Bernhard personally

I would like to tell you a little bit about me personally. Not that I would like to lay down a complete autobiography until my current age. No, I would rather like to give a little insight into my thinkings and my work - and to give you a better overview about my attitude.

To list up personal data: I was born on 20th of Ocotber 1980 - which is a somehow round date: 10-20-80. Seen from astrological point of view this makes me a Libra. I should also note that i am left-handed.

My "career" started, if you count this as the start of a career, when I entered school. We should consider that not every human being has the right or possibilites to enjoy such a good formal education as it is usual in western European countries.

Now a short listing of schools finished:

1987-1991 VS-Rust (Primary school)
1991-1995 HS-Rust (Secondar modern school)
1995-2000 HTL-Mödling (Federal Secondary College of Engineering; Dept. for technical information technology)
2001 University Molecular Biology / Electronics
since 2006 again: University Molecular Biology

Even there is a phrase "A man's praise in his own mouth stinks" - I would like to mention that i have been a special pupil in all of the schools I finished. Since my secondary modern school it was clear to my teachers, that technology, and knowledge at all, are one of my main interests.

It was in secondary modern school when I bothered my math teacher with questions which should have been handled in next years classes. When we had to develop a plan for a project in HTL I did not just make the theoretical part - but even took the "time" (insider :) to realize the project in a practical way. (To explain the insider: In 2nd grade we had to develop a digital-clock. I did not just draw the electrical circuits for the clock - but even built it up from logic gates and took the power-line frequency as clock source until I had a working clock).

Next to school some collegues and me worked on the development of a gaming machine for an electronics company. My part was to develop the input/output electronics, and the powerfail mechanism. As project for our final exams in HTL (the Matura - something like a degree) we developed a music player for the spreading music format MP3. The player should have been able to play MP3 files over the parallel port of slow computers which else wouldn't have been able to decode those data streams (Because of few time this project did never get finished - as many others - but at least the player worked a few times).

After the "Matura" (degree) I chose to study. At the beginning this didn't really work out. It took me too much time to work as web developer, which was my employment during this time. So I invested too few time into university, and decided to stop study for now, and concentrate fully on work for the next years.

At the end of 2003 I came into contact with TYPO3 and learnt to like it also as I learnt to get angry about it. (Tell me: Who is never angry about his work ... when things are not as you would like them to be.)

Since then I worked relatively intense with TYPO3. I wrote a couple of extensions and was asked from Kasper if I would like to become a core team member of TYPO3. Being part of TYPO3 brought me a huge push of motivation at that time.

I should not miss to say that until August 2007 I have been a strong smoker. Which sadly is very usual among people who work with computers. By taking notice of my surroundings, thinking about biology (caused by my study) and talking to people/friends which stopped smoking and probably also by thinking about god (for some reasons this is not very usual for people working with information technology - except people like Kasper, the creator of TYPO3) I somehow managed it to keep away from cigarettes. Since then I did not even smoke a sinlge one of those cancer bringers :). Which makes me very proud - I was a regular smoker since start of my secondary school (HTL) in 1995.

Since I stopped smoking I regularely do sports. I like to cycle around with my bike in the forrest of Mödling, my living-place of choice, and also like to go running into those woods. Every now and then you could also find me swimming some lenghts in the Mödling municipial indoor swimming pool or during the upcoming summer in one of the lakes around Mödling.

Some of my running-event results can be found here:

http://pentek-timing.at/querychip.php?chip=DK700VW

Next to my work I sometimes code simulation programs. For example I created an animation of an earthworm for the zoology lecture. And on own interest I created a particle simulation. Those can get viewed at my youtube account:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=kraftb

As many students I am also registered on StudiVZ - just search for Bernhard Kraft:

http://www.studivz.net/

There are quite some photos of my school time (HTL) and of other occasions.