Certainly sounds like you got the background for it. Welcome to the forum! 
1 Like
Im a SW engineering, embeded system designer, in Silicon Valley, CA, USA. I have done both hardware and software product design for years. A few years ago I was bushwacked and had a choice. I could stand in line with a lot of other Sw engs, and go broke slowly; or build a house and go broke quickly. I choose to build an off-grid home, my retirement home. I could be retired, that lifestyle really agreeded with me 
, except Iām addicted to eating. I canāt seem to stop.
Now, Iām back. SInce you can never go back, Iām looking for a new project to focus on. I want to work on something important, something that will make a difference. Something fun and interesting. Canāt really see how to make a play in the space business. I dont want to go back to being a small cog in a big wheel. The corporatizing of the world is not doing us any favors and I never got my fair share amyways.
I have done some electric car embedded projects and Iām contracting with a POD publisher to provide them with engineering support but none of that is putting much food on the table or changing things. Iām guessing that maidSafe can do both.
I know very little about the project at this time but my feeling is that it could be a good way to distribute ebooks, amoung many other things. That is the āappā that is my strawman to learn about maidSafe. Provide a way for authors to publish high quality ebook, distribute them and get paid without using the monopolies. The way data is stored on the maidSafe network seems ideal for providing a low cost path between the author/publisher and reader.
I look forward to figuring out my role in this project.
6 Likes
Hello,
My name is Uche Onuora, and I am a Co-Founder of Flexfinity Media, with offices in Abuja, Nigeria and Atlanta, USA. I have an enduring interest in ICT for Development (ICT4D).
Our primary focus is on Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) impact, and lowering 3A (Affordability, Availability, and Accessibility) barriers to the Internet and related resources, especially in emerging economies and other infrastructure-challenged environments. In many rural and semi-urban unserved/underserved areas, the costs of deployment and operation of ICT infrastructure is a significant barrier to pervasive and considerable end-user uptake and sustained usage. We work on leveraging existing and emerging technology innovations, and apply them distinctively as solutions to this 3A challenge.
I just found out about MaidSafe and have been voraciously reading, watching, and otherwise catching up on the significant and groundbreaking progress that the entire team and community has registered in birthing this revolutionary concept.
I am very interested in the distributed nature of the MaidSafe Network, as we have recently iterated our ICEBox efforts to pursuing development of a distributed cloud platform based on an aggregated cluster of peer-to-peer wireless transceivers (forming a local or metropolitan wireless area mesh network) with embedded caching and storage capacity on each individual mesh node. This mesh network will provide unified and shared cloud resources that optimize the broadband+ delivery of websites, services, applications, and content (especially bandwidth-hungry audio, video, and graphics) to users within its Local OR Metropolitan Area Network service coverage zone (or to other mesh clusters via long-range wireless or Third Party Network backhaul), on a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) access paradigm.
I taught an Interdisciplinary Short Course on āDesign & Innovationā at the African University of Science & Technology, Abuja (AUST-Abuja), Nigeria in 2014. I delivered a Keynote Lecture on āRevolutions: Lessons learned from technology in emerging marketsā at IESE Business School/Telefonica, S.A. e-KISS Revolutions Conference in Madrid, Spain in 2013. I also delivered a presentation on āNational E-Agriculture Projectā at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) eNigeria 2013 Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2013.
The focus of both lecture and presentation resulted from years of R&D efforts, conceptual innovations, and operational deployments, anchored on leveraging ICT4D solutions, as a sustainable way and pragmatic means of lowering Accessibility, Affordability, and Availability barriers to participation, in the converging universal knowledge-driven digital economy, particularly by users at the bottom of the economic pyramid and up, in emerging and infrastructure-deficient markets. This interest is extended under the ICEBox Project (http://www.icebox4d.com); which is the primary entrepreneurial pursuit that I co-founded, managed, and have been involved with for the last 5 years.
In 2004, I conceptualized and developed a Project Report & Plan for the Abuja Technology Village (ATV) in Abuja for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration in Nigeria (the Municipal Authority in charge of the national capital).
My entrepreneurial and professional interests in ICT4D continue to be informed by strategic devotion to critical mass devolution of emerging technologies, as essential enablers of societyās contemporary existence and future survival. I am particularly enthralled by digital media and allied strategies; especially practical approaches to tackling most pressing concerns vis-Ć -vis resource allocation and sundry management issues.
