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Members

This page is designed so that each of our members can add a few words about themselves. This is to aid new members in finding out who's who.

If you’d like to add a yourself to the list, feel free. Just try and follow the existing schema. That is surnames should be sorted in alphabetical order.

===== Name =====

A little about yourself.


Alex Bebb

alex.jpg Still fairly new to linux, and working my way round it. Currently use Debian, though looking to broaden my horizons.

Jimmy Blake

I've been a Linux user since the mid-nineties, back then I had to install Slackware from over 20 3.5“ disks!

During the day I mainly use Linux, BSD, Mac OS X but occasionally use Windows and several other UNIX flavours. My main distros are BackTrack Linux and Ubuntu.

For a job I run an infosec operations consultancy practice for HP.

Alan Blanchflower

I've been using Linux in various (Debian-based) forms for about 4 years, currently using Kubuntu/KDE4.

By day I'm a CAD Monkey, using the Other OS.

On IRC I use the nick Prof_Frink.

Website.

Phil Brennán

I've recently joined the mailing list, and now the Wiki, and have been messing around with various flavours of GNU Linux for a couple of years now, with varying degrees of success / failure. I tend to be sticking with Mandriva 2006.0 for now as I have found it the most painless to install and configure. Fedora Core 5 is nice and fast, but my level of Linux Admin is too low for now (mstab and stuff).

Matthew Brown

Hi, New to the group, I've been installing various distros for years, and am slowly migrating away from Windoz. Currently have 4 devices in the home running Linux, apart from the wife's laptop that really is a no go area! I live in West Parley and work for a Software Reseller in Poole Codestone as a business consultant. — Matthew Brown 2006/01/10 20:42

John Carlyle-Clarke

vspike.jpeg I've only attended one actual meeting but I've been reading the list for years and hanging out in IRC (as VSpike) a lot. I first installed Linux on a 486 in about '97 just for the hell of it, and never quite left it alone since. I made the switch full time at home (where I work most of the time) to Linux about 2 years ago and after a few months of pain, I started to love it. I love learning more and more about Linux and free software, and am trying to sneak it into my company everywhere (2 servers, 1 laptop and 1 NAS box so far!) I work for a company that does GPS tracking now, but have previously done software development for solder printing machines and worked in satellite communications.

Victor Churchill

I live in Bournemouth, have worked in computing all my professional life, first job was hand punching assembler onto cards for an IBM 360 mainframe many moons ago.

Worked as “Freelance” for last 15 years but the last 9.5 of those have been teleworking for the same London company so I have been just about a permie there then. Sadly that is just about to come to an end. I wish I could blame that on The Big Crunch but the company was ahead of that wave.

Used to use RH Linux on server & desktop systems at work and on a roomful of boxes at home sourced from auctions but nowadays I tend to use just the one Ubuntu workstation and a laptop which I eventually got Ubunto onto although it resisted (Panasonic touch screen Toughbook).

Main work areas: server admin & development (web, database, comms, infrastructure & integration), Perl with everything.

Most likely to find on desktop: 8 terminals, half running screen sessions; too many Firefox windows, and 4 Emacsen. Bit old school, perhaps. But retro is coming back in.

Terry Coles

terry.jpg I'm a retired engineering manager and consultant who spent most of his career (32 years of it anyway) at a company that was originally called Racal Instruments but ended up as Spherea after around 9 name changes and buyouts. I didn't use Linux at work but have used various 'alternative' operating systems for years; starting with Amiga OS in 1993ish and graduating to Linux around 2000. I live in Corfe Mullen.

I've included a snap of me so that you know what I look like at the Meetings. (I can never work out who everyone is, and I've been going for about 25 years :-) ).

Peter Collins

Also known as DracNoc (or Drac to my friends). I've been a Linux fan for a couple of years, sticking mostly to Ubuntu but I do like to play around with other distros in VM. I've become the ill-fated member of my family who ends up fixing everyone else's computers - most of the time resolving them by removing a certain pre-installed OS and switching them over to Linux. There's just one permanent computer at home, with several others coming and going as and when I can recycle old parts and make a working system. I won't include a pic, but here's a clue - long blonde hair, dazzling white teeth a golden tan…

… ah hell, who am I kidding - piercings, black t-shirts, heavy metal - My idea of fun is to see if the unlabeled red wire is still live by licking it.

