Harmen de Ruiter is fulltime systems administrator by day & likes to build ICT-centric communities in his spare-time.

His day-job is very broad: He manages Linux & Windows systems, the company network, storage systems, writes advisories to the company's board, does project management, serves as internal support engineer, wrestles with hardware in the datacentre, talks with (potential) suppliers, gives talks, etc.

That's exactly how he likes it. The more diverse, demanding and challenging, the better. :)

He started to work with Linux and OSS ~20 years ago (1996), has worked with AS/400 systems, VAXes, FreeBSD and some commercial Unixes. Did some webdesign in the dark ages and now focusses on beïng a sysadmin, sharing knowledge and writing ICT project proposals.

In his spare-time he likes to expand his skills and knowledge in all possible ways, sharing his knowledge along the way. Therefore he started an ICT community (vereniging) in 2007 and now focusses fully on his latest project: Stichting An Meaisín Dénártha. An ICT-centric non-profit organization (foundation).

His first computer is an Acorn Electron, a 33 year old machine, the little brother of the Acorn BBC Micro with 32kByte RAM, 32kByte ROM and a CPU running at 1 MHz (0,5897MHz when accessing RAM). This ancient machine is still in his posession, together with the original (German) manual and should still work though it hasn't been turn on for around 20 years.

When he's not busy with ICT related stuff, he's a hobby sports climber (both in the gym and outside on real rock), cuddles with his 2 cats Pim & Frits and his long-term girlfriend Anne, reads books & magazines about all kinds of subjects (mostly non-fiction), goes to concerts, drinks beer & whisk(e)y with friends and fools around in the garden.