About Me

I have 32 years experience in IT, with 25 years in Software Engineering. The high-level language I have the most experience with is C, prior to that I programmed machine code, and I was Java certified in 2002. I specialized in embedded systems and communications protocols, and was an author of U.S. Patents 4958342, 4935925 and 4882727 (http://patft.uspto.gov). These resulted from my development of a 32 channel HDLC controller. I would like now to contribute to Open Source development. I've been using Ubuntu since 8.04, and my goal is to be on the Ubuntu development team.

Team Memberships

The teams I would like to join, to start with, are:

• Ubuntu Beginners Team
• Ubuntu Beginners Team Development Focus Group

Future Plans & Projects

My goal is to contribute to Ubuntu software development. I have a background in driver development, and I'm interested in seeing Ubuntu support as much hardware as possible. This goes along with the goal of increasing the base of Ubuntu users, especially those using older machines, that would benefit from a non-Microsoft OS upgrade. I also have a strong interest in GUI programming, though I have limited experience in this area.

Having been in the Computer Science field since 1978, I believe the current domination of Microsoft is extremely detrimental to the user community, and the future of Information Technology.

Current Project & Goals

I have a lot of work to do to be a contributor to Ubuntu. My short term goals include becoming an expert at Linux system administration. I am following the guide at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Development/Devbeginnings and will soon be installing the tools, checking out a branch, and figuring out how Ubuntu is put together. I am also bringing my Java skills up to date from when I got my certification in 2002.

Okay, I've done Devbeginnings. I've found the Ubuntu Beginners IRC channels very helpful, even got to answer a programming question. And one of the discussions was about Inkscape. As I am particularly interested in graphics applications, I've gone ahead and pulled the current branch for the project, and also have some focus, which also came out of the IRC chat, to look at converting output from SVG to JPEG.

And I am constantly advocating Ubuntu, explaining its benefits, and getting it installed and in use at every opportunity.

Contributions to the Ubuntu Community

My contributions will be listed as they occur.

Support

I will be a contributor to Ubuntu Forums as my experience increases.

Forum Guides:

I've not yet written any guides, but look forward to this also.

Wiki

I have edited https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/Structure#Mentoring and added my name to the Seeking Mentor table.

Testimonials

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