ocean

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 *oCean has been an excellent to the IRC team, in both helping in #ubuntu, and helping to keep the IRC channels a relatively sane place. Surely his dedication and willingness to become an IRC OP is a sign worthy of an Ubuntu Membership, and I fully support this endevour. oCean definitely has a +1 from me! [[AnthonyHook|h00k]]  *oCean has been an excellent addition to the IRC team, in both helping in #ubuntu, and helping to keep the IRC channels a relatively sane place. Surely his dedication and willingness to become an IRC OP is a sign worthy of an Ubuntu Membership, and I fully support this endevour. oCean definitely has a +1 from me! [[AnthonyHook|h00k]]

About ocean

Here in the Netherlands (Holland is only part of that, mind you) we stubbornly live well below sealevel without fear of the ocean. Our ancestors spent the the better part of their lives fighting the sea, gaining new land metre by metre (yes, we use the metric system) - so that we simply cannot believe that the ocean will ever try to invade again. Still there is huge respect for oceans and seas with their brute force and an almost imaginable world somewhere below.

However, the reason I chose the nick 'ocean', is just because I liked the cleverness and cunning of Ocean's Eleven crew (and Twelve, Thirteen not so much)

Contact

Likes

Books. I read a wide variety of books; most recent titles (a re-read of) On the Beach and Alas Babylon. Currently reading 'The Slap'. Oh, the books of James Frey make me laugh, unbelievable that there was so much controversy about him making up (large) parts of his 'memoirs'

Music. This I need, sometimes even crave; Be it blues(rock), alternative pop or (prog/hard)rock, as long as there are violently thrashing guitars or gently weeping ones - I'm probably happy. I hardly ever listen to 'mainstream' radio, it makes me feel sad but I like to explore new tunes, so I think it's really sad that certain restrictions (licensing constraints) prevent me from accessing services like Pandora.

Contributions

  • Handing out CD's (Feisty I think - quite a while ago)
  • Helping others in their first steps using Ubuntu
  • Offering help in #ubuntu (little bit in other channels as well)
  • IRC operator in #ubuntu (since about 3 months)

For further details, see the text below

Future goals

  • Turning more friends/colleagues to Ubuntu
  • Be more strict in bugreporting
  • I would like to have a better FAQ
  • Introduce the Ubuntu desktop at current job

For further details, see the text below

Ubuntu

Linux

About 12 years ago I started out as a junior Unix system admin in an Oracle environment. As soon as Oracle certified their database on Linux, a colleague and I started our campaign on running Linux-as-a-database-platform for businesscritical processes.

Have had a few jobs since, but never seemed to be able to shake the Linux/Oracle thing. Now, for a large government department I'm a teamlead of Linux sysadmins - thankfully not dba's :p

I'm not someone that easily switches distro's - yes, every now and then I try to see if the neighbour's grass is any greener, but once I make a choice I like to commit to that. So I started out with SuSE and then tried Fedora before turning to Ubuntu (with Feisty).

To people (including family and friends) that are used to Windows, I find it hard to explain why it would be such a relief to work with a Linux desktop. I'd rather let it speak for itself, so whenever I have the change I like to show them that, yes, there *is* an alternative. I think I turned one or two friends to using Ubuntu, which is nice I think.

Oh wait, the part where I told I'm a teamlead is outdated already. Currently I'm a Infrastructure Designer, but what's in a name? At least I get a change to help this organization switch to OSS products. Two years ago we started implementing Linux (nope, not Ubuntu) as primary platform for databases and applicationservers - now I'd like to make a switch to an OSS applicationserver. I would like to be able to tell that I've succeeded in turning around ~350 development workstations from Windows to Ubuntu, but it's too soon yet, maybe next year!? That would count as one of my future goals, right?

#Ubuntu IRC

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that it is only two years ago that I registered to Freenode's services. Almost literally a new world opened for me, since I had been on IRC only a few times before. It did not take long to see how valuable the help offered in this way was. That's also when I learned more and more about the community, its merits and values.

Once I found my way to #ubuntu, I found it exciting to be able to help someone, since I reckoned it was not only the issue at hand I was helping with, but also with a general understanding (and acceptance) of his/her new operating system.

I'm not much of a multimedia- or hardware type of guy, nor am I ever using latest/bleeding edge version (of anything really). So the areas for which I could offer help were limited. I know (and help with) server stuff, commandline questions etc, but I soon noticed that I could contribute in an other way also. Instead of just idling I've tried to be a little bit of (what I think Freenode calls) a catalyst: trying to resolve misunderstandings, pointing out channel's policies or a little nudge to move someone to more appropriate behavior et cetera.

Since I started to understand (and appreciate) the atmosphere in both #ubuntu, #ubuntu-offtopic channels (and several others in the ubuntu namespace) I have looked for ways to become more involved, and the possibility of becoming OP crossed my mind before. When that opportunity came up, about three months ago I decided (after a little nudge from LjL) to apply. And there I am, OP in #ubuntu (officially still in the probation period, actually) and I have to admit, I'm glad I did apply; I like contributing in this way (more than I expected)

I'm still an #ubuntu regular, though I can spend less time there then I wish I could - I try to make up for this somewhat in weekends. Oh, and you can probably also find me in some of the other channels such as +1, -server and more recently #kubuntu: starting from 11.04 I switched to KDE, which I had not used in 5 years or so.

There is one thing that bothers me somewhat: we have all these repeating questions in #ubuntu, but so far we have not managed to provide a FAQ that is actually helpful. I'm not thinking of another wiki, but pages that hold concise solutions to specific questions.Not sure how to do this without building another wiki though. Suggestions are welcome.

Reactions

  • He lies, he helps in #ubuntu concretely as well as resolving misunderstandings etc. He's a balanced head, has been from the start when I begun noticing him around in #ubuntu. He might not be the most 24/7 dedicated helper among the ones I've seen (real life must get in the way of those who have one, sometimes!), but what I've seen was quality, and maybe that'll just mean a burn-out will take longer to happen. LjL

  • oCean has been an excellent addition to the IRC team, in both helping in #ubuntu, and helping to keep the IRC channels a relatively sane place. Surely his dedication and willingness to become an IRC OP is a sign worthy of an Ubuntu Membership, and I fully support this endevour. oCean definitely has a +1 from me! h00k

ocean (last edited 2012-03-06 19:55:38 by 52482396)