I'm married, and we have a son who's nearly two years old (all offers considered or he goes on eBay before his third birthday). I mostly like to tinker with old computers and once installed WinXP on a 233Mhz PII with only 32Mb RAM and 2Gb drive - worst drinking game of my life.

Ralph Corderoy

“Unix/C programmer for over twenty years, lots of programming/assembly languages over that time, nowadays C, Python, and ARM. Performance, problem-solving, and bit-twiddling are particular interests.” — Google+.

Dave Crossland

dave_crossland.jpg I've been using Free Software since 1999 and in 2004 realised I value free software for freedom instead of just its powerful features and reliability. I grew up near Wimborne and do freelance design and technology consulting for homes and businesses. I am currently working on freeing fonts. I recommend Free Software whenever I can! :-)

Rio Cunliffe

I'm among the group's yonger linux users (at 15) but what does that matter? :-). i used linux on and off with windows for about 3 years and recently went all out 100% linux. I currently use ubuntu, but have used many a distro in the past. i enjoy taking things apart and hardware modding. i also like a bit of web design every now and then and also Animation in flash/hand-drawn/stop-motion. I do like a little programing and have been learning python :-). You will usualy find me on irc (under the name of RioCunliffe… Duhh…)

Chris Dennis

OK, I admit it, I live in Hampshire. But only a mile or so from Dorset, in Fordingbridge.

I run Fordingbridge Computer Services, which means I have to play with Windows to earn a living, but I use Linux when I can.

Hugh Frater

I've been using linux in some form since about 1997-98. I used to use slackware for many years but have now settled on Ubuntu.

I'm a failed Comsci grad who has now settled into engineering where I manage a small mail server and try and use open source software on windows where I can.

I'm obsessed with engineering/cars/metalwork and I'm trying to get a linux CNC machine built using EMC2 but progress is slow. I'm known as scm1hewf or Hugh on the IRC channel.

Sean Gibbins

:sean_foo_sml.jpg Another cross-border infiltrator from Hants, subscribed to both lists and mainly active on Hants, it must be said.

I use a mishmash of operating systems at home, including Ubuntu (desktop), Debian (server), WinXP Pro (desktop, but I didn't need to add that did I?), CentOS 4.4 (RHEL4 substitute, running on vmware). The rest of the family are resolutely WinXP, but all enjoy the benfits of the mail server which also hosts Gallery, eGroupware and some other bits and pieces. My daughter and I continue to make noises about a kick-ass Web site - maybe one for the darker nights (Autumn 2006 is nearly upon us as I write)

At work I support WebSphere, Weblogic and Tomcat (among other things) on a variety of platforms, including Wintel, Solaris, AIX and RHEL. Work are paying for me to complete my RHCE training, and I hope to be certified by 2007.

Other interests include music (QOTSA, Bevis Frond, System7, Grateful Dead, Jack Johnson, Neil Young, RHCP, The Beta Band, The Lucky Bishops to pull a few names off the mp3 player), reading (Sci-Fi, graphic novels [ok… comics]), movies (Sci-Fi, the odd sword flick, comedy, off-beat stuff), cycling (off-road) and Chinese Martial Art (Hsing-i, Bagua, Tai Chi). I also like to do a bit of walking, which is probably my best link to Dorset, as I am fond of stumbling around the Purbecks with my loser mates. Being doing that for about 20 years on and off and still couldn't tell you where I am at any point of the walk!

You're unlikely to see me at meetings on account of Wednesday being the night that I train in the martial arts mentioned above.

Just in case I do make it, here's me being a big kid at the Foo's earlier this year (2006):

Kim D. Giles

Mat Grove

Dave Hewins

David Hope

I'm a Linux user of about 8 years stuck working with mainly Microsoft technologies (though occasionally get involved with Linux and Solaris systems). You can find me in the #Dorset IRC channel on the Blizted network with the nick 'Dave'. I'm yet to go to a LUG meeting, though have been a member for about 6 years :-o

Laura Montgomery-Hurrell

Since I've only been using Linux for about 4 years, I guess I'm still a newbie. I've recently joined DLUG, after going to LUG Radio Live and getting all fired up about the FLOSS community. I'm very easy to spot at the pub meets – I'm the girl.

