Hello,

I’m Andrew, just one of the many awesome people who have come to reside in the house of awesomeness (ok so I’m actually not in the house just yet.. moving in july). But I’ve been there and the intention to reside there is clear. That and I’ve already dumped a whole heap of stuff in my new room last time I was in Adelaide.

I figured I’d steal the “first post!” title as even thou I’m not the one who set this up, I’m online at this late hour

Who am I and what do I do?

A little bit about myself first up. I’m the Head Network Administrator for a non-disclosed provider of managed internet services for hotels and uni’s across Australia. I’m also a self professed nerk, who has a love for all things gadgety and I tinker with computers, networks and play computer games in my spare time. (Yes, I both work and relax with computers )

I’m currently 20, birthday is in August. Drink of choice is vodka lemon and lime or lemon lime and bitters if I’m having an easy night

How I met the other awesomites (or housemates, if you don’t speak awesome )

Michael: I’ve known Michael for around 2 years now, originally met online on a private community website, met in person during some random meetups in Brisvegas (Thats Brisbane, QLD) along with some other awesome IT chaps.

Monnie: I met monnie on twitter, was originally looking for adelaide people to catchup with next time I was down there (for work). Monnie was linked to me by @bengrubb and although I missed meeting her that trip, I did catchup and meet with @jase88, a good friend of hers. I also lay claim to introducing Michael and Monnie. They owe me like.. at least a packet of timtams for that, seeing as they’re going out and all.

Shane: Met first time I came to the new house, we have a shared love of technological tomfoolery and the internets. I hope to bring shane to a total Mikrotik conversion as I use them everywhere and love them long time. Having known him for only a short time, I’m still able to tell you that shane appears to be prone to the same strain of  ”attention-deficit-ohh-shiney-disorder”, looking over his gaming computer (note: G25 steering wheel, among other bits and pieces) shows a man who also loves his gizmos and gadgets. Shane is married to the loverly Anne whom is mentioned here \/

Anne: Introduced to me as the “least technical member of the house” anne still beeps and boops better than my old man (and I thought I’d trained him well). Being able to pair her mobile phone up with a computer and suck internets down on the phone is a feature she came preinstalled with (or so I’m told). Either way, Anne is set to be a great co-player for guitar hero and any other multiplayer game-a-thon’s we hold in the future.

Scott: An ex-boilermaker, scott owns what I believe is the only prebuilt PC in the house, an Acer Predator system (careful not to drool on your keyboard) and enjoys gaming as much as the rest of us, along with an avid channel BT watcher.

What can I do for you:

Although I currently work full time and am on call for major outages in my company, I also particpate nearly daily on the mikrotik forums, along with writing and developing my own mikrotik scripts for making my and other’s lifes in the network simpler, faster and better overall.

I’m also a current member of the adelaide air-stream community wireless network and expect to be helping them out and getting my own links into the airstream network up and running in the next month.

I occasionally do network consulting for 3rd parties, mostly on either free or “pay what you think I’m worth” basis. I do this because I’d rather be given interesting and unique oportunities to help people out than turned down because I’m asking for something back.

With this in light, I’ve done consulting for 3 companies in Australia, 1 in Canada, 1 in Spain; most all of these on a re-occuring basis.

I’m currently planning to get down to business and finally get my CCNA this year. I’m not entirely sure I need it so much as I need a qualification to prove to people I know what I’m talking about, but the references I have can vouch for this anyway

I’ve also got plans at some stage to create myself a mobile NOC in a van.. similar to what you see on TV when the FBI/CIA etc pulls up outside someone’s house.. only mine will be a one person setup and I plan on showing the world.

Companies and people I admire:

Mark Newton and Internode (an Australia ISP), Mark for his work on setting the public straight on Australia’s “filtered internet” debarcle (ongoing) and Internode for their commitment to providing decently priced reliable internet services to home and business users.

Curtis Bayne and Chombo (an Australian webhost), I use chombo to host a couple of my own sites.. pricing is fantastic, I’ve met the staff in person but even before that they were always incredibly responsive and willing to help out with any questions I had.

Ben Grubb and TechwiredAU (an Australian Technology News website) for bringing useful and interesting tech news to Australia, also for their interesting stories that go beyond what other news sites think of along with interviews of relevant Australian IT people, all this from a fellow who is younger than myself!

So thats about it for me, I’ll happily answer most any questions people have about me or what I do.

You can follow me on twitter as: @omegatron