Geert Jan de Groot

Born on January 20, 1966 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Member of DJOE since December 1977, membership number 69
Member of ORD-GROUP since 1983

Geert Jan, 1986Geert Jan, 2002
19862002

Geert Jan has performed many functions in the ORD-GROUP but his core interest is hardware design and building. His hardware was often the starting point for the software people, which then ran with it. Although the primary design work was often his, he often collaborated with others in building the hardware. He often wrote basic software for his creations, his most ambitious software projects at DJOE being the CP/M BIOSes for the second EXIDY and TELEVERKET machines (appropriately called SEBIOS and TVBIOS, respectively).

One of his more memorable DJOE exploits is "blowing" up capacitors, for which he was punished by having to write a report on the "research" and its results.

Outside of DJOE, Geert Jan worked for Philips Research on desktop PDA's, networking and protocols (TCP/IP, Ethernet, ISDN). He worked at the RIPE NCC coordinating the European Internet, witnessing the transition from an academic network to what it is today. He then became a kernel hack for Berkeley Software Design, Inc (BSDI), developing device drivers for the BSD/OS operating system, and continuing development at Wind River Systems until BSD/OS development was shut down. These days Geert Jan keeps security up at TUNIX Security & Opleidingen.

Geert Jan is also co-author of Internet RFC1597, RFC1918 and RFC2317.

In his sparse spare time, Geert Jan builds communication systems and repeaters as hamradio licensee. He also is involved in providing training on network infrastructure in developing countries (AFNOG workshop, ISOC workshop) and is treasurer for a local Eindhoven scouting group, trying to help them to get their leaky asbestos roof renovated.