“Hello World!”
While most About Me pages on websites give a short background of the author or company, I dont think they always give the real reason why their now where they are now. So I am going to try to give you a short introduction as to why I am who I am now.
My name is Christopher Jones.
I started on technology at a young age, being born right into the middle of the age of the technological and communication revolution of the late 1980’s. I had the opportunity to grow at the same time technology really grew. I think my curiosity may have begun at a very young age, as my mother would say, I was taking things apart since I was old enough to turn a screwdriver. Not that I got things back together too often, but my curiosity often led me to trying to figure out how things worked.
My interest in computers started when I was 10, and I received my first computer, a hand me down from a family friend. The dull off white desktop box of hope, with a good old matching dull off white monitor on-top, boasted a whopping 250mhz Processor and 32mb of ram and ran on Windows 95, and while that thing doesn’t sound like it was much today, it was the most fascinating thing I have had ever touched when I was a kid, it brought me to a world that I had never been to before.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was a normal kid. I Ioved the outdoors, camping, fishing, and sports, but when I got the chance, I loved to go to that computer world and see what it had to offer, and every time I came out knowing something new it seemed.
As I grew up, I taught myself alot of things, coming from not a so well off family and being raised by a single mother, I learned to try to get things figured out myself. That being said, that old 250mhz computer didn’t last forever and eventually we needed a new one. Because my mother couldn’t afford something brand new, we went to a local computer repair shop and the shop owner threw us one together for $400. According to the repair shop owner, this thing was going to last a while and was built with some of the best parts money could buy. 5 months later the hard drive went out, and the guy had no warranty on his work, so we went without. In the meantime I learned and taught myself how to be familiar with how the computer was put together and worked. I managed that next summer to mow enough lawns to buy a new hard drive and install it myself. I then installed Windows 95 myself all of which was a totally new experience, from then on, when a new computer was needed for my needs, I saved up and built it myself.
As I grew older, my knowledge grew. I begin to find interest in not only the hardware, and software side of things, but also a great interest in the design side as well. In high school, I struck an interest in digital design, photography and web design. My first digital design class in high school opened my mind to a whole new side of things. Because of the time and work my teacher put into teaching us, I really learned more then I ever imagined. After that I went on to take 2 to 3 more digital design courses and really found Photoshop to be one the greatest software tools ever made.
In high school, I managed to obtain a job at a local Radioshack and stuck around through my AA, and AS IT degree. Even though I was only a Sales Associate, I really gained a keen eye on how marketing and advertising really affected sales. In addition, I had an opportunity to not only immerse myself in technology, but also help and share with others my knowledge of technology. I think everyone should spend some time in retail at some point in their life, it hones alot of useful skills, and gives you a greater respect for people around you.
Eventually, I ended up progressing my employment to a better position elsewhere doing remote server administration and troubleshooting. My new job greatly improved my knowledge as well as sparked a new interest in Unix/Linux operating systems, and helped me pick up many new skills in the way of command line, scripting, database administration/management and remote server administration. This continues today, with a lot of my side projects, like my networked attached server, the SecurityPi, my media center pc, and various other projects I am working/worked on.
4 years down the road, with a new family (my wife and kids), I received an opportunity to be an engineer at another great company and made the jump. With the change I ended up picking up alot of great new skills in .net/C# development along with a greater understanding of combustion engine dynamics and vehicle electronic systems.
In the mean time, I have become a huge advocate of the open source community/culture and really feel energized when I see everyday people come up with the amazing things. I really feel the whole maker movement is an awesome thing.
Here we are today, as an UCF Alumni, and working as a Professional in a Dev-Ops role at a great company in the gaming industry, I still take every chance I can to learn something new, or to see how I can challenge myself just a little more and I offer unto you all, all I know and have learned.
If you have any input/feedback on anything feel free to comment and/or contact me.