About

I am a UNIX/Linux systems administrator and trainer, here to help keep the lights on for our sociotechnical civilization.

Professional Background

I am a master generalist systems administrator, with a specialty in configuration management.

I’ve mentored, apprenticed and trained system administrators and other fine operations professionals.

I’ve worked in a variety of environments, large and small. I’ve been the only sysadmin and I’ve been a member of a large team. More than once, I’ve been the first Ops hire. Thumbs up emoji.

Notable Experience

I started my UNIX Sysadmin career at EarthLink in the late nineties as the Internet went mainstream.

I saw digital cinema explode onto the scene and replace film faster than anyone in the industry expected at Deluxe Digital Cinema in the oughties.

In the teens, I encouraged the sysadmin world to adopt configuration management as a trainer and consultant at Vertical Sysadmin.

In the twenties I experienced another high-velocity growth event, the advent of our AI overlords, as the first SRE at Perplexity AI.

I am now working at Yahoo, helping to operate one of the world’s largest infrastructures.

All in good fun.

Personal Background

I’m from a country that doesn’t exist any more, a little evil empire called the Soviet Union.

I was in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1982 when we celebrated the 1,500th anniversary of the city. There was a wall around Old Kyiv and a fortress gate, the Golden Gate. It didn’t help when the Mongols came.

I was in the countryside near Kyiv in April 1986, pulling up brush, when Chernobyl happened. The mushrooms and chestnuts grew to unusual size that year. Nobody took them, they looked wrong. We still had the May Day parade. We didn’t know.

After we found out (thanks to my uncle calling us from America – what do you mean you are still there? don’t you know?! Get out!!), we moved to Odessa on the Black Sea for the summer and then to Estonia for about a year. Part of my heart is still there, in Kloogarand, on the Baltic shore. I saw dunes slowly migrating down the beach, the wind moving them a grain of sand at a time.

We came back to Kyiv in 1988 to finalize our immigration paperwork and receive our “traitor to the motherland” stamps. The Soviets took away my grandfather’s World War II medals. He had to file down his wedding ring to stay under the gold export quota.

I was 12 years old when we came to the USA. I have a whole separate story about how my family was permitted to leave, then denied permission, then permitted to leave again ten years later. I have another story about how I found out I wasn’t Russian.

I went to high school in Los Angeles and attended Brandeis University outside Boston.

My professional education consisted of on-the-job training at EarthLink and classes at USENIX LISA. I am ridiculously happy I got to teach at LISA before it closed.

My wife is from Australia and my daughter was born in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. I tell her that means she is a princess. “That’s not how that works, Dad.”

I now live in Central Texas hill country, with my wife, daughter and three doodles. You can get a taste of our country life in Photography.

For more details about my work, please see my Tutorials, Writing and Conference Presentations.

Want to know what I’m up to right now? Check out my Now page.