12 Likes
āCalling Dr Warrenā¦could Dr Warren please make his way to the reception area to assist Dr Kafir - Mr Kirklon has wandered off the ward againā¦Thank Youā 
2 Likes
Greeting,
My name is Huskell, Iām a 5yr novice programmer and innovative tech enthusiast. I āknowā Java/EE, C/C++, PHP, Network, Hardware Maintenance, Linux and XML.
I got interested in the idea of this network some time ago and since I canāt help much in programming with my actual knowledge, I just keep myself updated about the project and spread the word.
11 Likes
Hey all!
My name is josh, Iām a web developer and an author.
Iām hoping to learn how to get involved in the test net and start publishing sites and probably my book via SAFE.
Is it even possible to publish or get on the test net right now? I havenāt done a lot of reading (yet! this weekend for sure). But if thereās any links to getting started about, Iād love to see them.
Cheers!
8 Likes
Greeting, Salut,
My name is Guillaume, a software developer working with c++/c/python/js, in France. Involved in a DIY ISP (ie small) in Parisā region.
I discovered maidsafeās about 4 months ago thanks to a lecture organized by Francis and Erick in Montreal.
Very interested in SAFE project especially because of its core design of a decentralized network. This promises a bright future for self hosting.
10 Likes
Hello, big friendly community! My name is Dmitry, Iām a 3rd year student studying in Belarusian State University. Iām only 20 and havenāt achieved something great yet, but trying to do my best, to learn more and improve my skills! I know the basics of c++ and java (c++ I like more). Also Iām friends with math.
The way I discovered MaidSafe about 4 months ago is next. My coursework teacher told me about it as I was interested in distributed p2p networks. And I loved the idea so much that I decided to make SAFE Network the object of research of my coursework. So now Iām studying the SAFE Network structure, reading this forum. Also Iām translating System Docs to Russian language. I want to involve fully to the community so as to become a small part of it. Iām really keen on project and I expect the BetaTest and the final launch so much! In the future I would like to be able to create software for the SAFE Network.
I know about SAFE Pods locating in different places over the Earth and I would be so happy if SAFE Pod in my country (Belarus) was organised. Meeting up, talking about MaidSafe, inviting people and showing some presentations is really cool.
The day the SAFE Network launches will be the great day! I wish everything best to the community and all people related to it. Thank you for creating such amazing things! 
11 Likes
I suppose I shouldāve done this earlier, but:
Iām only an occasional poster, but Iām a daily reader of these forums. Iām from the U.S. (mostly Florida), but currently live in China. Freedom, privacy, and digital preservation are all very important to meāwhich has resulted in my enthusiasm for free/open-source technology, free/open culture projects (like Wikipedia), and now the SAFE Network. My computer programming background is not strong enough for me to do anything useful with itābut it does give me a lot of appreciation for those who do have such abilities. Iām not certain what the future will bring, of course, but Iām eagerly looking forward to the Networkās launch. I continue to mention it to others, and wish the team, community, and project success.
9 Likes
Hello,
I am Tushar, a software engineer from India. Iāve been working in the industry for close to four years now.
For quite some time now Iāve started noticing the rampant and widescale corruption and destruction of planet thatās going on, and as I grow older I sense that if this keeps on going the world will not be something what we want our children to have.
Previous some months have forced me to research about economics, corporations, which led my interest torwards crypto-currencies and MaidSafe.
I would love to be a contributer to the community, because that way Iāll be working towards a better future. Letās see how journey goes.
10 Likes
Hi there!
Iām John, a high school student from America. Iāve been interested in bitcoin for four years now - and boy, do I regret not buying them when they were $5 a pop! Iām looking to get in on the next big thing - hoping either MaidSafe, Ethereum, or both will take off!
Aside from that, Iām a Java programmer, and really love big computer systems. I hope I can become a farmer real soon, it looks much more fun than mining with ASICs!
8 Likes
Hello all,
My name is Ian and I am currently a biochemistry graduate student in the USA. About two years ago a good friend of mine turned me on to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and ever since then learning about and investing in exciting emerging projects such as this has become one of my favorite hobbies. I think the Safe Network is the most innovative and promising of projects currently being developed in this field, and I look forward to seeing where it goes in the future.