Dan Jones

img140.imageshack.us_img140_6805_deathgh9.jpgYes, you will usually find me wandering around the lug IRC channel in a daze as DEATH. I use kubuntu, debian, ipcop and a bit of freebsd on the side. I have hardware ranging from 386's up to core2duo, but nothing especially exotic.I do a bit of shell hosting on the side, but thats not epic at the moment as the server requires a UPS. Thats basicly me. Oh yeah, My Last.fm profile, and Facebook, if you like that kind of thing.

Glenn Korbey

I’ve been using Linux on and off since 1997 or 1998 I forget, but I’ve used computers in one form or another pretty much all my life. The first computer I actually owned myself was an old dead flesh ZX Spectrum 48k, which cost me £60 second hand when I was 10 or so (I’d saved up birthday and xmas money for 2 years for it!!) I was a great fan of the Amiga and AmigaDOS/Workbench and continued to use them for many years even after the death of Commodore and then Escom..in fact I think my old accelerated A1200 is still in my mum’s loft :D Eventually I switched to windows, going through the Dos/Win 3.1 days onwards up until Windows 7, though from 97/98 I also messed with Linux a lot too. As of 2008 I switched to Linux as my primary OS and only had a small Windows install for games, however even that is gone nowadays. My current preferred distribution is OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, which is a rolling release. I have also been toying with Linux Mint Debian Edition on my laptop, but so far it doesn’t offer me anything more than OpenSUSE Tumbleweed aside from a larger package repository. I'm on both DorsetLUG and HantsLUG as I am pretty much dead on the border.

—Updated 07 April 2012

Phil Lane

Hi all and I am new to the group. I am a UNIX administrator, having got into sys admin when at Racal Inst (with Terry Coles 1). The firm were good enough to buy us some Apollo Domain stations to run CAD & CAE on, and later we had SGI m/c's for the CAD & a Sun station for my Visula Schematics,PCB & ISQL. no-one new how to administer SunOS (yes, that far back), so I jumped in, took the right courses and have never looked back.

I've worked since for NEC (mobile telecomms), Cypress Semiconductor, Desktop Engineering & Data Robotics as an IT Systems Administrator specialising in CAD/CAE/PLM tools on various flavours of UNIX - Solaris, AIX, HP_UX and a little SGI-IRIX. I have done the whole IT thing with EMC & Netapps RAID, networking, Jukeboxes etc.

I now have my own company and am experimenting in energy related projects. Hope to be adding to the grid soon.

I am more hardware orientated and am not a programmer (Terry will verify that - lol) apart from keeping my HTML up. My interest in Linux is partly professional and partly to rid myself of microsoft (yay! I hear you all go). I do run Open Office on all of my platforms. I have 2 pc's at home and a laptop running Win variants. I also have 5 Sun boxes running Solaris and different Linuxes (Debian, + others I've tried with varying success). Other Interests are Internet Security/UNIX hardening. I have done some interesting work with SATAN which I can't publish here, but can whisper to you.

I run Oracle VM Virtualbox on my PC to try different Linux disty's - Mandriva, CentOS, UBUNTU, and am keen to have a base Linux m/c. I haven't decided which yet. Glad to be part of an interesting and local tech group :)

—Updated 15 June 2012

Peter Linehan

Have been using Linux for several years : various distros and now OpenSuSE 11.1 at home.

At work, 3 systems running Oracle Unbreakable Linux [aka RHEL 5 ] 24/7 systems (1 application server; 1 database and 1 DR ) - they run the company with about 1 Tbyte of database and just under 200 concurrent users and growing.

Background is from large mainframes to dos, then windows and *nix. I have been at this computer stuff a while, as the first machines I used had none of this new fangled operating system stuff - just a boot loader.

Neil Linington

Hi, I've been a member of the group for a few years now and I have been using Linux for about 9 years. I run a few Linux machines for both work and home. The company I work for Lucid IT only use Linux on its internal systems, which I installed and support. I have written a few intranets using LAMP for our helpdesk and CRM. I have also install the companys VOIP system running on Asterisk.

