I’ve spent most of my life around computers — I first started using computers when I was about 8 months old — and I spend my days as a “computer creature”.

I use Mac OS X (10.7+, memory leaks galore), FreeBSD (from 4.5 onwards) and Fedora Linux (from 7 onwards) on a daily basis. I’ve also had experience with Sun Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, AmigaDOS and, annoyingly, Windows (including Windows Server).

I’m a proficient sysadmin on a variety of flavours of *nix-like systems; my preference is for BSDs, but I have a good grip on System V-derived systems (Linux, Solaris). I’m also currently learning Windows Server administration, ostensibly to improve my prospects for employment, but really just so I can use the inordinately heavy training books to hit people with.

I program, too, in a wide variety of languages. Perl, Java, Zsh, Lisp and Ruby are my most used and comfortable programming languages, but I have a working knowledge of, in no particular order, C, C++, Objective C, JavaScript, Scheme, XQuery, SQL93 (MySQL and SQLite), PHP 5, TeX/LaTeX, troff, XSLT, and XSL-FO.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call HTML, CSS and DocBook XML real programming languages, but I’m proficient in them, too, as I am in Markdown, LESS, and Sass/SCSS, and with Makefiles.

Graphic design and typography has long been one of my major hobbies. I have been focussed on typography since 2006 when I first started working with LyX, and my interest in graphic design grew from there.

I’m a competent TeX (yes, plain TeX) and proficient LaTeX user. I’ve had experience with Adobe’s graphics and page design tools — notably InDesign and Illustrator — as well as free solutions like Scribus and Inkscape. I’ve also used, in the past, troff and XSL-FO, but I’m much less proficient with them.

Nowadays, I work with HTML as my page and CSS as my pen — I do web design and development of static brand sites and dynamic web experiences, typically in conjunction with a friend of mine.

When I’m not at my workstation, I also experiment with photography, cooking, music production (usually hopeless). I’m also an amateur stage and voice actor as well as a production technician and stage manager.

I enjoy Doctor Who, Castle, Firefly, Bones, Chuck, Fringe and The IT Crowd. I read prolifically, notably Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, and far too much science fiction (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Bradbury, Niven, Van Vogt, etc.) to be healthy.

Once upon a time, I also had a black-belt in tae-kwon-do. That’s inactive currently, although I plan to pick that up again, apparently in an attemt to improve my currently non-existent exercise regime. You can’t run to put out server fires if you can’t run.

According to Last.fm, I’m into electronic, chillout, jazz, lounge and downtempo music, including Emancipator, Caravan Palace, Bonobo, Röyksopp, Jean-Michel Jarre, Professor Kliq, Tape Five, Flying Lotus, The Cinematic Orchestra. I have a strange allergy to anything particularly mainstream.