Welcome to my blog \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
If it wasn’t already obvious my name is Adam Sweet, I’m 28 and I hail from Wolverhampton, UK. I’ve been meaning to set up a blog for a while now as I have a lot of stuff happening this year: I graduate (hopefully), my first graduate job (ditto), my project and so on. I’ll be making my first steps in the big, wide, graduate world, so here is the journal.<\/p>\n
So who the hell am I? Well, I’m a final year BSc Computer Science student at the University of Wolverhampton<\/a> but aside from that I’m also a musician. I used to play professionally in a signed band a few years back, but now I’m content to do it for fun.<\/p>\n My main interests are computers, girls and beer :). Computers are what I do. I’m not a coder, a web guy or any other kind of specialist, I’m a computer guy. Sure, my main interests here are networks and operating systems, particularly Linux<\/a> and I will make somebody a great Linux sysadmin one day (job offers to my email address drinky76 at yahoo dot com ;)), but I basically enjoy getting dirty with troubleshooting faulty hardware, installing Linux on anything that sits still long enough and networking it. I collect old computer hardware that people are throwing out because I feel sorry for it and I’m a hoarder…<\/p>\n I’m in the middle of my Computer Science Project right now. I’m creating a Debian<\/a> based SOHO Internet appliance from Open Source Software that will function as a webserver, file server, mail server with webmail front-end, DNS proxy, DHCP server and firewall, all configurable via a web interface. Similar pre-existing projects include Clark Connect<\/a>, SME Server<\/a>, Trustix<\/a>, Smoothwall<\/a> and IP Cop<\/a>. This project doesn’t have a name or a website yet, but its going pretty well and I aim to make the project available under the GPL. I can’t create a public website or make my work available until it is no longer an academic project. I don’t have any megalomaniac plans for my own distribution just yet ;).<\/p>\n My Linux distro of choice is Ubuntu<\/a> for desktops or Debian<\/a> for servers. I’m a modern Linux user in the sense that I only had my first computer 5 years ago and it had Windows 98SE on it (a painfully slow Cyrix 133MHz with 40MB RAM and a 512MB hard disk which my cousin built for me). I have no Unix heritage to speak of and I used Windows almost exclusively for some time, but found Linux purely by chance within a year of my first PC and became fascinated with it. It seemed so obscure and I’ve always supported the underdog, even though Linux isn’t any such thing these days.<\/p>\n My first distro was Mandrake 7.1 which ran like a pig on my aforementioned machine, though I had a 4GB disk by this time. I also became a member of Wolves LUG<\/a>. I used Mandrake 7.1 through 9.x for around 2 years until it’s bugginess finally annoyed the crap out of me and Aq’s<\/a> evangelisation (British spelling ;)) of Debian finally showed me the light. Since then I’ve learned a lot, you learn a lot more when you have to configure everything with config files and a text editor. I recently moved Ubuntu on my desktop and haven’t touched anything else since. I still don’t know how other distros live without apt and debconf.<\/p>\n Away from computers and Linux, music is my big thing. I play guitar but I’m a bass player by trade. My musical preferences are pretty eclectic and very British (whether this is a consequence of culture or taste I don’t know), I like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, The Who, The Stone Roses, The Sundays, Sugar and Bob Marley. Being into The Clash meant I listened to punk a lot, but also a lot of what we call(ed) Indie music in the UK. I won’t try to explain it for non-Brits, it’s steeped in British social idiosyncrasy.<\/p>\n As a person I’m a pragmatic realist. I enjoy having a lot of beers with my friends at the weekend, but I’m otherwise quite studious. I read a lot (mostly Linux documentation these days ;)) and enjoy good films, particularly foreign cinema. Politically, I’m a leftist-liberal according to The World’s Smallest Political Quiz<\/a>, which is pretty correct.<\/p>\n People might tell you all manner of things about me. I’m an arsehole. Possibly true, but thats just my sense of humour. I’m a grumpy fucker, also probably true but very rarely. I have no sexual morals at all. Most true of them all :D. I revel in the scandal of an illicit affair. Thats not to say I’m a cad, a player or whatever else you might call it, I enjoy people’s company and thats all. So long as nobody gets hurt or upset and you keep yourselves safe, I see no problem.<\/p>\n Oh, before I forget, go listen to LUG Radio<\/a>. Its a hilariously funny Linux Radio show recorded bi-weekly by several members of Wolves LUG. Prepare for a lot of swearing…<\/p>\n One last thing. Major thanks to Sparkes<\/a> for hosting my blog \ud83d\ude00 My eternal gratitude is yours.<\/p>\n Well for now, it’s nice to have you here and I hope you come back.<\/p>\n Take care,<\/p>\n Adam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to my blog \ud83d\ude42 If it wasn’t already obvious my name is Adam Sweet, I’m 28 and I hail from Wolverhampton, UK. I’ve been meaning to set up a blog for a while now as I have a lot … Continue reading