Profile

I am a Computer Science graduate with more than 21 years experience of Systems Administration of Linux, Solaris and web systems. In addition I have experience of many other aspects of computing gained through varied vacation employment, personal projects and academic study.

Employment History

University of Warwick - Computer Science

Nov. 2002 - present (promoted 2009)

• System Administration: 12 Servers, 300 workstations and 70 clusters nodes running RedHat Enterprise Linux. Handled large part of change over from previous Solaris systems. On going maintenance of the Kickstart build system and manage all new releases deployments (typically every 2 years).
• Web Development: Deploying solutions for the department using PHP, CSS, Javascript, MySQL and Apache.
• Networking: manage all netfilter/IP tables usage on all machines, Ethereal/tcpdump/snoop usage for diagnostics, design and maintenance of departments vLANs and routing. Administration of DHCP servers.
• Security: Key staff member for security issues, taking a proactive role in improving and maintaining systems security. Advisor for security undergraduate module and create compulsory worksheet on web security. Invited to lectures to backup lecturer with additional advice
• Support: Providing support to all academics, staff and students in the department. Including Windows, Linux, MacOS X, Android and iPhone platforms.
• Photography: Departmental photographer, photos taken for graduations and new staff. Pictures shown on two 46 inch TVs to everyone entering the building, used in department official print publications and the website (typically the front page).

University of Bath - Computing Services (BUCS)

July - Oct. 2002

• Design of a web-based staff expertise within the University utilising a database that can be updated by academics and searched by anyone
• Implemented the system with PHP on the frontend and LDAP on the backend
• Migration of old data, testing, debugging and roll out

Vacation Employment

University of Bath - Computing Services (BUCS)

July - Sept. 2001

• Design and implementation of a news management system using a PHP frontend for content editing and RSS generation interfacing to a MySQL back end
• Investigated converting the Universities' Postgraduate Prospectus into a XML common content form for conversion into various final forms using XSLT and PHP

University of Bath - Computing Services (BUCS) & Vectura Ltd

June - Sept. 2000

• Investigation and testing of new services to be provided by BUCS
• Support of approximately 100 workstations and a server all running Windows NT

University of Bath - Admin Dept & Computing Services (BUCS)

June - Sept. 1999

• 1st level support duties including software installation, hardware upgrades and repair
• I was also consulted on specifications for an order of 170 PCs

University of Bath - Computing Services (BUCS)

July - Sept. 1997

• Creation of web pages using a mixture of a WYSIWYG editor and HTML source

Qualifications

Linux Professional Institute (LPI)
2006

Linux Professional Institute Certification Level 1 (LPIC-1)

University of Leicester
1999-2002

BSc (Hons) Computer Science 2.1

St. Augustine's RC School, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
1992-1999
A levels

• Business Studies [B]
• Mathematics [C]
• Physics [E]

GCSEs

Eight GCSEs including Maths [A] and English [C].

Skills

Details of my knowledge in various computing technologies:

Programming

I am very experienced in these technologies:

• Bash Scripting
• HTML / XHTML / CSS / Javascript / jQuery / DOM
• PHP
• SQL (MySQL)
• XML / DOM / REST

Networking

I have good working knowledge of networks including routing, the TCP/IP protocol stack, VLANs, configuration of managed Ethernet switches, firewall configuration (IP Tables/Chains), trunking technologies & administration of DHCP servers.

Hardware

I am comfortable with all common types of PC hardware upgrades, including building systems from scratch. I have also had some exposure to Sun Hardware repairs and upgrades.

Security

I maintain a active interest in security. I've completed a few security reviews of software and regularly look at issues around this. I've reported two security vulnerabilities in opensource software:

• RedHat Enterprise Linux UDEV Insecure Permissions Vulnerability (CVE-2005-3631)
• phpMyAdmin '$_REQUEST' SQL Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2008-1149)

Degree Course programming projects

• Second year: A management system for controlling hires, loans & stock for a charity, written in PHP using a MySQL database.
• Third year: A price comparison website which retrieves information in XML or CSV and stores it internally using XML, the purpose of which is to compare the prices of certain manufacturers to find the cheapest. It is written using PHP utilising a MySQL database, and an XML parser for reading and writing to my format of XML files.

Personal Details

Other Interests: I am interested in photography and travelling. I cycle and run regularly.
Email Address:
Nationality: British
Driving Licence: Full, clean UK driving licence
References: Available on request