Good morning all,

I'm Philip, I'm based in the UK. I work in government - I'm a relatively new Linux user (Just over one years experience) - I'm 26 years old and have always tinkered about with computers - (Starting 10 years ago, writing batch scripts in Windows 98) - I then fell out of the way of it, with life getting in the way - Alevels, University etc..

Last May, I bought parts and built my own computer - and decided to use Linux so I Installed Fedora 13 - I love the operating system and I love the OSS community.  I think the whole idea behind it is great, I mean, a collective mind all collaborating together, it works beautifully!

In my spare time I've been teaching myself python (which I'm at an intermediate level) and more recently C and C++ (Which I'm very much just starting out in).  I have been reading a lot of code and trying to add features here and there with varying degrees of success if I'm honest.  The purpose of me joining this project is to (hopefully) develop skill, see how the inner workings of how developers work, and ultimately, to try to one day provide meaningful contributions. 

The way I see it is;  If I work hard - in 10 years time, I should be at a semi-competent level and be able to give something to the community. 

More formally, at the minute I'm studying (also in my spare time) for the CCNA exam.  So my skill level and understanding of networks,Cisco IOS, routing protocols and troubleshooting would be a strong point for me. 

I spend a lot of time with linux and just love learning new things.  So I hope to be able to spend a substantial amount of time once I get going.  The purpose of this email is just to say hello, and to perhaps advertise for a mentor.

I appreciate my curriculum vitae isn't all that impressive at the minute and that there are a lot of great minds out there - so I just hope someone could take me under their wing and point me in the right directions. 

Well, that's all for now - thanks for reading.

Philip (l7i7)