About
My name is Michael Valentine, most people call me Mike. I am currently attending the University of Louisville where I am majoring in Computer Information Systems, concentrating in Information Security. Some of my hobbies include computing, percussion, hiking, swimming, camping, and sailing.
I developed an interest in technology when I was very young (I can't recall exactly what age). I am mostly self-taught through the internet, books, and extensive experience solving all sorts of interesting problems.
During high school I spent a lot of time mastering Windows XP and sampling a Windows Server technology here and there. I had planned on working toward the MCSE certification, but quickly became frustrated while studying for the XP exam. So much of the practice material I encountered included questions with answers that were, in my opinion, debatable. Some answers were even incorrect. I decided that I didn't need the certification--if someone interviewing me decides that I'm not worth hiring because of a lack of it, I don't want to work for them. And besides, I got distracted...
I started playing with Linux beginning somewhere between 2001-2002 with Mandrake Linux (9.0, I think). By now I've tried all of the major distributions at least once and I've got some favorites: Debian for servers, CentOS is good for servers too (I use it at work), and Ubuntu on the desktop. My primary desktop usually runs Ubuntu, but I seem to change my operating system more often than I shave. If it can run VMware and Firefox, I can survive on it. FreeBSD is cool too. I've been meaning to spend some more time with it, especially now since it has some preliminary ZFS support!
Here's a long, incomplete, and unordered list of acronyms, projects, and technologies that I have some experience with (some more than others, of course): Samba, OpenLDAP, Bash, Perl, Python, PHP, C#, Java, VB, MS Access, MySQL, SQLite, SQL Server, IIS, Apache, DNS, DHCP, IPv4 addressing/routing, OpenVPN, P2P software, NTP, SSL, public-key cryptography.