I was born in Båstad in the south of Sweden in 1970 by a Swedish father and a Scottish mother. Most of my summers were spent in Scotland visiting my grandmother and aunt. This, and my mother speaking English to me, meant I became bilingual and fluent in both Swedish and English. Five years have also been spent studying German - a language I understand and might be able to speak again with some practice.
I now live in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, but I have also lived in the towns Halmstad, Växjö, Eskilstuna, and Västerås. While working for Mälardalen University (1999), I bought a house in Eskilstuna, which I sold in 2006.
My interest for computers started when my childhood friend lured me to start, what was to become, one of Sweden's largest BBS:es (multiple phone lines, computers, CD-ROM switchers, etc.). Shortly after that I bought my own computer, a computer I've extended, and replaced, quite a few times. When I had enough hardware I built my own network at home to help me learn more about computers and networking.
I like computers (and other electronic things) and solving computer-related problems as it requires me to learn new things all the time. And helping others, seeing them smile when the understand or things work, is gratifying for me.
Compulsory school in Sweden is (or was when I went to school) nine years, preparing you for 'optional' (upper) secondary school (three to five years), to be followed by studies at University.
| 1986-89 | Upper secondary school with specialisation in structural engineering (sv. byggteknik), Laholm/Halmstad |
| 1992-94 | Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, and Information Systems at Växjö University |
| 1995-96 | Information Systems, and Computer Science at Mälardalen University |
| 2000/02 | Information Systems at Örebro University |
| 2008-09 | Commercial law, computer science, and Information Systems at Mälardalen University, Mid Sweden University, and Umeå University |
My main studies at secondary school were about engineering,
but also included English, German, and other non-engineering subjects.
The last year I specialised in structural engineering (house building).
After working a couple of years (see below) I went on to University
studying computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, and
information systems. After finishing my bachelor thesis in
information systems, and started working, I kept on studying
to expand my knowledge, mainly in information systems. (My employers
have been nice enough to spend money on courses in handling customers
and computer technologies - like Novell NetWare).
During my studies I have come in contact with programming languages like Ada, Pascal, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Prolog, C/C++, Visual Basic (5/6), Java, and assembler (Motorola 68000). Databases (or rather DBMS:s) I have used are Paradox, Access (Jet), Oracle (including PL/SQL) and MySQL. The programming has been done on different platforms (PC, Mac, and UNIX computers) using different operating systems (DOS, Windows, OS/2, MacOS, Linux, and UNIX).
| 1989-91 | Administrator for Fältbiologerna (a youth organisation for field biology), Halmstad |
| 1990-93 | Grounds keeper, receptionist, and more at KronoCamping Båstad/Torekov (seasonal) |
| 1991-92 | Military service at weather service, Ängelholm |
| 1994 | Sales, distribution, and support of CD-ROM and multimedia products, Buller Data AB, Båstad |
| 1995 | Application developer, Medicinsk Teknik, Eskilstuna (hospital) |
| 1996-2006 | Systems administrator, lecturer, and student career counsellor at School of Business, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna/Västerås |
| 2007 (Sept-Dec) | Lecturer, and student career counsellor at School of Business, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna/Västerås |
| 2008 (Jan-Sept) | Student career counsellor at School of Sustainable Development of Technology and Society, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna/Västerås |
| 2008 (Sept) - | Systems Administrator and Developer, Ecolabelling Sweden (Miljömärkning Sverige AB, formerly SIS Ecolabelling AB), Stockholm |
As administrator for the Fieldbiologists (Fältbiologerna) I ran the district office where I answered the phone, arranged courses (booking halls and the like), spoke at schools about the organisation, and more. This was partly voluntary work (i.e. badly paid) and only during school year. The rest of the year I worked for the camping site KronoCamping Båstad/Torekov as a 'handy man', i.e. doing what needed to be done. (DomänTurist has since sold most of it's camping sites and other vacation resorts.)
Military service is (was?) compulsory and I spent 341 days looking at the weather, i.e. reporting it to the air traffic controllers and Swedish weather service (SMHI). During my service I managed to keep on working hours at the camp site.
In a break in University studies I worked for a small company, Buller Data AB, selling CD-ROM and multimedia products (which were news in 1994). Being a small company (at most 4 employees) one took part in most of the running of the business. This included sales as well as distribution (packaging) and customer support for sold products. (The company, and the domain Sverige.net, has since been sold.)
During my lecturing at university I have taught in programming languages like Visual Basic (6), Visual C++, Smalltalk, Java, and C# using DMBS like Access (Jet), Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL. I have also taught subjects like database theory and design, and object oriented programming (i.e. the theory of OOP and how to implement it in Java). On a course about component-based development I have taught both COM/COM+/.NET and J2EE using both desktop (local) and web-based clients. I have also taught web-based development with ASP and ASP.NET. Most of the education has been done in a Microsoft environment (DOS/Windows).
One of my strengths (and according to students who have told me) is my ability to explain computer-related problems/technologies to less computer literary people. I can 'lower' myself to their level of knowledge or even try to use terms in their area of expertise/knowlegde as metaphors.
As a systems administrator I have installed and maintained computer rooms with operating systems varying between DOS/Windows 3.x to XP using servers running Novell NetWare (3.12 to 6) and Windows NT/2000/2003. Server software I have installed and maintained are Oracle, SQL Server, web servers (IIS and Apache), and application servers (among others Resin for J2EE). As a systems administrator my job was also to maintain and develop the department's web site using HTML, CSS, SSI, PHP, and some older systems in ASP. Data was stored in MySQL and Oracle servers.
While working at SIS Ecolabelling, later renamed to Ecolabelling Sweden, I maintained and developed web sites using ASP.NET and SQL Server. The web sites where custom developed systems. I also maintained informational web sites using a custom version of ISpyBuy Portal, DotNetNuke, and EPiServer as CMS, which required some development.
Privately I have helped a lot of my (non-computer) friends and family install/service computers, connect to Internet, and setup networks. In 2007 I helped to create an administrative interface for an non-profit organisation. I have also helped evaluate, and install, different CMS (Concrete5, Drupal, Joomla, Tikiwiki, Umbraco, Website Baker, and WordPress) for other organisations and persons.
Below are programming languages, database systems, content
management systems (CMS), and other
programming related technologies I master or have a working
knowledge of.
Languages/technologies in (round) brackets are ones
I have come across during my studies, i.e. mainly have a 'knowledge'
about (or feel less inclined to program in or use :-).
I find problem solving the most interesting. It's a way of learning more and it's gratifying to solve a problem. Helping others is also rewarding for me and I like sharing my knowledge with others. While helping others I will do what needs to be done, regardless if it is part of my work description or not, if there is no one else to do the job better.
The last couple of years I have focused on J2EE and PHP/MySQL while becoming, among other things, fascinated by how well Sun has created J2EE.
During my years I have tried to avoid user interfaces (GUIs) and Perl - two thing I feel other people are more competent at handling (as I believe my homepage proves :-).
I have some private computer-related projects, which I started to develop as part of a course at Örebro University (2000), and to summarize for myself and to help students on courses I taught. These projects are only in Swedish (as it was the preferred language of students I taught).
I also maintain this site, kiltedviking.net, to keep up my knowledge about web development and to share things with my friends. (It also gave me a reason to register the domain and an e-mail address I enjoy and can keep, regardless of any employer. :-)