[TriLUG] SC Nomination: Joel Ebel

[Joel Ebel]

I've accepted Aaron's nomination of me for the TriLUG steering 
committee.  I suppose I should write something to introduce myself to 
everyone.

I'm the system administrator for NC State University Student Media, 
where I maintain 6 Linux servers, and about 40 Mac and PC workstations. 
  I've also set up a Linux workstation as a demonstration of open source 
capabilities, but as of yet, it hasn't caught on much.  I began with 
Linux in 1996 or 7, when Jeremy Portzer got a bunch of Red Hat CDs for a 
few friends at the North Carolina School of Science and Math.  I later 
installed Slackware on a 486 to play around with Linux as a server. 
That proved useful when I lived in an apartment and needed to share an 
internet connection.  Since then I've always run my own Slackware server 
at my place of residence.  It's given me a solid understanding of the 
internals of Linux.

As a student at NCSU I worked as a Network Specialist for ResNet, 
installing, configuring, and supporting the networks in the NC State 
residence halls.  Though we didn't get many Linux support calls, I was 
the primary contact for Linux support.  As I troubleshooted problems on 
Windows PCs, I found myself limited by the tools available in Windows, 
and searched for ways to get a complete set of Linux tools at my 
disposal for troubleshooting.  Thus I created RUNT, which I presented on 
at last November's TriLUG meeting.  For those who missed it, it is 
Slackware installed and configured to boot off of a USB pen drive.  RUNT 
has been quite popular and has taught me even more about Linux.

I continue to be a big Slackware fan, and you'll see me representing it 
at the May meeting, but as a hobby, I try to keep up with all the major 
distributions.  I enjoy trying out new distributions as they become 
available and seeing what features each has to offer.

Particular areas of interest related to Linux are USB booting (of 
course), audio streaming (I'm a developer of darkice), Jabber/XMPP 
messaging, VOIP with Asterisk, Tivo hacking and related PVR stuff, home 
automation, and IR reception/transmission (used mostly for automatic 
rotation of my antenna for Tivo reception).  I also have a good bit of 
experience with many of the common services Linux can offer, such as 
apache, bind, sendmail, mailman etc.

Since Aaron just nominated me, I haven't had much time to consider what 
goals I might have for TriLUG, so I'd like to keep that mostly dynamic. 
  but some things certainly come to mind.

1.  I definitely intend to help out and do my part with whatever tasks 
need to be done.  I am always eager to do behind the scenes work to make 
meetings and events run more smoothly.  I'll do whatever I can to make 
this happen, and provide suggestions when I see an opportunity to make a 
task more efficient.

2.  I'd like to work toward improving the services TriLUG offers to its 
members.  This applies to both quality and awareness.  There's a good 
chance that some of the services currently being offered could be 
improved, and others perhaps could be added.  I'd like to work with the 
TriLUG members and the steering committee to determine how we can 
improve these service that TriLUG offers.  I'd also like to improve 
awareness by keeping the member FAQ up to date about current services, 
and perhaps make it more visible so members are more aware of it.  I 
believe TriLUG should be at the forefront of technology related to 
Linux, and we should be using our position as a significant Linux user 
group to equip our members with knowledge of these technologies.  Making 
them available for members to use seems like a great way to do this.  My 
particular interests are, as mentioned, Jabber and VOIP, and I'd love to 
increase awareness of these technologies, and there may be others that 
members would like to see as well.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to serving you all as a 
member of your steering committee.

Joel Ebel

Aaron S. Joyner wrote:
> I'd like to take a moment to nominate Joel Ebel for the upcoming 
> Steering Committee elections.  He's a very sharp and helpful guy, who 
> you may remember from his November presentation on RUNT (the USB-key 
> distribution he maintains).  He's recently been a frequent poster to the 
> list, and I think would be a helpful addition to the Steering 
> Committee.  Keep your eyes out for him at the upcoming meeting, where he 
> will be representing Slackware at the Distribution Roundtable.
> 
> Aaron S. Joyner
> System Administrator
> TriLUG Steering Committee