This page is largely unmaintained and is primarily here for historical purposes. You might be more interested in my profiles on LinkedIn, about.me, or Google.

UPDATE (2006-07) - A book I worked on, LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, is finally available! Hopefully we'll have copies for sale at the store soon.

About me...

I have been a Linux geek for years. Since 1994, I've been involved in several Linux (and Perl, and ...) users groups. I used to contribute regularly to the monthly Best of Tech Support column in Linux Journal, but I've been slacking for a while now...

I'm originally from Boody, Illinois (a little town in Central Illinois near Decatur). I lived in Carbondale, Illinois for about 5 years, then bounced around between Evansville, Indiana, Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and a couple other places not worth mentioning, before settling in Springfield, Illinois (back in Central Illinois) for almost 3 years. In 2000, I bought a house and moved to Fairview Heights, Illinois, a small town near St. Louis, Missouri. I am currently self-employed again (whee!) doing consulting, selling systems, that sort of thing. (As the current maintainer of the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO, I like to think I know a thing or two about building a Linux box.)

Most of my time is spent doing something computer-related. The users groups take a significant portion of my time. The rest is divided between work and my own projects. About the only non-computer thing I've been doing is spending time with my wife (as of June 7, 1997) Kara, our daughter Emma, and our cats...

I finally realized that I wasn't updating my projects page, so I decided to throw together a page of stuff I've compiled, hacked on, or written. I'm actively updating it as I write this (Sun Jul 19 18:24:45 CDT 1998), so let me know if anything there interests you.

Unfortunately, I had to pull my resume, since random recruiters just couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to be called in the middle of the day on my cell phone at work to hear about some job in BFE (usually somewhere in California). (Don't get me wrong. I like recruiters. I wouldn't be where I'm at today without them.) If you really want to know more about my experience and such, drop me an email.

This is my DSA/ElGamal key:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
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=Zrmg
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

This is my old (but still completely valid) PGP 2.x RSA key:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.3a

mQCNAzI4twIAAAEEALQQ8av2b+rtcPCDywTb1KjCxRfDCbxRuFawh27dBhemShSf
ll5E+slRg5F3VRseS6mHRY3aSkdehL7zKlqp0ykFIRVS7MzA4wYMgAA+gljlll/t
M2CZxMQP1yJ3LlXT/sEydtyBpyCg+3mUJsYLQlyKx0kOoJ31YAPaHZNUI4LZAAUR
tCJTdGV2ZW4gUHJpdGNoYXJkIDxzdGV2ZUBzaWx1Zy5vcmc+iQCVAwUQMji3AgPa
HZNUI4LZAQGL4QQAjJC4oG7B6dUtV2TKtkKq7wahpLyhwkwJiWGiqv3XTP3eO4/q
I0+xKqc6a+LVloKIaZfAbnpHdz0sBUwMZyklMa5/+RuA2uOCjHiCpyCUdDMVBLCI
eM194ZmzDcpUlxCDWCciNRaxofaZEdZdLN+OAX3XxvTKlRP2EFA4T4LWGCE=
=/183
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12

GCS d s:+ a-- C+++$ UL++++ P++++ L+++>++++ !E W+++$ N+ o? K-
w(++) !O M-- V-- PS PE++ Y+ PGP++ t+ 5+ X+ R- tv+ b+ DI++++ D++
G+ !e h--- r+++ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------