Brian Masterman

I've been using Linux since it was only available on floppies. Trained as a Solaris Administrator but always preferred Linux as my work platform. Re-training at the moment as a web developer and seeking work. Live in Corfe Mullen. Always encouraging victims of IT to switch to Linux. Looking forward to meet up with other members.

Andrew Montgomery-Hurrell

:andy.jpg Not much to say, I'm just an average computer geek with many eccentricities and strange medical afflictions. I love coding, electronics hacking, reading, writing and music. I just mill around in Poole and Bournemouth in Dorset, living out my life as a professional Ruby on Rails developer and web designer.

I'm generally known as darkliquid on the rare occasions I'm on IRC

Andrew Morgan

ASCII

Simon O'Riordan

Softee, likes Imaging, moved to permanent Ubuntu (10.04) after Vista decided to go British Leyland. Currently I keep a couple of virtual Windows machines in cages, like hostages in an alien warlord's camp. Simon O'Riordan

Dean Ramsden

John S. Robinson

Nicky Scopes

Hello, i joined this lug to get someone hands on knowledge from people who use linux to further my knowledge. I use various live distros but haven’t yet replaced vista on my laptop. I aim to work one day as an linux or unix administrator, i am unemployed at the moment. I have done quite a bit of I.T. training and passed several comptia exams, i have just passed LINUX+ and plan to aim for LPI level 1 and 2. So maybe i could use my basic knowledge to help solve some of your problems.

Si Smith

spssm.jpg Yo, I am new to the group but although originally a hardware (RF/Comms) engineer grew up on Unix and moved to Linux. Run a range of services mainly for home use. Particularly interested in messaging, secure web apps, directories and PKIs. Mainly play with Fedora Core derivatives although do play with some live distros such as Auditor. Have been known to do Perl/Java/C++/C to make things do what I want them to :-) Ask IT's Done

Christopher Smithies

I began my acquaintance with Unix in 1984/5 when I wrote some device drivers for use with SCO. I moved to Windows late in the cycle and never really took to it. Finally I migrated to GNU/Linux (with my wife as guinea pig!) in early 2008 and have been using stock Ubuntu ever since. Since my conversion I have taken ten others with me; none has complained. Much of my career was occupied with biometric software, in which area I hold a number of patents, drafting which has perforce become one of my sidelines.

Language-wise, I have used a great many but mostly C++ (since 1983!) and now PHP. Currently I administer three commercial web servers.

I play in a professional string quartet. This is what keeps me arguably sane.

Peter Washington

peter_washington.jpeg I consider myself an inexperienced Linux user although I've been dabbling on and off for well over 15 years. I've recently bitten the bullet and switched from Windoze to Ubuntu because I just got fed up with the general unreliability of the platform. Now I'm having problems with my dual core AMD 64 bit platform being unreliable under Gutsy Gibbon !!

I started my working life as an Electronic Engineer but I've actually been playing with software for almost 40 years, some 3 years more than Electronics. I'm now a full time Software Engineer but still dabble with Electronics as well. Ralph and I are running a couple of projects using PIC microcontrollers and we're looking for some help and advice with Linux based tools for these.

I'm afraid this picture was put up by Ralph without my knowledge, but I have to admit it's a fairly typical pose, so I feel obliged / forced to leave it alone.

Fred Williams

A member since near the end of 2010, a frequent breaker-of-systems by experimenting, and a KDE on Arch user. Fedora 10 was where I started, and got lost. I'm hard to shake off though, and Ubuntu kept my interest in Ubuntu. Since then I've gone through more Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Slackware, Wolvix and finally settled on Arch, because I don't have the patience for Gentoo. Which I see as Arch without the waiting. I learn by doing, which explains the breaking. I don't have an actual job in IT because of two things: lack of actual qualifications, and an allergy to paperwork. I'm known on the mailing lists as StarLion, and on the IRC channels as Gremnon. Bad habit, I know, but I'm a bit set in ways sometimes.

1)
hi Terry
members.txt · Last modified: 2018/09/25 16:09 by terry