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Who are you and what can I find around here?
I'm a passionate computer engineer born in the north of Spain but currently living in Geneva. You will find here random thoughts about my life, projects and hobbies. Thank you for stopping by!
Doh! did you say computer engineer?
Yep, kind of. I've been fascinated by computers since I was a child. It all started the day my father brought a Philips P 3105 home and since then, my passion for computers has been growing more and more.
At age 24 I graduated from the University of Oviedo with a Master of Science in Computer Engineering and then Computer Science naturally evolved from a hobby to my current profession. Guess it was a good deal, because nowadays I'm being paid for doing what I like most.
Although I was taught cool things in university, I've learnt many other things from a place where I've spent countless time: the Internet. If I had to create a rank of the greatest achievements of humankind, most likely the Internet would be in the top three.
Is there a photo album anywhere?
I'm afraid not. I'm not the kind of guy who takes pictures and uploads them to the Internet for every place he goes. Try Google Images, you're likely to find a picture of myself there.
What projects are you involved in?
Besides doing small contributions to the Debian project, I'm somehow linked to the following projects:
- STEAMY: Semantic Technologies Empowering the Free Software Community
- MIEX: Metadata and Information Extractor from small XML documents
- SWAML: Semantic Web Archive of Mailing Lists
- Shell.FM: a lightweight console based player for Last.FM radio streams
- RDFLib: RDF library containing an RDF triple store and RDF/XML parser/serializer
- Reddit Image Preloader
- Libreplan: Open Web Planning
From a not-so-technical side, I'm AsturLinux's vice president and former secretary. AsturLinux is a local Linux user group that has been spreading free software culture and ethics through talks, workshops and so on for more than ten years now. We're pretty happy with the job we've done so far and we hope to continue pushing in the same direction for many, many years.
Are you employed?
Yes, I work at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). I'm currently involved in a very challenging project that will drive the provisioning and automatic configuration of computing resources managed by the IT Department from 2013 onwards. Key components are Puppet, OpenStack and Foreman.
What's your ideal job?
When I was younger I used to answer this question with a bunch of fancy words but after lots of lessons learned in my opinion there's only one thing that can turn a mere job into an ideal job: being surrounded by people who love what they do. The rest are just minor details.
I'm unable to grab your résumé (CV) around here, is it online?
Unfortunately, it isn't at the moment. You can either try Linkedin or send me an email asking for it.
Well, you are a geek, what else?
Besides hacking around my computers, I like science curiosities, airplanes, civil aviation, air traffic control, tea, video games, stout beer such as Guinness or Murphy's and last but not least meeting amazing people.
Ok, do you know what does the word 'sport' mean?
Sure. I enjoy playing racquet sports, hiking, swimming and cycling. I also watch Formula One races.
Is the silence your main inspiration source?
No way! Actually, my inspiration currently comes from bands such as Incubus, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Sour and stuff like that. Lately, I often also listen to some Swing and Jazz songs.
Are you a blogger?
Hehe, yes but I've to confess that nowadays I'm a very lazy blogger. I used to throw random thoughts about technology and my life in my blog but now I've run out of big stories to tell. That's why I've switched to Mastodon.
You must use geeky-creepy pieces of software, mustn't you?
I daily use phenomenal free software which makes my life easier, giving me the chance to reach a pretty high performance using my desktop computer. So, thanks to all the the people who contributed somehow to the development of:
My configuration files for most of these tools are publicly available. And remember, avoid any physical contact with the mouse unless it is strictly necessary!
I'd like to interchange some bits with you, how?
The most effective way to contact me is by email:
Although you can phone/mail me:
Nacho Barrientos Postbox G21410 CERN CH-1211 Geneva 23 Switzerland
What language do you prefer to speak with me?
I feel comfortable speaking English and Spanish but Switzerland and France are kind of making me learn French, so either of the aforementioned is fine.
Do you use any sort of privacy guard mechanism? GnuPG maybe?
What about real-time chat such as IRC?
I usually drop some bits around Libera.chat or OFTC, nicknamed as
nacho.