Name: Michael Martin
Age: 38
Location: Charleston, WV
Occupation: Systems Engineer

Home Network (click to enlarge)

I have been working with computers for a very long time (since the early 80’s). All my knowledge is self taught, but I do hold several certifications which I gained by self study. I am focused more on hardware and systems administration of Windows and Linux servers but I do have a little bit of coding skill, mostly with PHP/HTML and some shell scripting. You can see a map of my home network to the right, this includes everything except the handheld devices and game consoles (iPhone, Nintendo DS, XBOX, Wii, etc.).

My professional bio…

80’s / Early 90’s – My interest was first sparked in the 80’s with my first computer, a Commodore 64, and ballooned from there. While working a dead end day job, I spent several years in the early/mid 90’s running a BBS in the Charleston area, I consider this the golden age. There was a real sense of community in the BBS scene that I miss, even to this day. Once CityNet showed up and started offering dial-up internet access in the area I saw a rapid decline in connections to my BBS which eventually caused me to shut down.

Mid / Late 90’s -  I eventually went to work for one of the “evil” internet providers as their Systems Administrator, this was a good period in my life. The pay was good and my immediate supervisor (the owner) lived in Minnesota so I was given pretty much free reign to run the operation as I saw fit. A couple years after I started, the general manager of the office went off to work somewhere else and I was given that role as well. Shortly after I took over the role as general manager AND sysadmin the company decided to close up shop after nTelos (it was called Intelos then) came into town and started buying up the smaller ISP’s, this also left me without a job since nTelos had no need for me in their operation. I then took a job as a Systems Engineer with a large server farm in Memphis, TN. They were in the business of web hosting and server co-location. This took place during the huge Dot-Com build up and I was making a HUGE paycheck, life was good. Well, life WAS good until the bust happened and I was once again left unemployed. For the next few years I kind of floundered around taking temp jobs here and there and doing some computer work on the side.

2k’s – I accepted a full time job for a computer services company in Hurricane, WV which got me some sorely needed health insurance benefits and provided a steady dependable wage. This was just your basic computer repair operation where I would go out to client locations to fix computers, do upgrades, maintain servers, basically doing whatever needed to be done with client computers/servers, a jack of all trades type thing. I worked there for a couple years, just biding my time while I looked for more worthwhile employment.

Current – I eventually landed the position I have now at my current employer, which is a large multinational corporation. I’m enjoying good pay and great benefits, but I will admit to being a little bored with the work. Since I am part of a huge corporation, I am also part of a huge IT department. This means that I do very little decision making and I have to deal with a lot of red tape to get anything done. There is very little challenge in the job since all the major IT work is done by people higher up on the food chain. I guess if I bide my time I will eventually be one of those people, but I am very impatient.

Things brings me up to date….I’m doing this blog to help keep my knowledge current and my skills sharp. It will also serve as a release valve for when I get a little frustrated.