Introduction

I have been working (professionally) in the field of Information Technology in some capacity or another since as early as 1990/1991, but my exposure to computer technology goes back as far as 1984/1985 when I first learned to write code (BASIC) on a Tandy TRS-80!

Platforms and Operating Systems

Over the years I have had the pleasure of using a plethora of platforms and operating systems related to Apple 2/2e, Apple iOS, Apple OS 7-9, Apple OS X, CP/M, HP-UX, IBM OSR2, Linux, MS-DOS, MS Windows, Tandy TRS-80, Tandy CoCo 3, and VMS/VAX!

In my professional life however, the list is considerably pared down to “The Big Three” platforms… Apple OS X,  Linux, and Microsoft Windows.

Coding vs Scripting

I have spent my fair share of time in the IDE/editor; flinging code and script to the tune of BASIC, Bash (Shell), Batch (MS-DOS), C/C++, HTML/XHTML, JavaScript/JScript, Pascal, Perl, Miva Script, MS QuickBASIC, REALbasic, SQL, TI-BASIC, VBScript, VisualBASIC, and XML.

Over the years, I’ve written some fairly rudimentary applications to meet whatever “need” I had at the time.

Back in 1999, I wrote a compiled, MS QuickBASIC, MS-DOS application that allowed the deployment of SAP R/3 across classfull subnets on a hybrid IPX/TCP-IP network. This application allowed us to deploy SAP R/3 to various Regional Services Center servers around the country with just a few keystrokes.

In 2002-2003, I assisted the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department with the revamp of their ancient MS-DOS-based 911 system. 80,000+ lines of code and 13-months later, we launched a decentralized, $12.5-million dollar 911 that is still in use to this day!

Once upon a time in 2007, I once wrote a REALbasic application just for fun. I compiled it as a Universal Binary for OS X. The app was called “Ohm’s Law & Power Formula Calculator”. I released it to the public domain and then I forgot all about it. Recently, on a whim, I decided to perform a Google search for OLAPFC. Low and behold, my tiny little app is still available for download. The best part is, it still runs on the latest version of OS X (10.13.2 as of this writing)!

Click here to learn more about OLAPFC!

These days, my coding is limited to “scripting” – primarily in bash on OS X (macOS) with an emphasis in Mac and Jamf administration in the enterprise.

All Mac, All The Time + Jamf Pro

I never really liked the Macintosh platform. I was always a “DOS/Windows” guy that “knew some Linux”. Once Apple released OS X, that changed everything.

Around 2004-ish, I had to support a very small handful of OS X 10.3 systems in the enterprise.

In 2007, Apple released the iPhone 2 and I was supporting that too!

Fast forward a few years and I was supporting 50+ Macs and working with Carbon Copy Cloner, then later Deploy Studio.

In 2012, I got my lucky break and joined Workday where I took command of their Jamf Casper Imaging 7.x server and a fleet of about 1500 Macs. We soon upgraded to the full Jamf Casper Suite v8.x, then 9.x and then Jamf CMA, CCA, and CJA certification happened.

My career has not been the same since. I rarely, if ever touch Windows endpoints (workstations or servers). My world is now a steady diet of Apple Macintosh, various flavors of Linux (CentOS, RHEL, Ubuntu, etc.) and Jamf Pro.

I’ve recently been invited to speak professionally as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and it looks like there may be more to come in the near future.

I’ve gone from amateur hobbyist to professional IT Generalist, to a focused Apple/Jamf DevOps career.

I look forward to what my future has in store for me!