Experience the world of work at Bristol Wireless

We’ve been on new ground this week at Bristol Wireless. All week we’ve had Guy and Isaac, two pupils from Fairfield High School, with us in the lab as part of their work experience.

BW: “What have you been doing with us this week?”

Guy: “We’ve been learning about Linux, LTSP, hardware, building a computer from scratch and installing the operating system and software, networks, routers and making Cat5 network cables and servers.”

Isaac: “First of all, we’ve been building computers from scratch by wiring everything to the motherboard and doing various Linux installs – Debian and Ubuntu – as well as learning various commands for configuring the system.”

BW: “Is this your first major experience with Linux and free/open source software?”

Guy: “I’ve had a dual boot Linux/Windows laptop for about a year, but this is the first real chance to explore it really and get taught how to use it.”

Isaac: “Yes. I’ve always used Windows in the past. To me, Linux seems safer and easier to use.”

BW: How do you think our setup at Bristol Wireless performs in comparison with other systems you’ve used?

Guy: “It’s faster, more interesting and generally beats other popular systems by miles. It’s the most computers I’ve ever seen with them all working properly in one place.”

Isaac: “The only other system I’ve used a lot is the one at school and the school system seems very limited in comparison.”

BW: “I hear you both installed your own web servers earlier this week and then tested their security. Whose server was breached first?”

Guy: “Sean showed and helped us to set up our own Apache2 servers. Isaac’s cracked first!” 😉

Isaac: “His did!” 🙂

Editor’s note: at this point a bit of friendly banter breaks out between our 2 interviewees.

BW: “Has you found your week with us useful and what did you enjoy best?”

Guy: “Yes, it’s been incredibly useful, I’ve learnt a lot and also got a really cool computer out of it. My favourite command is ssh.”

Isaac: “Yes and the best thing was that we had a free rein to learn new skills and use them in a practical environment.”

BW: “Thanks for your answers and your company this week; it’s been a pleasure having you here.”