From Mathematics to Computers, with a long and winding road of education in two countries.

I fell into computers while in College and decided that it would be a good idea to study this field further as opposed to mathematics: I saw no future in mathematics except in teaching or research. My first year of University landed me at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. If you are not familiar with the Canterbury Tales, then it behooves you to know that Canterbury is well known by literati due to the famous author who wrote this collection of stories: Geoffrey Chaucer who lived from 1342 to 1400, who travelled on diplomatic errands throughout Europe as a knight of the shire for Kent. My days at the University of Kent were filled with study and the wonder of a unique and historically significant city. Today, the University of Kent is known for computer science as well as a major mirror for software distribution. Students have ranked the University of Kent as the top university in the south-east according to the first National Student Survey (NSS) of over 285,000 students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Close to the end of my first year in Canterbury, I came home one day on my usual train ride to Strood, Kent, and was told that we were headed to Canada. My mother, God bless her soul, had been in cahoots with my elder brother in Canada, who had convinced her that we should move to Canada for a better future. Trying to disagree with Indian elders is a losing battle, so we were off to Canada.

After losing six months during the transition to Canada in the fall of 1980, I landed in the second year of my Computer Science degree at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Unbeknownst to me, this was indeed a wise choice. The University of Waterloo appeared to be well respected, especially in the Computer Science and Engineering disciplines. I graduated in 1985 from the University of Waterloo with an Honours Degree in Computer Science.

Over the years, I have taken many professional courses to complement my degree, such as:

  • VMware Infrastructure
  • ITIL Foundations (IT Infrastructure Library), 2005, Vancouver, BC
  • CISSP (Certified Information Security Specialist), 2004, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, 1995, Vancouver, BC
  • Canadian Securities Course 1988, Canadian Securities Commission, Toronto, ON
  • Plus numerous courses on project management, systems analysis, et al.

My technical skills include the following:

  • Operating Systems: MS Windows 2003/2000 Server, MS Windows XP/2000 desktop; MS Active Directory; Linux (Debian, Red Hat); VMWare ESX/Infrastructure; Novell Netware v5.x; Macintosh OS X.
  • Web/Directory Tools: Apache; Sun ONE Web Server (formerly iPlanet), Sun ONE Directory Server; MS IIS; WebTrends Web stats; Content Management: XOOPS, Drupal, Zope.
  • E-Mail: MS Exchange Server 5.5/2000; Novell Groupwise
  • Security/Firewall Tools: Cisco Pix 525, Cisco Web Admin, Kiwi Syslog, Snare, Nessus, Tripwire, and Anti-Virus Tools: Sophos, McAfee, Norton
  • Server Backup: Veritas Backup Exec, Retrospect
  • Remote Management and Alerting: IBM Director, VNC and Zebedee (for secure access), LogCheck Reporting: Crystal Enterprise 10, Crystal Reports 10.
  • Productivity: MS Office 2003/2000, and associated add-on s such as Access, Excel. Plus MS Project, Visio.
  • Network: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX; Fiber; T1; ISDN and Ethernet, SSH, VPN, SSL, FTP, Telnet, PGP, Intermapper, Nortel NetID, Nortel Switches.
  • Development Tools: ColdFusion, HTML, JavaScript, Visual Basic, FrontPage, Oracle, MS SQL Server
  • Design/CASE Tools: ERWin, System Architect.

The information technology field is a constantly changing landscape where you need to keep on your toes to avoid being left behind. I find it both challenging and enjoyable to stay ahead of the curve.