Time for an introduction

How rude, I haven't really introduced myself yet.

I am Jack Daniel. Really. It was dad's name, too. Long story for another day, but it has nothing to do with the black label/square bottle guy.

I am "the computer guy" for a family of small businesses south of Boston, Massachusetts. I have performed many different jobs throughout the years. IT has been part of my work since the late 80's and has been full-time since the late 90's. Like most small business IT people, I handle a wide variety of things, from changing toner cartridges for those "special" end-users to desktop support to network, server and security design, deployment and maintenance. I have been interested in information security for a while and have spent the past several years trying to absorb as much security information as I can.

I was not a hacker or even a computer enthusiast in school. In those days and for several years beyond, I was a car guy. But, it turns out that an interest in "how stuff works" and how to "build, break and fix stuff" translates well from one field to another- so I was well served by my years as a mechanic. There were several years of various management positions between twisting wrenches and twisted pairs, but please don't hold that against me.

I am also a technology "community activist". Since discovering user groups many years ago I have been active in several groups and have assumed some leadership roles in the local user group community. Community participation in general, and user groups in particular, will be a recurring theme in this blog.

When not working on or playing with computers I have a few non-tech hobbies that I wish I could spend more time with- wood carving, boat building and blacksmithing. Another group of things around the recurring themes of "how stuff works" and "build/break/fix stuff".

That's enough for now-
Jack