-Ian
8 Likes
Hello to all,
I am a Swiss freedom lover very much interrested in all liberating technologies: distributed systems, encryption, open source, etc. MAIDSAFE is by far the most ambitious project that I have discovered and I am deeply admirative of it. All my congratulations to the team!
I plan to build a small farm of a little bit more than 100TB as I have currently about 17TB of personnal data and want to provide more than I cost to the network.
I am very excited about the project. Thanks again to the developers. You truly are modern heroes.
10 Likes
GāDay everyone,
My name is Rob and am an Electrical Engineer. I started in computing in my early teens programming in Macro Assembler on the Universityās DEC systems PDP10 (36 bit mainframe), and when I finished school went on to do my Engineering degree at the Uni. That was the Seventies for me.
After graduating I landed a job working for a large company in Brisbane designing HW/SW with the newly introduced microprocessors. Included was writing protocols to interface the companies Mainframe to the micro systems prior to the āmodern internetā, let alone the web. Also writing RTOS and other control systems. Since then I got married, divorced, brought up my kids and worked in many areas. My hobby is anything ādigital machinesā.
What brought me to this site was the newly passed legislation in Australia for mass surveillance of it citizenās communications. They just did not have the guts to include content, so just everything else including email subjects, location of any device that communicates and so on. While this does not solve the metadata situation it would certainly given them a ton of useless information to sift through and removes specifics of communication type/messagingā¦
I have been reading the docs and forum for the last few days and joined the forum to ask a question.
I do not consider myself as qualified as many of the extremely qualified people with various backgrounds here. But hopefully I can help and this becomes a widely used system.
15 Likes
Hello all,
Iām a crypto-anarchist coder and watching MAID for a while. Iāve have been slowly entering the market over the course of the last month or so in hopes to get the best position and accumulate as many MAID as I can. I am very much looking forward to being a part of something with as much potential to alter the way we interact with the world by changing the methods we rely on to do so. MAID can truly disrupt both economic and technological spheres in one fell swoop.
7 Likes
This is my self-introduction post in the ābeginnersā category.
I am a Linux enthusiast, and Iāve seen many kinds of forums, but Iāve never seen this particular forum software before, so I might make a few newbie errors with this post.
I want to set up one of more machines to beta-test the Maidsafe software.
I was hoping to use cheap machines like Raspberry Pis.
I would like to know whether I will need to install the Maidsafe beta on several machines, or whether a single machine would be enough to start testing the āfarmingā functionality.
@happybeing: please donāt ask questions or respond on this topic, it is purely for sharing about yourself
5 Likes
Hello Folks,
I go by my first name which is Mel.
Iām a retired 72 year old grandpa who is self taught on linux. Heard about this project from an internet friend in Japan. I wanted to see what itās all about, plus may be interested in farming for it.
Iāve been involved with Bitcoin for a little over 1 year.
Prospector
12 Likes
Hello Everyone,
My name is Mwaa Joseph, software developer based in Kenya. Programming has been my passion ever since is was in high school and now since i finished my graduate course in Computer Science i have turned into a full-stack web developer.
Developed interest in bitcoin due to the fascinating code and inception behind it and for the past 3 years been trying to come up with financial alternatives that would be applicable in Kenya as well as other countries. However, bitcoin does not provide a lot flexibility and didnāt want to creating an alt coin hence beginning of this year decided to study the blockchain technology and come up with something epic (failed due to wishfull thinking). So instead moved on to decentralized open source systems and for a while just depended on factom. But alas today just stumbled to MaidSafe and it has all the Intrigue of coding and powerful algorithms all the right things i want as a developer. And the beauty of it its open source with an growing community.
Looking forward to Contribute to this Awesome project.
11 Likes
Hello People!.
My name is Santiago, Iām from Argentina and Iām 24. I Study at University of Buenos Aires (UBA) Bachelord in Computer Sciences and I work as System-Administration and/or Help Desk. Iām a Bitcoin user and i Have several safecoins too.
Iām not a developer but I want to write some articles about maidsafe in my language, soā¦ It would be great if I can Contribute in some way and I want to share the drafts with the comunity in order to improve the results. By the way, If some of you want to talk more about this just send me a PM.
I believe in this project since the first time that I heard about it. Even the worst scenario it is good because during the process of the project you are releasing a lot of code and we cannot unwrite that. The humanity is better than yesterday.
14 Likes