.: www.nilsson-online.net :.

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:27:15 +0200 (@977)



.: about me \| CV (SV Only) :.

Name Rikard Nilsson
Date of Birth March 21st, 1977
Residence Gothenburg, Sweden
Place of Birth Gothenburg, Sweden
Profession Self-educated computer/network technician
Interests Computer & Network technology. Web programming, html, xhtml, xml, php, mysql. Online multi player, Strategy, Tycoon & Management games. Flight simulators (Mostly Helo-sims).
E-Mail rikard (at) nilsson-online.net

Well, I'm sure there's a lot of uninteresting things to know about me, and I'm just going mention a few here.
I'm a practical guy, i like to create and make solutions that are simple, yet effective. Often while solving a very specific problem, more problems occur that might need to be looked from at a different angle to be solved.
The best way to find this angle, is to talk to others with similar problems, to search for information on the internet or in books. Most of the time that answer just sit there, waiting for you to find it.

This is very much true in the world of computers, where a wide area of different users try to abuse the system in ways it wasn't designed to do, this is where we, the technicians come into play...
There is often only 2 solutions to this: One is telling the user that "It's just not possible." or "We will try to solve this in the best possible way." and i personally like the latter best as it keeps your mind working, learning new things, looking on a problem in more dimensions.

I've got access to my first computer about 15 years ago, i believe it was a C64, with a stunning cassette capability of storing so much games and data it was just incredible.
I also remember the first basic program i wrote, the classic "Hello World!".

It was so fascinating that you could write a line like "10 ECHO HELLO WORLD!" could actually get the computer to talk to you.
As time went by, more advanced models came along, and the awesome power of a 80286, with 640 kilobyte of working memory, 384 kilobyte expanded memory bank and a stunning 20 megabyte of hard-drive storage. Those where the days.

I was about thirteen years old then, and my interest was not only with computers, but also mechanics, electronics, garden landscaping, carpentry, interior decoration among other hobbies.

Needless to say, a more multitude of knowledge grown in many areas and scripting with batch-files & QBasic was the way to do things now. Not long after, a black and white Windows 2.0 entered the desktops, with a more powerful and a whole new way of working with the computer and programs.

A few more years went by, and more interest in engines arise, as with cars and i helped build & the interior of the basement in our house, which i moved into once completed a few month later. I had my own workshop with tools and experiments, i also build my first coaxial-network between my 486 & P133, playing doom, Duke Nukem and other multi player games with my friends.
It was about now that i first got experience with Linux, it was the SuSE Linux version 5.3 at the time, of which i had a dual-boot machine with windows 95 at the time.

I became increasingly interested in networking and security, as well as trying to set up a home-gateway with my 486. I even had Apache and wu-ftp on the gateway, and this is where my programming started.
It was under a X-windows with Window Manager as i first begun with QT, a graphical interface-library for X-Windows & Win32. Not very much came of the C++ programming, but rather perl developed into my favourite language for programming, and i had now moved from the QT & x-windows environment, and into the world wide web.

My first CGI program did basically what my first QBasic program did, print "Hello World!". But this time it was on the www. It was in the beginning when the internet wasn't in every ones home. Glorious days of the 28.800bps modems. It was so incredibly fast, one couldn't imagine that now, 6 years later, almost everyone takes internet for granted, broadband being built into new houses, everyone is slowly getting connected.

Since about two years back, I've been programming for the web, using MySQL as a database of choice, and PHP as favourite language. Just recently starting to dig deeper into XML.
On the computer side, I've got 2 NetBSD servers, which are prepped with Apache, mysql, php, perl, xml and about everything i find interesting in security or surveillance. More about this in the Unix-section when i take the time to complete it.

I realize that this is pretty much a crash-course summarize of my technical interest.
I can assure you all that i do spend time with my friends & family, go to cinema, watch TV & movies and pretty much all the other social stuff that you do...

Rikard Nilsson - A (Short) Story of my past...