About Me

I guess at my core, I'm a hacker: always tinkering, trying to figure out what various pieces do, experimenting. Linux is, for sure, the perfect platform for me. I've decided, thusly, to quit ignoring my calling and have went back to school to get my degree in IT, with an emphasis in software development. This way I can actually be getting paid for what I'll ultimately be doing on my own anyways. I've got experience with Bash, Java, C, C++, C#, Python, Lua (awesomewm!), Common Lisp, Clojure, to name a few.

I'm an everyday cyclist and bike commuter and my primary employment is selling handcrafted folding bicycles to an international audience at Bike Friday. I also do various and sundry information services tasks for them.

I'm also a music geek and a free culture junkie. These two often go hand in hand. I host an electronic music radio show broadcast with my own Icecast server (called ∃ radio) using Mixxx to DJ exclusively free Creative Commons-licensed tunes. I have several avant-garde/experimental projects, including Brownian Motion and The ERNIE 4, mostly available through my label Brownian e/Motion(s). Most of this work is produced with open source software. I also have an interest in doing livecoding. My friend and I are working on a little project in Overtone (Clojure + supercollider).

I have an honors degree in biology from the University of Oregon. Though I find academia to be contrary to the development of science, my interest remains. Bioinfromatics and computational biology may be in my future.

(L)Ubuntu and I

I taught myself programming at age 8 on a Commodore 128. Telecommunications via 1200 baud modem introduced me to the Cleveland FreeNet and subsequently FreeBSD. Later, on a PC, frustration with a limited terminal in Windows 95 led me to find something else. After trying Red Hat on a work computer, Slackware on an old ThinkPad that died, I was in search for an OS for my PPC machine.

That's when I found Lubuntu 12.04. I came for support and I fell so in love with the community, I just stayed and eventually became a contributor. Even after I moved to a normal PC, I installed Lubuntu. Now every machine in the house (and there are many, including a little mini-ITX server and a Raspberry Pi) has some Debian-based distro on it, mostly Lubuntu.

Contributions

My main focus is on Lubuntu in the following areas:

1. Testing/QA on both virtual and real hardware.

2. Bug Triage on Launchpad.

3. Support on #lubuntu, the mailing list, and AskUbuntu.

4. Documentation on the Lubuntu Wiki but also general pages where relevant.

5. Marketing, where I helped create and help administer the official Facebook group.

I also serve as the Team Leader/Point Of Contact for Oregon LoCo.

Teams

It has now got to the point that I have too many teams to list here. See all of them here, but here's a choice selection:

• Lubuntu

  • Lubuntu Packages Team

  • Lubuntu Product Managers

  • Lubuntu-QA

  • Lubuntu Comms

  • Lubuntu Wiki and Docs Team

• Community

  • Ubuntu Oregon LoCo

  • Ubuntu Leadership

Goals

Short term, I've got some work ahead of me to unite and grow the beautiful State of Oregon's LoCo, spreading the word of Ubuntu throughout the land!

I'm working on expanding Lubuntu QA to be sort of full stack and handle proper bug triage. I'm always trying to build up the PPC team.

Long term, I want help with packaging and development of Lubuntu and ultimately be able to do a better job in the areas I already contribute to.

Presentations

UOS 1411

• Latest Developments in Lubuntu Development

• Ubuntu Oregon LoCo meet and greet and planning

EUGLUG

• Making a Big Noise With Linux - kind of an overview of audio in Linux, various audio utilities, and leading to livecoding (part 1 of 2).

Testimonials

If you have something nice to say about me, please add it below:

Walter is, as stated above, a very motivated and 'hands-on' person in all areas that he is involved in. For the testing cycle he went far beyond any call of duty. This continues apace with the chasing of outstanding bugs and the re-write of test cases for PPC. He is not limited to PPC and helps out on all areas. He is a wonderful example of the Ubuntu ethos, I strongly support his application for full Ubuntu membership. phillw 28th Oct 2012

update: I've had the extreme pleasure of working with wxl for several years now. He's very good at what he does, and is always willing to help and share his knowledge with others. He's been very helpful in many areas especially with the support and testing side. It is through his fantastic work that each cycle lubuntu has enough people to test PPC and AMD64+Mac images. His work with the Lubuntu Team has always been above and beyond the call of duty. He has now taken the mantle of TL for testing and is also now a release manager with duty of checking milestone ISO's are either a 'GO' or 'NO-GO' for acceptance. He's also always ready to answer any questions concerning where Lubuntu and F/OSS in general is heading. He is active with the areas of advocacy and being the Team Leader for lubuntu testing, liaises well with others and also with lubuntu's other sub-teams. I ask that you look favourably upon his application. phillw Sat 12th July 2014

Walter not only helped us with the testing task on QA Team. He spent hours trying to solve those called minor problems from unexperienced users on Lubuntu's IRC channel, editing and correcting wiki pages or even managing media resources like Facebook to spread the word. I highly recommend his membership application. -- rafaellaguna 2014-07-11 23:16:46

For me as CEO of Lubuntu marketing it's essential to have to have reliable sources that support me and my work. And for me, Walter is such a source. Whenever I need information or support on short notice, I can always count on Walter. He has the ability to make even the most difficult tech stuff understandable for Linux novices like me. And on top, he is patient... Someone willing to explain the same procedure 3 times in a row if necessary. And that's what the community really needs in my eyes. silverlion on Tue 5th August 2014

I've known wxl on IRC for a while now, and I'd say he is an intelligent, helpful person in terms of support and is the current release manager for Lubuntu. I fully support his application to become an Ubuntu member. -- unit193