The Gray Geek

home[public]
Home page
technology[public]
For those who insist on seeing acronyms, this is techno-babble about tools I use in my work, to give an idea of my technical skills.
programming[public]
I build web sites, in PHP and MySQL, or Java, or Ruby on Rails. Here are examples and information.
networks & security[public]
My "first love" has always been operating systems, networking and network services, including security. Here are details on my credentials.
consulting[public]
I'm a retired CTO of a very large, well known international organization, with skills to help better manage IT.
cto services[public]
Small organizations that want help in addressing their total information services requirements can get a part-time but fully skilled CTO on a retainer basis.

Technology

This is some information about the technical environment in which I operate. It is meant to give some idea of the technologies I know how to use to those people who are technically inclined. If you don't speak "geek" these links won't be helpful.

The problem with a list like this is trying to keep it up to date. If it appears out of date, it probably is.

Servers

I manage mutliple servers in linux, for my own services, using Fedora and Ubuntu; and in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I've configured and run the standard services: apache, mysql, named, dhcpd, iptables, postfix, spamassassin, ntpd, subversion, samba, sshd, cupsd, vnc, and cyrus-imap. I also have some recent experience with gentoo, and some years back have managed Debian and Slackware.

Web

I run Apache on several of the boxes I manage, as well as Tomcat 5. I have programmed Java Servlets and Java Applets. I've also built a site with Ruby on Rails, but most of the sites I build are LAMP, with all the normal CSS, javascript, and ajax.

I host about a dozen websites, including 4-5 for other people.

See the programming page for information about some of the sites and how to see them.

Development

These days I program mostly in PHP, Java, and C/C++. I used to teach C++. I've programmed some Ruby, some Perl, and some Tcl/Tk. I programmed in a lot of the old languages back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I also write javascript, CSS, and Ajax, using prototype and jscript. I've done some BIRT for my own billing reports.

I develop in Eclipse, and when outside eclipse I use emacs. Everything I work on is in a subversion repository.

Security

I've built dozens of firewalls with iptables. I can use openssl and have built my own CA. I use ssh to manage websites, and have public key authentication set up for all of them. I have gpg/pgp keys and X.509 certificates available on my website, and my mail is set up for encryption and signatures. I am a Thawte notary. My websites do ssl with a certificate from CACert. I'm a recovering CISSP.

Other

Some miscellaneous other stuff:

I have set up an Asterisk server, and got it working but was not satisfied with the voice quality I was getting from broadvoice, so I'm not currently using it.
I've set up a couple of sites in Tiki-Wiki, and have patched the Tiki-Wiki code extensively. I've downloaded and experimented with Joomla, pretty much the same thing.
I built my own kernels for years, but stopped doing that a few years ago, and just use stock kernels now. I've submitted a handful of kernel patches, in past years.