Curriculum vitae

Projects

I am author and maintainer of Lino and its predecessor TIM, two frameworks for developing customized database applications. Our customers are mostly located in Belgium. All my work is released as free software, I am a fervent defender of the free open-source software philosophy.

Other projects:

Work experience

From-until

Employer

Responsibilities

09/1990 - 01/1992

Siemens Software Center Liège

Programmer / Source code maintenance. BS/2000 & UNIX

03/1992 - 08/2001

PAC Systems PGmbH (now AbAKUS)

Software Developer / Analysis, Programming, Customer Projects, User Training, Research

since 11/2001

Rumma & Ko OÜ, Tallinn / Vigala

Independant Software Developer and Project Manager. Software maintenance. Research, Analysis, Programming, Customer support.

Scholar education

From-until

School

Studies

1974 - 1986

Collège Patronné (Eupen, BE)

Basic School

1986 - 1988

University Notre-Dame de la Paix (Namur, BE)

Biology

1988-1990

Institut Supérieur St-Laurent (Liège, BE)

Analyst/Programmer

Language skills

  • German : native language

  • French : native language

  • English : quite well

  • Estonian : saan hakkama küll

  • Dutch : able to speak and understand

Computer skills

  • Programming languages: Python, Javascript, Java, bash.

  • I have also worked in PHP, C++, Clipper, VisualBasic.

  • Application software: LibreOffice, Thunderbird, GIMP

  • Operating Systems: Ubuntu, Debian

  • Databases: MySQL, SQLite, PostGreSQL, dBase, Clipper, …

  • Open Source development tools: Git, Mercurial, SVN, Trac

  • Open standards: SQL, HTML, XML, …

  • Text processing: REstructuredText, Sphinx, LaTeX, Lilypond, …

Personal preferences

  • I prefer using Free Software whenever possible and encourage people around me to do the same.

  • I prefer getting complete understanding of problems over finding quick solutions.

  • I prefer using my creativity over copying solutions of other people.

  • I am more fascinated by humans than by computers: how they learn, how they organize themselves. I enjoy communicating with end-users in order to optimize their work methods.

  • I prefer doing the first 20% of a job which return 80% of the final result.

  • I haven’t watched television other than occasionally since about 1990.

Hobbies

  • I enjoy singing alone and with others. I have a more than average musical education but did never consider becoming a professional.

  • I sporadically work for Wikipedia, mostly in Estonian because I live there, sometimes in German because that’s my mother language.

  • I was a motivated Scout leader between September 1986 and July 1994. After these 8 years I continued during several years to organize trainings for young scout leaders. The FSC honored my work by assigning me the Wood Badge award.

Personal views

  • I grew up in a catholic family, and after moving to Vigala engaged in the local lutheran church community. My faith has been influenced by the spirituality of the Taizé community. I classify myself as a Christian (but that’s a big label).

  • The politicalcompass.org website classified me as Economically rather Left and Socially moderatedly Libertarian. I believe that finding ways for global sustainable development is more important than keeping the consumer society running. If given the choice between an economic crisis and a climate catastrophe, I’d chose the former. We need new sociological methods in order to rule this world. Since September 2021 I am member of the social-democrat party of Estonia.