Michael A. Smith | Do you know the fu?

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My name is Michael A. Smith. I'm a computer consultant specializing in web-to-database application development. I also do Unix sysadmin work. Check out the skills page for details on scope of experience and the employment page for details on where I've worked. Like all good programmers, I've been to school and have a degree in Philosophy (me and Larry Wall). I'm currently a divinity student at Wesley Theological Seminary.

I have years of experience designing and building applications for a diverse clientele. Working for digitalNATION and VERIO, I managed accounts for clients such as PBS and Mount Vernon. Doing many jobs for many clients allowed be to build a diverse set of skills and taught me to get the job done on my own. I've also spent years working for a single company -- wcities -- developing and implementing long-range technology plans for a complex content management system with a team of programmers.

I know many developers who are hamstrung by their lack of sysadmin experience. Likewise, I know few sysadmins who can do large-scale application design. I've tried to build experience in both areas -- development and sysadmin -- letting each inform the other on best practices. You can judge a craftsman by his tools. I have the experience to manage the tools of my craft by myself, without relying on sysadmins with little knowledge of the development chain to configure, compile, and manage them.

I've worked on a variety of Linux systems over the years: Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Slackware. I've also worked on both SunOS and Solaris. My main preference in the past few years has become FreeBSD. To me, it seems leaner, cleaner, and much easier to keep up-to-date (YMMV).

digital I use a variety of x86-compatible PCs for day-to-day work, from a trusty old 486 (the first Intel machine I got after my Macintosh days were over) to a 1GHz Athlon. My servers are both DEC Alphas (a PWS433au and a Server 3300R). I really love the Alpha platform. I run FreeBSD on both my Alphas and my x86-compatibles.

I'm currently running XFCE on my FreeBSD workstations and think it's the best window manager I've ever used. It clears away the KDE clutter I never needed and its memory footprint is a mere fraction of KDE's. XFCE is the creation of Olivier Fourdan and the whole XFCE team. kudos!

Like all right-thinking people, I do all my work with vi. I especially prefer Bram Moolenaar's VIM, with syntax highlighting.

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