billwolfe

Profile

About Me

I am interested in

Exploring the commercial possibilities of OSS or FLOSS or whatever you want to call this incredible phenomenon of our time.

I keep finding myself drawn to articles about OSS business models and the latest enterprise quality project.

My Systems

I'm settling on Debian and Kubuntu. I've dabbled with several of the Debian derived LiveCD's, and had a SuSE box for a while.

My Current Project is

Converting my Kids to Linux, I got very keen on the idea of a [LTSP] terminal server on Debian + variants.

But I hit a stumbling block with booting over wifi cards :-( Think I'm over that now.

Next one to crack is that challenge of using the resources of the client PC; sound, disk space, and maybe have the biggest ap installed locally on each PC.

Then I need to get the ATI All-In-Wonder TV-graphics card to run with the Gatos drivers. Ho hum back to compiling code. Otherwise my kids will grow up believing that Linux is no fun because it stopped them playing the PS2 games console like they currently do with a Windows TV tuner.

Future Projects

I'd like to have a go at some CMS systems.

My Background

I grew up in the country. My father worked as a researcher at what became Cranfield Institute near Milton Keynes. He applied Mechanical Engineering to Agriculture.

I studied sciences; a whole mix of life sciences + electronics, and believed I wanted to work in research because it would be like they show in a Horizon TV program. But it wasn't nearly so interesting when I got there. I've been searching for something fun ever since.

I also spent some time working in large hospitals in the medical equipment department. We handled anything with a plug or battery. Purchase, maintenance, training nurses - That was fun. It was also a great way to tour the Highlands of Scotland!

I have worked most of my ICT career in the world of technology applied to business systems, usually in supplier companies. ICL Retail, ICL OfficePower in Gov.UK, Racal (Messaging systems Email, EDI), Sterling Commerce (EDI, XML, Web) until the towers came down, then a start-up, then Savi Technology (RFID), Axway (go look at the website).

I would describe myself as an engineer. But I've worked in many roles across the range from development through implementation + customising packaged solutions and ongoing support and customer service + sales. But now I find you need to be very flexible and do a bit of everything in smaller companies these days.

My Kids + their schools tend to fill most of my spare time, but I still get stuck into tech based projects in the winter. In summer I'm often down the allotment, or up a ladder fixing the house up.

Favourite Linux distribution

Debian and Kubuntu

History

Blog

View recent blog entries

Member for

15 years 2 months