All About Me

(Zozo is my nickname) Image by Dan Brusca

About Me!

Warning: This page contains a lot of ranting and raving, none of which is ordered or structered in any way, not even in time order. When i said after this i did that, it means more thas likley I did that before this. *sigh*

Another Warning: This was written about 3 years ago, and i've not really updated it ... so things are probably a bit wrong. Changes i've made since then are striked out

Blah

What could you possibly want to know about me? More than likly you stumbled across this place with no idea who I am, and probably don't care less! Still, It's just about become standard for people to put a bit about themself on their website, even though this one isn't really a personal one, more a mix of everything i need to put somewhere.

Let's get one thing straight first: My spelling is very good. It's just my typing isn't. I spend far too long in front of computers, and unfortunatly the english language doesn't have something like "use strict;" in perl. Maybe it's a good thing, as every single text i have ever written would refuse to run.

I'm heavily a Linux and Open Source advocate. Im mad for linux, If i could open source myself I would. Saying that, I understand businesses that can't open source projects, and have worked on a number of non open source peojects - purely for monitary reasons. If things were my way, Im open source everyhting I ever did - but cant :(

Straight to the point: I'm 19 21 years old, though i often believe im late 30's 40's. I'm living in Plymouth, (Devon, UK) right now, though i'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be here. I am currently living in Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK. I'm originaly from Plymouth, and moved to Greece when I was young. I started working there at a young ago, I won't disclose how young, as It's proabably illegal. First in a hotel, then a bar, then a club. I went fishing sometimes with My father, who is a commerical Fisherman.

Computers

During all this time, I was learning how to use computers. When i was 7, I recivied a Commodore 64 for my birthday. I learnt BASIC, as did everyone back then. Then I was given a Zennith PC, with DOS. Thinking back, I couldn't really do anyhting with it, but I learn DOS inside out. That proved usefull. Honest. Then came the P90, with a whole 16MB of RAM and a 1GIG hard disk. Friends were envious, and Windows 3.11 loaded up in all of about 15 seconds. I learnt Windows 3.11 inside out. Then the company I bought the computer with sent me Win95. I hated it at first, and moved back to windows 3.11. Then I needed it for something (what, i cannot remember) and ended up using it. I think i stayed with it all the way then, until i made an interesting discovery: Linux. For the first time ever, I could learn exactly how It worked. I installed it, though it took me about 30 minutes just to learn to log on. That was Redhat 5.1, it was brand new, so I guess it was back in 1997, maybe 98.

All the below is very old now, and probably mostly irrelivant

Work

a lot has happened so quickly in the last few 6 years - I moved to London 3 5 years ago, and started working for as Lead Systems Administrator for Propertyfinder. I wrote the search engine for them, and played with load balancing. Did some cool stuff, learnt more C, and had a great time working for a company where I really made a difference. I was under a lot of pressure most of the time, working 16 hour days, 7 day weeks, as i was the only systems administrator (and then linux programmer too) there. I did it out of choice - I could have worked my normal 9-5 hours, 5 days a week, and insisted they got another linux person (which they did in the end). But I didn't. In a way I burnt myself out in that time; I wasn't eating properly, and living of the nice healthy diet of Coffee and Ciggarettes, and Burger King daily. I started to feel the stress in February when I got back together with my ex-girlfriend, and I was visiting her in Germany most weekends.

I March, 2001 I resigned, and spent my last week not doing much, which felt weired. I moved to Swindon where I started Consultaing for a number of different Companies, but relised, although I was making *lots* of money it's not what I wanted to do - I was moving from one place to another, staying in places only for a few days, sometime weeks at a time. I made friends, the left - I really didn't like it. I then started working on personal projects that took a long time, but meant I could work from home, work nights, sleep on the keyboard, and not go out much. I wrote a number of Security, ISP and general Linux systems, and a few things for myself. I learnt the Linux kernel inside out, then started on Python. Things started to become too easy - I needed a challenge, instead of just writting things where I could almost run on autopilet. I started on a number of bigger projects, that interested me. One is a staefull inspection load balancable firewall, that really kicks arse - I'm still working on that now. Then there is TRII, a talker that is based on PG+, but moved it to an SQL backend, and only have a bit left untill its all my code. There is a linux kernel load balancing module that im writting too, but that i still in early developemnt. I've hacked a lot with netfilter, and know the thign inside out - whether that is a good or bad thing, im still yet to see. It's certianly given me nightmates more than once.

