Interviews
Matti Ressler
Community Profile: johnson
Date Added: 5th May 2004
Tell us a little about yourself (Name, Age, Residency, ..)
G'day,
I'm Matti Ressler - I was born in Helsinki Finland in 1959 and migrated with my family to Australia at the age of four. I have been involved in the gemstone/mining industry since boyhood and mined black opal professionally for thirteen years in Lightning Ridge Australia. I currently reside in Sydney Australia to continue my involvement in the gemstone wholesale and jewellery industries - this includes valuation, gemstone/jewellery photography, developing wholesale/retail websites based on osCommerce and a new software project for the grading and pricing of opal.
I am the father of two girls and twin boys. As a musician I have worked semi-professionally (blues/rock) - my strengths are blues/bluegrass but I love and play just about anything. To unwind and relax I love nothing better than to jam with friends over a few beers or a nice bottle of Australian red wine and a BBQ. My favourite band is Powderfinger and my favourite artist Doc Watson.
How and when did you get introduced to PHP and osCommerce?
I first bumped into The Exchange Project in 2001 while looking for a platform I could use within the gemstone/jewellery industries - I was impressed, both by the software and the dedication of its development team, and the community involvement. So began a new learning curve and it has been a pleasure ever since.
Has osCommerce met your expectations? What would you like to see done in osCommerce?
It has exceeded them. I have found osCommerce to be easily extensible in the manner I have required and the number of contributed solutions is astounding. I would like to see further development of both the attributes system and product relationships beyond categories/manufacturers/specials/also purchased. I respect the discipline of the development team in not bowing to sometimes vocal community pressure in regard to more bells and whistles, but instead concentrating on a core that is both stable and secure - this is essential.
Can you describe the contributions you have made to osCommerce, if any?
After moving to Sydney it became possible for me to become more involved with the osCommerce community - this has been a fantastic experience and my time on the forums was rewarded in 2003 when I was given the honour of becoming a Team Member. I have updated several contributions to MS2 and in November 2003 I released Master Products as code in development - it has been great to see other community members contribute both ideas and code snippets and to see store owners make good use of a less than perfect and far from complete solution. In this respect I would encourage other community members to contribute unfinished code - this allows community involvement in development and the ideas to flow freely. While finding free programming time has proved to be difficult, I hope soon to secure a contract in the manufacturing sector that will allow me to freely explore my interest in complex product relationships and to further develop Master Products in the direction I desire.
What keeps you motivated to work on osCommerce?
I'm just hooked :-)
Can you describe your experiences as a store administrator so far had with osCommerce?
I find administering the store to be quite logical and easy to manage, although I would like to see attributes selectable from the products edit page and more image/product display options. Larger stores need solutions that allow database management through other than the admin interface.
What advice would you provide to those being introduced to osCommerce?
Take the time to learn and don't expect everything to be handed to you on a platter - time and effort seldom goes unrewarded - regard the forums as primary documentation and the search button as your best friend.
What do you think about the osCommerce community? Have you gained friends and contacts here?
The community is great and yes, I have met many people and formed firm friendships within the communty.
What slogan or logo would you wear on a t-shirt?
I value life above anything and as a miner have lost many friends and colleagues - the small town of Lightning Ridge has two signs by the roadway - as you enter town it has "Lightning Ridge - Population ?" and as you leave "Come Home Alive" - I have always been touched by the latter as I drove out each morning to the mining fields - so this.
How do you spend your average day?
No day is average :-) I try to get up early and attend to as many emails as I can - if I get a chance I drop in on the forums and then its off to work - generally in the evening I finish my emails and then attend to my forum duties while working on freelance projects.
How does your desktop look like?
I always manage to get far too many windows open :-)
