What Scot does for a living...

Right now I am in between jobs. I'm an experienced Unix Systems Administrator, working with SCO Unix, Sun Solaris 1, 2.x, 7.x and 8.0, and RedHat Linux 6.x and 7.x. My advanced admin skills stretch well beyond Unix and Linux into Windows (who doesn't?) and MacOS and more.

Here is my résumé.

I fell slowly into the computer profession. I started life in retail and, later, foreign currency and precious metals. I have a gift for working on technical stuff, especially computers. I've found the greatest satisfaction in working with computer systems, especially mixed-platform environments including Unix and Linux. My most recent experience combined my retail and banking backgrounds in a computer job, making it the best job I ever had, and the most fun job, too. I solved lots of interesting problems, had servers that stayed up for hundreds of days working 24x7 and serving multiple purposes (retail POS, email, intranet, Windows file services (with Samba), etc.).

I'm going to take a moment here to honor my manager of many years, Margie Studer. She was the best boss I've had to date. She was focused and no-nonsense while still being a cool person. She kept a clear space around me so I could do my job, too, and went to bat for me. She got me recognition when I did a good job. She was a woman in a "man's job"; at least that's how she was sometimes treated. I think she was the right person at the right place at the right time, and we made a great team. I thank her and honor her for her courage, intelligence and professionalism.

From 1994 to 2001 I was the Senior Systems Administrator for Thurman Industries, owner of eleven hardware stores/home centers in Washington, Oregon, and Montana, with franchises in Washington and Idaho to boot. I worked at the corporate office in Bothell, Washington. I managed a diverse range of systems, mostly PC, some Mac. I managed a number of operating systems: SCO Unix and OpenServer5, MS-Win9x, MS-WinNT Workstation and Server, MS-Win2000 Professional, and Apple MacOS.

On the side I help out with admin work on Seattle Community Network (http://www.scn.org). SCN currently runs on a mix of Solaris 1.0 and 2.x servers, and we are moving towards a combination of Solaris 8.0 and RedHat Linux 7.x. It's a lot of fun and intrigues me with the mixture of systems.

For now I am spending part of my time studying various technologies, and tinkering with my in-home Linux server. I plan to eventually have servers up for Solaris on Intel and SCO UnixWare. When I have the money (between $500-600) I'll buy a new UltraSparc 5 workstation, too, for running native Solaris and Sun's Linux when it comes out.

You can read more detail about what I have done in my working life here.

Many people ask me for computer advice. I'm starting my own consulting business, in fact, for the purpose of selling my time, advice and knowledge to those in need of help with their computers and computer systems. I also have a page dedicated to various computer issues and questions. It covers many aspects of computers, from power protection to what options, how to make your old computer last longer, and so on.