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Technology.

A life history.

This is the story of Russell and technology .

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I have been learning about Technology since I was a child.

Ever since, I've been working to better myself and be helpful for everyone.

Couple walking down a street.
Russell and Curtis in Istanbul Here’s how I got started…

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Technology

Linux

I have been using and administering various Linux based computers at both home and work for over 15 years. Distributions I have used include RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Slackware, Linux From Scratch and Debian, which is my distribution of choice.

My POSIX career started with The Mailing House where I learnt to use SunOS 4.1.3 (a.k.a Solaris 1.0) to interface with a FoxBASE+ database. As I introduced to a true multi-user Operating System, I could see the benefits of learning such a system to use in my personal life as well.

After getting married and moving to Canberra, I have continued to look for opportunities to utilise and improve my Linux skills.

Windows

As the defacto standard of computers from the late 1980’s through to the present, Microsoft Windows has always had a presence in both my home ane work use of computers. Although not my preference, I acknowledge that Windows has it’s place in the world of technology, even where it does not lend itself to my preferences.

This has resulted in my learning and understanding of Microsoft products, including Windows itself and the Microsoft Office suite of products like Word and Excel. I have trained myself to be not just competent in the usage of these products, but to be advanced in the usage of the products where possible. (to be completed)

Programming

I have had an interest in programming ever since I started using computers when I was around 8 years old. We owned a Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer for which we acquired a number of BASIC programming books. While this gave me some very fundamentals about programming, it wasn’t until I was in my senior years at High School when I really started to get involved with IT courses, when our year was offered the inaugural Computer Studies course to study for our Higher School Certificate.

Following completion of High School, I enrolled in a TAFE course which included PASCAL programming. (to be completed)

Web Development

I’ve had a vague interest in HTML and web development for many years, after originally learning about coding web pages way back in the early ’90s. Although not doing much about this over the years, I could always understand basic HTML and CSS coding.

Recently I looked at the Udemy course Git a Web Development, considering how I could sell this to Curtis as an interesting option. I then went through the whole course, and have now completed the course - and made these pages.

Version Control

During my time at Geoscience Australia (GA) and MediaWare Interational, I came to understand how important Version Control is for Software Development. At GA, I was introduced to CVS as our basic VCS and this was used reasonably well by the development and administration teams. It was clear when Subversion (SVN) was introduced to other sections of GA that CVS has some fundamental (flaws - not the word that I want, it is missing some features that make it not as good) and SVN would be a better option for the code. With some new developers coming into the team, a move from the CVS codebase to SVN was discussed, and started to become used for the code.

Mediaware, being a true Software Development environment, was utilising SVN for the repository for the codebase. This included using branches and tags for all components of development, and as such was embedded into the culture of the development and administration teams. This resulted in learning how to utilise SVN for a number of day-to-day tasks, and made my workflow be more organised.

After some consideration, Mediaware decided to change from a Waterfall method of development to Agile. As a part of the review of Mediaware processes, it was agreed that SVN should be changed to GIT for version control, as components of the Continuous Development pipeline could leverage Git in a more sane manner. This resulted in

System Admiminstration

Stuff here about sysadmin roles and processes

Customer Service

Stuff about customer service roles, specifically starting with the Mediaware Customer Service Engineering role that kicked off the whole of that part of my employment...

General Administration

This is to include what I have been doing at various places, from FACSIA days back in the early 2000's, through to the latest role with Defence, where I was doing reporting via Excel and Access for the bosses.

Other components of technology life

Image Manipulation

I've always had a slight interest in photography and drawing, but I know my limitations - I'm not that good at artwork in general. Design, drawing, graphics - they are all fun, but I find them tedious and difficult at best. However.

I'm generally a Linux user as much as I can, excluding my laptop(s). This is a historical thing, and also as I usually have to work with other people in the Windows world - but I do try and use FOSS as much as possible. Thus, working with imagery I use GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program. You will find that all of the imagery on my website has been generated using either photos I have manipulate or created myself (usually inspired by things I've seen on the net or otherwise) so this is a slightly newer thing for me. And not something that I will be specialising in.