00:07 by localhost)