Welcome to the Average Joe IT Blog. The focus of this blog will be all things Information Technology (IT) related, with some security tossed in for good measure. I was introduced to the Information Technology field in the mid-’80s in high school. I was a computer nerd well before computers were what they are today. The first real computer I worked on was the Apple IIe we had in school. I was the one who helped set them up, and I stayed late making silly little programs in BASIC. After High School, I joined the Marine Corps, and I was trained as an operator on a SunOS Unix system, which needed a SysAdmin, so they trained me in that. Around that time, I started to learn Windows 3.0 (although I already had some experience with Windows 2.1). Shortly after, I picked up a side job as a computer rep in the Marine Corps Exchange. That led me to start my own company servicing computers and teaching them. My time as a SysAdmin for SunOS rolled into Solaris (to include several versions of Sun386i and OpenWindows). I even had a stint as an instructor in the Marine Corps, teaching Solaris System Administrator. When I exited the Corps, I landed a Windows NT 3.51 system admin job. That migrated into Windows Server 2000 and then 2003 (both of which I was a Microsoft Certified System Engineer) and the desktop versions of Windows 2000 and XP. Today, I keep my training and certifications up to date, and I have worked on server and workstation versions (2000, Me, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11).

Today, I still service computers professionally and on the side, and I design websites for a local small business.

My professional career has progressed to include Information Assurance (IA) and Cyber Security specialties and skills, so my background in IT and Security is vast and lengthy.