Erk

I've just wrriten all of that last paragraph, and realise it probably doesn't make much sense at all. I just started typing, and it all came out. Sorry. It's missing a lot, it's nowhere near gives a picture of me, just the stuff that is on my mind at the moment. I which I knew what I wanted, what I should do - Nothing is impossible, just i don't know where to direct the knowlege i have - Security? Networks? Load Balancing? ISP's? At the moment im mixing them all up and not comming up with much. Just a product here, a piece of software there, a Server here, a Server there. there is a spre rack in our suite in telehouse, maybe i should convert it into my bedroom and veg out there while... I have a fair few things in my TODO file, write a FTP server, a POP server, some cool kernel module, and other stuff - but it all seems so irrelivant right now, and i dont know why. It scares me. Maybe I should go and get a job wor king for a big coperate comapny, who will kick me into shape, and think coperatly. But thats not that I want. What do I want?

Well, I've touched the basics of me, you've had a few small peices of my mind, and you probly want to stay far away from me now. Im not that bad - I do have a social life too, I have friends here in plymouth, and i think i am relitavly happy. Im staying with my parents untill I can find a house, which is proving rather difficult unless you want to live in some grungy student accomodation - the good houses seem to go before I even have a chance to look at them.

I have lots of software that i have written, all over the place. One day i will stick it all in one place, which is what CrazyGreek was supposed to be, but i never got around to it - It just has the current bits and pices i am working on. If anyone has anyhting interesting that they want written, don't mind GPL'ing it - then I may be interested - lemme know. If anyone fancies taking one greek and sorting him out so he makes sense, lemme know too :)

Ohh, I have to stick this bit in here: I'm a consultant, avalible within a month normaly, anywhere in the world. I specialise in Linux, Load Balancing, Netowrking, Routing, Linux Security, MySQL, C, Perl, and working with ISP's in both dial up, web hosting, and other such. If it involves Linux, its interesting, and will need to use my brain, then I'm always interested. I also lend myself to any projects that are for a good cause, or are open source and look interesting.

Friends

I have a number of friends who really deserve a mention here, as they are a big part in my life. Without them I don't think i'd be around today - I'd probably have got run over by a bus, or cooked myself while trying to make dinner. They're the most important part of me, and don't think I'd be where I am today without them. Benc, PoBK, Yvonne, Mike, Dan, Neill, Ian

Mooooo

Moo. What exactly is a mooo? well you know - the noise a cow makes! I don't know why, but I started moooing at a very young age. Infact my mum told me I started doing it even before I was talking. These days, when I call someone they answer with "mooooooooooo" rather than hello. Scarry. I Know. they really must think i'm weired.

Music!

Well, here is some of my favourite music at the moment: 

+------+-------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
|  ID  | Score | Artist                | Title                 | Genre     |
+------+-------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| 2306 |    9  | Faith No More         | Take This Bottle      | Rock      |
| 4999 |    9  | Alanis Morissette     | Unsent                | Unknown   |
|  426 |    9  | D'Agostino, Gigi      | l'Amour Toujours (Dan |           |
| 2130 |    9  | Counting Crows        | Sullivan Street       | Blues     |
| 3801 |    9  | Shakira               | Underneath Your Cloth | Unknown   |
|  628 |    8  | Rollergirl            | Dear Jessie           |           |
| 4845 |    8  | Jean Michel Jarre     | Diva                  | Unknown   |
| 5072 |    8  | Annie Lennox          | Love Song For A Vampi | Unknown   |
| 2322 |    7  | Apoptygma Berzerk     | KS (Victoria Mix by V | Electroni |
| 1014 |    7  | Air                   | How Does It Make You  | Other     |
| 4548 |    7  | Nickelback            | How You Remind Me     | Unknown   |
|  536 |    7  | Orbital               | Halcyon               |           |
+------+-------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------+

Books!

I read a fair bit. Some of my favourite books that spring to mind are:

  • 1984 - George Orwell
  • Lord of the flies (not lord of the rings!) - William Golding
  • The pillars of the earth - Ken Follet
  • The black book - Orhan Pamuk

A lot lot more

There is a lot more, that I will not bore you with. I am always connected to TR3 when I am online. Pop in, and say Hi, i'm Zozo!. I'm on jabber as theo@jabber.crazygreek.co.uk.