twm's homepage logo
From someone who traveled abroad to learn appreciating his own country ...
about me
Deutsch English
Google
Search dummzeuch.de
Search WWW

Welcome,

photo I am Thomas Müller1 a software engineer specializing in Delphi and ex-Sysop of the Shuttle to Heaven BBS in Koblenz, Germany.

This is a photo of me, not quite the prettiest. ;-)

I am 40 years old (born in 1966) and married. We live in Essen-Borbeck. We only moved here in 02/2007, before that we lived in Bonn, which was - as some might remember - the former capital of Germany (actually it was the seat of the government, the official captial has always been Berlin even back when there was an Eastern Germany). We moved there in fall 2000 from Sceaux (near Paris, France) where we had been living for a year and before that for nearly 3 years in London (UK, not USA ;-) ). Originally I am from Waldesch, near Koblenz at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Moselle.

During the last few years I have been working as a software engineer for various companies usually with Delphi. Since 2007-02-10 I am a division manager at Schniering Ingenieursgellschaft where I am responsible for the software development, currently I am working on ARGUS-Video).

The two years before that I was project leader at iCD. GmbH for the dissolution software LABS/DS. And before that for four years I have been one of three partners of headwork-consulting GmbH (archive.org) in Bonn. headwork's main business was also in the field of laboratory software. In 01/2005 iCD. bought the business and all assets and headwork-consulting GmbH was liquidized.

In Sceaux I was working for Peregrine Systems, a medium sized American company and before that in London for fPrint UK Ltd, which again was rather small. I have found that I like working for smaller companies better. In Germany I studied Computer Science at the University of Koblenz and worked for the Debeka insurance company in Koblenz and later for JK Computer GmbH in Dörth near Emmelshausen.

When I don't work, I still sit in front of a computer most of the time. I used to be a member of Fidonet, was even running my own BBS before I had to give it up when I moved to London. That explains why there are a few Fidonet related programs for download from this website.

When I don't sit in front of this machine, I read a lot, mostly Science Fiction. Lately I have only read English SF because I hate these bad translations the German publishers produce.

And if I leave the house and don't go to work, I cycle. Talking about cycling: I have been living without owning a car for many years (with a 3 year interruption, see below). Even back in Koblenz I didn't have one for over 5 years and when I moved to London and later Paris I of course didn't change that. (Only crazy people drive in these cities.)

In Koblenz I was a member of Teilauto, the car sharing association in Koblenz. I think that car sharing is the ideal compromise for people who live in a city and cycle to work or use public transport. If you need a car once in a while for example to do some large shopping or to go somewhere without public transport, you can get one from the car sharing's pool.

Unfortunately in 2004 I had to get a car again (a Renault Twingo) when my employer moved the office from Bonn to Frechen. We could not get ourselves to move away from Bonn so I was forced to drive 40 km (one way) every day. The car saved me 1h compared to using public transport but I find the time I spend on the autobahn rather annoying. At least since I usually give a lift to one or sometimes more of my collegues it's not as bad for the environment as it could be. Fortunately this has now changed again. Since I started working for Schniering I can again cycle to work. This, of course has nothing to with chance: I specifically selected the new job and the new home so I would not need a car. This not only saves me a bundle and is good for the environment but also improves my health. During the three years I was driving to work I gained quite some weight which is now slowly disappearing.

Back to cycling. I used my bicycle mostly to go to work, but I also like to make tours of a few hours up to a few days. Unfortunately my wife is not as given to cycling as I am so I am usually alone. Bonn was an ideal city for cyclists. There are cycling lanes along almost every street and you can easily reach the rivers Rhine and Sieg or the countryside. For people who prefer a bit more of a challenge there are the surrounding hills. Unfortunately all I have managed was to climb the Venusberg, which is a hill inside the town area of Bonn.
I don't know much about cycling in Essen yet. My current excuses are the weather (too cold, too wet, recently too hot) and the lack of time. ;-)

Ok, this should be enough for the time being. There isn't much to tell about me anyway.

Have fun exploring the rest of these pages.

Thomas


1. without umlaut this is written as "Thomas Mueller", not "Thomas Muller".

last updated: 2012-10-14 twm
Post to del.icio.us Best Viewed With Open EyesValid XHTML 1.0!