October 2011 - Bill Kirwin

Ubuntu 11.10

Oct 222011

Hooray! After a few hours of struggle, I now have Gnome Classic running with the window picker option enabled and working. What a piece of shit Unity is. Also, my netbook is noticeably slower in 11.10 than 11.04. May have to add the extra stick of RAM after all…

Billy Kirwin

Information Technology Thaumaturgist

Barnstable/Yarmouth, Massachusetts Area | Building Materials

Summary

I like computers.

I’ve pretty much been around tech my whole life. I got to play around with DECmate Dan in the late 70’s, and got an early start playing with my Wang in the early 80’s. Dialing into local BBS’s was fun, but I never did crack the password to WOPR.

Nowadays, I really enjoy learning new ways of getting the most out of the technology I can get my hands on. I enjoy working with Unix like systems, where it is real easy to modify open-sourced code to do what you want.

I am pretty good at needs assessment, workflow optimization, and disaster recovery planning/implementation at the small - mid sized business level.

I like to keep the business networks I support as simple as possible, so that I can spend the bulk of my time focusing on finding ways to optimize workflow for the people I work with and working on developing new skills based on what new tech I find intriguing. The right amount of security, balanced with simple recovery procedures makes for a nice, low-stress work environment where most issues are solved by quoting Chris O’Dowd from the IT Crowd: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

I believe it is critical to develop an understanding of business operations and goals before implementing any technology. One cannot truly anticipate all system design requirements without having an intimate understanding of the business process.

After working outsourced IT for many years, I am happy to serve as in-house IT department for a single organization. It is very satisfying to be able to constantly optimize and improve our operating environment, while also having the time to learn a thing or two along the way.

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