Our Youngest Director
by Patrick Libert
We are delighted to have Joseph join our Board of Directors
in 2009. His intense interest in computing and his youth are
notable. It is best to let him tell us his story in his own words:
 “My name is Joseph Tobin; I am
fourteen years old, in the eighth grade and on the DACS Board
of Directors.
I was first interested in computers when I was about eight years
old, when I started playing video games. It intrigued me how
it was possible to make a ‘virtual reality’ out of
something called a ‘program’. I started using computers
in the ‘Windows 2000’ era, and began getting into
the basics of using a graphical computer, still unsure of how
these programs happened. As I continued my investigation, my
passion for computer related things grew. Around the age of 12,
a close friend of mine, who was also interested in computers,
lent me a book called, Learn to Program, by Chris Pine. It taught
how to program in Ruby language. To my surprise, it was very
easy to follow and even comical at times. I was programming in
no time at all.
That friend later introduced me to Linux, which he told me could
be burned to a live CD to try it out. The Distro he recommended
was called Knoppix, which uses the KDE Desktop Environment and
many popular applications. I told my uncle, who currently has
a job in computers, about this and he explained that I could
create a ‘Dual Boot’, so I could run both Windows
and Linux on the same machine. I originally installed Fedora
as my second OS but found it a bit hard to use compared to what
I had been using on Windows. My uncle then recommended that I
read books on Linux so I could learn how to use it and become
familiar with the OS.
The first book I bought was called, Linux in Easy Steps. It was
very well written and taught me a lot about Linux. Since then,
I have worked with many different Distros and am currently running
only Linux on my computer. I have also started getting into Vector
Graphics, playing with HTML, and some more complicated programming
languages.
I joined DACS and the Linux SIG. I was then nominated and voted
to be on the Board of Directors. I have learned a great deal
and I enjoy discussing Linux with the group. One of the most
appealing aspects of the DACS group is that my comments and questions
are always welcome. I enjoy trying new things, and look forward
to continuing with DACS.”
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