David Goodwin
I’m 40 something and live in Bromsgrove (UK).
I enjoy most forms of exercise, in particular hockey, running and cycling.
Job wise, I’m a software engineer / systems administrator – see Pale Purple , 29 degrees and Orlo
I have three children – Rowan, Anya and Ella.
The rest of this page is just a listing of what I’ve done in my life. Sometimes I update it, but don’t hold your breath.
Before 1992
I attended Presteigne Primary School…… I can’t think of much to say about this time of my life… I tended to play in mud and get quite dirty when not in school.
From 1992 to 1997
I attended boarding school (Christ College) in Brecon (South Wales, UK). While there I achieved three A grade A-levels in Chemistry, Maths and Biology along with an S level pass in Chemistry. Along with things like CCF Duke of Edinburgh etc.
September 1997
I started University in Aberystwyth, doing a degree in Agriculture and Business which I had chosen mostly because I didn’t, at that time, know what I wanted to do; and due to my background it was an easy step for me to make.
September 1998
Changed degree to Software Engineering (BEng).
August 2001 – Marriage
On the 4th of August 2001, I married Katherine (nee Pengelly) … in Aberystwyth’s Registrar Office.
July 2002 – Employment begins
July 1st marked the start of my employment “career”, working as a Research Associate for UWA.
My employment with UWA lasted until the end of May 2003 when my contract ran out, and Katherine and I decided to move to Birmingham.
While working for UWA I created a PHP Bioinformatics web application as well as helping develop an online virtual learning environment (see here) using J2EE, SQL and various other bits and pieces which formed the basis of a spin out company from the University which we were involved with until approx June 2003.
July 2002 – Openminds
I worked for Openminds from July 2003 to the end of September 2004, where I acted as a Technical consultant for High Availability solutions (laymans terms: if one computer dies, another takes over from it).
I gained an indepth knowledge of SteelEye LifeKeeper, DRBD, HeartBeat and various enterprise class distributions of Linux. I revamped their website, setup Google adwords for the site (which became the primary channel for sales), gave a few training courses on Linux (systems administration, apache, tomcat etc) and gained LPI LPIC level 1 certification.
October 2004 – January 2006 : Clockwork Software Systems
I moved to work with Clockwork Software with the intention of doing more software development, broaden my horizons and be more involved with Linux and Open Source in general.
While working for Clockwork I was responsible for general systems administration (Linux), deployment of a Linux desktop to a nationwide customer (300 distributed+ PCs), support, documentation, quoting, website redesign, PHP training and programming (php, python, perl, shell)
January 2006 – December 2006
Katherine had previously setup Pale Purple Ltd and had gradually built up a customer base. I joined in January 2006 after running out of evening/weekend time.
Pale Purple quickly grew and moved offices a few times.
January 2008
Rowan was born (20th Jan).
March 2010
Katherine and I separate…
April 2010
Completed my first marathon (Shakespeare – Stratford Marathon in 3 hours 35 minutes… )
June 2010
Anya was born – see here
February 2014
Moved house. This might remind me when it happened when I’m next asked to fill in a form asking how long I’ve lived here.
December 2014
I became tired of running my own business (managing people, sales/marketing etc) so wound down Pale Purple.
Moved to work full time for 29degrees/Grafenia/Printing.com, producing their w3pcloud hosting environment (LXC containers, AWS) along with bespoke PHP development for internal projects.
May 2015
Ella born 1st May 2015.
April 2016
Started working at Orlo, as a backend PHP developer with perhaps a little DevOps and developer management mixed in.
I’ve helped scale the platform, maintain the software (e.g. static analysis, unit tests, new features), moved our hosting from Rackspace to AWS, introduced Kubernetes (internal microservices) and a bit more.
September 2019
Welcome Pickle! Woof woof!
November 2021
Move house again (this one a garden big enough for the dog, and the children get their own bedrooms). I no longer have a garden office/shed thing to work from.
I do at least get a faster internet (thanks BT fibre)
November 2022
Drop Twitter?
Think of Christmas?
Buy fancy Christmas tree lights
Moan about the weather / price of gas / price of electricity / price of anything …
Exercise stuff
I used to enjoy running, but find I struggle to find the time for it (and the dog doesn’t seem to like being dragged along by me). So at the moment Pickle and I walk around most of Bromsgrove most days.
Previous records / maps etc may be viewable at (if these links still work?)
FavoriteRun and MapOMeter or ZombiesRunGame
Hello I see your guide about postfixadmin, I have a server with centos on wich I have successful installed 4 domains, I installed webmin, dovecot, postfix and postfixadmin correctly, now I don’t understand how to configure in way to have mails for any domains.
Please can you do this for me?
I would offer to you at least 2 pizzas or say to me how much, but please would you help me?
I am italian, I understand english.
Thanks in advance
bye
giulia
I’m trying to switch over to Ubuntu. I was working with it from a usb memory stick and it operated without a hitch. It seemed like time to install and begin to rely on it more and more weening off of Microsoft windows. When installed, however, the wifi stopped working?! It was fine from the memory stick, but from the install. Apparently, the required firmware did not transfer over. Can you help? I’m living in Birmingham and would like to resolve this in a reasonably prompt manner.
Thanks in advance for your time and consideration,
JP
Hi im a linux enthusiast living in the same area as you. I finished my City & Guilds IT system support course in 09 but have failed to find employment. Ever since.I first tried Linux years ago, I realised I wanted to learn more about it and work with it.
Any advice about what I’d have to do in order to get gain employment and/or get qualified in this field would be much appreciated. My email address is Dpatten91@gmail.com
Dexter – try looking for an apprenticeship – you get experience (which is probably the main thing you’re lacking to help you land a job) and more training.
Its linux based training im after. I do have options but due to circumstances I was unable to take GCSEs and despite having done 2 IT based courses that are levels 2 and 3 (above GCSE level) I am kicked to the curb by many apprenticeship and job vacancies during the application round.
Hi,
I checked your article about python and content_filter but I’m getting some errors on it:
ERROR Error resending mail name ‘Popen’ is not defined — stdout:, stderr:, retval: 0
Can you please help me to check it?
Thanks!