About me...

Jacob Redding — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:53:31 +0000

Hello fellow Internet surfer. You've come across the personal website for Jacob Redding. There isn't really a good purpose for the use of this website. Many, many years ago (< 1997) I purchased the domain so that I could learn about how the "inter-tubes" worked. You see as the name implies I am a really big geek. At first it was an obsession which quickly snowballed into a career. Now I do all things nerdy.

The website holds my personal photographs, videos and various ramblings. I have designed it for and my writings are crafted to speak to my family and close personal friends; if you're neither you'll get a pretty good idea of who I am from this site.

Anyhow, my name is Jacob Redding and I am a 29 year old Geek. As a testament to my geekyness the age was actually a bit of code that automagically calculated my current age to the minute


   
print substr((time() - strtotime("May 11th 1979 2:05am")) / 31556926,0,2)

yup.. I'm that Geeky.
for the geeks: Yes I know there are better ways to write this but this is understandable.. which is the point

Like most geeks I don't wear a single hat. I wear (and have worn) many different hats.

Currently I am freelancing in the IT industry specializing in Drupal module development, consulting and training and, on occasion, for Linux system administration, system/network design and other server based technologies. I do not work with client based systems and I ~~rarely~~ don't work with Windows.

In the past I have worked for Manhattan Neighborhood Network in New York, New York, Intel, City of Gresham, Portland State University, SQLSoft (and the predecessor ARIS), and Future Shop (now closed in the US). In reverse order I was a Computer technician, regional facilities engineer->consultant->trainer, project manager, contracted geek (I don't remember my official title at the City), an Accountant, and the Director of Technology. Yes I was an Accountant for sometime. I have a bachelors in Accounting and a Masters in Finance.
I love numbers to death. There is just something about crunching numbers that is.. ummm.. dare I say it.. sexy. Unfortunately I found myself writing ridiculously long Excel macros and awk/sed scripts (via cygwin) to automate many of my accounting tasks so I decided that it was best that I exit accounting and return to life as an IT super-geek. Cygwin and accounting only mix in very rare environments.

In my professional life I am...

Software Project manager
Web developer (mainly Drupal Based)
System administrator (Debian Linux, UNIX, Mac OS X)
Technology Consultant
Trainer
Open Source advocate
....... always more

In my non-professional life I am...
A cyclist, surfer, green hippy, musician, videographer, photographer, open source advocate, and a volunteer at way too many organizations.