Hello from would-be volunteer

[MIKE MAJOR]

Hello everyone,

My name is Mike Major. I have been a volunteer at South East Linux Fest (SELF) every year since the beginning in 2009. ICEI held its 2018 Annual Meeting at SELF this year in Charlotte. I met John Bell on Friday and he explained some about ICEI and its mission. He also told me about the NTPSec project. All of this was new to me as I had not heard of either ICEI or NTPSec. I was able to talk to Susan Sons as well as Eric Raymond for a few minutes. Eric gave me some more information about the NTPSec project. 
I mentioned that I would be interested in helping the project. Eric thought that a good place for me to start was to build a test platform using RPi and a GPS HAT. He also mentioned about going through the FAQ to see if something could be added. Since then he and I corresponded once by email. In that mail he suggested I introduce myself on this mailing list and subscribe as well. 

 All of this seems to be a bit serendipitous. I've become more and more interested in time keeping over years, including lately an interest in mechanical watches. I've used NTP Classic and Linux for years. I'm fascinated that microsecond accuracy is possible over the network. Since SELF, I have been reading the NTPSec blog posts. I thought this would be a good way to get a basic introduction to the project and activities. The "Steak to Sizzle" entry was compelling. The graphing feature is really remarkable. I really enjoyed the discussion of the graph and how the time variation was related to the heater in the room where the computer was placed. I have built NTPSec and it is running on my desktop machine. Very nice.
Before July 4th, I ordered a RPi and an Adafruit Ultimate HAT 2324. Unfortunately Amazon has managed to lose my shipment. Therefore, I have not yet started on the Stratum 1 Server. I ordered the material again and if finally arrived yesterday. 

At the risk of being too long-winded, here is a little more info about me. I have an EE degree and have worked in the automotive industry building engine and transmission controllers for the past 23 years. I have used Linux continuously since mid 2007 and computers in general since much earlier than that. I have programmed in several languages for my own use and at work as well. I'd like to learn more about the project and NTP in general. I appreciate the work you are doing and would like to be a part of it. I'd like to become a contributor to the project and I am rather excited to learn.

Best wishes, 
Mike Major
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