About me

What would possess you to click this link?

Do you want to make sure my qualifications are such, the information I provide you in such a generic fashion is spewing forth from a credible source? Are you another digital ninja wanting to test your foo? See how you stack up?

It's a waste of time.

I used to chase that... wanted to prove to the world I was the best at what I did -- no matter what it was, and that career has been more diverse than you can imagine. Eventually I realized, the only person I was trying to convince was myself. In the end, I don't seek nor need your approval.

The knowledge I toss about like fish at a Seattle market is meant for those willing to get dirty and catch it.

However, I do know that a modicum of relevant work history is required to be taken seriously by those who honestly seek the information I may or may not present. To those, I offer the following.

I currently work for the largest IT company on the planet. That is not braggadocio, it's a fact. I am what they call now a Senior I/T Architect... what they used to call Chief Engineer.
The systems I design, NEVER go down. 10.3 years and counting, 100% availability.
When I say "I", I mean of course, my organization of which I am one of several Architects supported by specialists. It's a team effort, and I would not be the one to stand up here and say I do this all by myself -- though I am sure I work with some people who would.
My job is to design and steer the ship; but it takes an entire crew to make it useful.

Before that, I worked for the DoD and a wide array of capacities. Systems Engineer, Security Engineer, Terminal Area Security Officer, DNS Administrator, Network Engineer, Digital Forensics Investigator, White hat infiltrator... you name it, I did it. The good part about working as a government contractor is the opportunity to branch out and do everything. The bad part, is the pay.

Before that... something entirely different.

Brief list of cogs that made this wheel spin: FreeBSD Unix, Solaris (and SunOS before that), AIX, HPUX, IRIX, VMS, (regrettably) Windows -- that's not fair though, since I actually am fairly impressed with Windows 7, Linux (getting more involved with that at home these days since it's so prevalent at work), I have had to deal with my wife's Mac -- which under the covers is more or less FreeBSD anyway... just made all prettified, Cisco (routers, switches, WAPs and Pixes - oh my!), Foundry Iron, Fore Systems, PF, Bind, sendmail, clustering, virtual machines, cloud computing, continuous availability, Second Life, LDAP, Intrusion Detection, TCP/IP, web services, application services, SQL and most importantly -- PERL!


I've been a business owner/operator, an employee and a manager. I prefer the technical side of the house, with the added benefit of being able to talk to customers about it.

I am a conundrum. I am a geek, of that there can be no doubt... but I don't resemble the stereotypical visage one usually associates. I love the highly technical, but I also like and am able (gasp) to speak at a high level with CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, C-- the list goes on.

I can be curt. My wife thinks it's me being rude, but that's not it at all. I am not one to flower things up or blow smoke us anyone's rectum. Things are what they are and I don't see any reason to beat around a bush.

I prefer to take my ninja-to and hack it in half, walking right through the middle.

"I'll take a consonant, plain and simple, thank you." --Moss