Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

General Bits

My screen name is French, which literally translates as the dog - '73 being my year of birth. The reasons behind the canine connection go back over 20 years to when I was in High School in England and are too long and boring to relate here. Suffice to say, the name stuck.

I first encountered Linux way back in 1994 when I was setting up an email server for a customer. Broadband was unheard of and my only option at the time was to set up a UUCP mail system using Slackware. I already had some knowledge of Xenix/Unix and was hooked straight away.

Over the years, I pushed my business to take Linux seriously - I variously used Mandrake and Red Hat on my workstation, and for a while we were Irish resellers for the HP OpenMail-derived Samsung Contact.

Afterwards I moved into IT support for an organisation that took Linux very seriously, and started using Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my laptop - eventually converting my wife, and many friends. I also build a Mythbuntu-based media centre, which controls all our home entertainment.

Professional

I'm an IT professional with over 20 years experience. I started programming on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum before graduating to PCs.

I co-founded HCS Business Solutions and worked there as Technical Director for over 10 years. In recent times, I've been freelancing, supporting Alpine and Ubuntu Linux servers and desktops, and doing web programming on the side through my new venture Tangent Factory.

I'm a regular code-monkey and program in Assembler, many varieties of BASIC, C, C++, dBase, Java, Pascal, and PHP.

Socially

When I'm not sat with my head in a computer, I enjoy photography and maintain my Flickr photostream. I have a wide range of interests, and often make the trip from Dublin to watch Arsenal play in London. I'm very active in my religious community.

Community Contributions

First of all, I should state that I love being part of the Ubuntu and wider Linux community. I have had the privilege of corresponding with some of the most genuine, helpful, and appreciative people that I've ever encountered. Thinking about all of us giving time and resources for free to support the various Linux projects shows the real power of the Open Source Software movement.

Ubuntu Support

I'm an active member of the Ubuntu Forums community, and have received thanks for many solutions that I've offered. If you asked me which would be my favourite thread that I contributed to, then I think the disassembly and editing of the Grub bootloader would have to be top of my list.

Generally, I visit the forums daily, but post most prolifically when a new release is due, to help those who are upgrading. I can usually be found around the General Help and Installations and Upgrades fora, but also make occasional forays into Networking and Absolute Beginner Talk.

I also run a Linux blog, which receives many thousands of visits per week.

I'm also a full member of the Linux Foundation.

Community Goals

Short Term

• Continue and increase my participation in the Ubuntu Forums
• Continue development of my Ubuntu-centric blog
• Qualify for Ubuntu Membership to assist in increasing my contribution and usefulness to the community

Longer Term

• Identify areas where coding support is needed, and join the appropriate teams
• Develop my Ubuntu-based LiveCD project

Testimonials

If you want to leave a testimonial here, then it would be very welcome. Here are some thanks culled from my Ubuntu Forum posts. I won't include those left on my blog - although they are much more effusive

Momo88: I cannot thank you enough. THANK YOU SO MUCH! You really solved my problem. Now everything is working exactly how I wanted it. Thanks for going through all the work of setting up a test system to replicate my issue. I'm really overwhelmed by how much time and effort you put into this. For me it would have been impossible to figure out where to change something in the boot sector. You are a genius!

Thank you so much again! You really made my day!

cpcpcp: THANK YOU...EVER SO MUCH FOR YOU PATIENT HELP.

jamesgreeny: Thanks so much guys the USB worked and I'm installing UBUNTU right now. Thanks for the help

shantiq: superb thank you sorted

Garland Fox: lechien73 many thanks ya taught an ol geezer a new trick.