About me
I was born in Luxembourg, a small country in Europe, on June 21 in 1974. I grew up in Bettembourg and Berchem and went to an elementary school in Crauthem. Later on I went to a college in Luxembourg city.
Computers & software - Early Years
I already wanted a computer when I was 10 years old - I never really liked to play games as my friends did, I wanted to become a developer - but I had to wait until age 15 when I finally got my Commodore 128D. As I didn't have a computer I started developing software using books, pen and paper at the age of 12. To test my programs I had to ask friends to let me use their computers, you can image how difficult debugging was for me back then :-) I wrote several programs and software libraries for the C128, including a GUI and a windowing library, a VIC/VDC converter and a hierarchical file system.
Music & Movies - Early Years
Since the days in elementary school I wanted to make music (we always wanted to found a band when we were 10-12 years old or so, both local artists Chris and Tascha were in my class). At the age of 17 I finally had the money to buy my first guitar. Soon I played in a band with Chris, we called ourselves "Burning Black" and we were quite horrible. Band members were Serge Nickels, Daniel Lammar and Bob Morhard. Somewhat later I played in a school band called "The Backyard". Band members were Steve Colin (vocals), Philippe Kohn (guitar), Olivier Ludig (bass) and Laurent Dura (drums). After the band split up I started my first metal band, we first called ourselves "Black Reign" and later "Morbid Noise".
I also planned to produce a horror movie with two friends, Freddy Bohler and Tom Flener. I wrote most of the screenplay, but we never began production as we didn't have the required money.
Studies, Pagan Lorn, graphics, Stag Wards, ... (1994-2000)
In 1994 I finished college and I didn't really know what to do. So I went to the I.S.T. (which is now part of the University of Luxembourg) to become a software developer, but soon I quit as I realized this was not what I really wanted to do. To earn some money I worked as a replacement teacher for some months, I liked that and so I started pedagogical studies at the ISERP which has now become a department of the University of Luxembourg too.
In 1994 Chris called to tell me that a band named Pagan Lorn was looking for a new guitar player. That's how a really cool period of my life began, we wrote some really crazy songs, played a lot of concerts and recorded a demo tape as well as two albums. Band members were Sascha Georges (vocals - the guy who's now doing the news on RTL Luxembourg), Patrick Hurt (Keyboards), Vladeta "Vlatsch" Maksimovic (bass) and Stephen Misquita (drums). Today I'm still running www.paganlorn.com and you can download all Pagan Lorn recordings and the Beaufort concert video for free on that site.
Studying at the ISERP was completely dull and boring and it was no problem to pass most examans without attending the courses, so I had enough time to study graphics design and working as a part time graphics artist at home in parallel. I did a lot of CD booklets, books, posters and other media for Linster Studios during that period too.
In 1999 I also began to create my first 3D animation movie called Stag Wards.
Teaching (1998-2002)
In 1998 I began my job as a teacher in www.roeser.lu.
OLEFA / AFELO (2000-2008)
In 2000 I created my first major software project called OLEFA, a CMS with wiki and online library management features. In 2002 I co-founded the EducDesign company with Pino Fiermonte and Frank Trierweiler. OLEFA rapidly became the number one online software in the education area in Luxembourg.
Today most people think that OLEFA was created by EducDesign and that it had been designed for education, but that's just a myth as it existed a long time before EducDesign and the first sites to use it were www.kirps.com and www.mensa.lu and NOT www.roeserschool.lu.
In mid 2008 I left EducDesign after I felt that I was heading into a completely different direction than the rest of the company. I'm no longer involved in the current development of OLEFA or AFELO.
CorneliOS, Galaxiki & Joopita (2006-today)
In 2006 I started working on a new software called the CorneliOS virtual web OS and application framework. CorneliOS shall serve as a core for all of my future software projects. In 2008 all of my websites were migrated from OLEFA to CorneliOS.
The first community site using the CorneliOS technology is Galaxiki, the science fiction galaxy that anyone can edit (a site that allows to write sci-fi stories, and you can also name a star in an online galaxy). Another great project is the Joopita Web Directory.
I'm a big supporter of Open Source as well as modern managements concepts and development methods, so take a look at my related pages:
Teaching (2008-today)
After I left the EducDesign company in 2008 I returned to my former job as a teacher in Ehlerange.
(c)1996-2010 Jos Kirps | All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Site Map | Rate this site
