Here, have some questions and answers. Many are close to being correct.
Q: Where am I?
A: You’re viewing niload, my website.
Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Erik Kennedy, and I’m the “my” referenced above.
Q: What do you do?
A: Presently, I’m a Unix Systems Administrator at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the digital media publishing branch of The Washington Post Company. WPNI is responsible for publishing washingtonpost.com, Slate, Newsweek.com, Budget Travel Online, and Sprig.
Q: Okay, so what do *you* do?
A: My main job is to support the Solaris, Linux, and Macintosh systems used to power our various websites and email system (the non-Exchange part). I work with a sub-team of Unix experts in our infrastructure group building out servers, patching Unix systems, and maintaining documentation on our systems.
I started in my current position at WPNI in August 2007. Before then, I was a Systems Support Analyst (which translates more or less to help desk/IT worker), supporting the Macintosh computers and software used in the production of Express, a free daily commuter newspaper distributed throughout the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. I also worked with the rest of the technology group at WPNI, supporting the Macs in use at the company but also performing a variety of IT tasks.
Prior to joining WPNI in January 2004, I worked for four-and-a-half years at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. I worked for a contracting company and was the sole Mac-based help desk tech for the institute, although we did have other techs with Mac experience. Our team provided help desk support, while another provided network support.
Before that, I worked for two years on a contract with what was at the time GE Information Services (since sold to another company), providing phone-based Macintosh support to a field sales force for a Fortune 5 company with approximately 3,000 Mac laptops and desktops — if you really want to know who, drop me a line. I worked on the evening-shift team and took a variety of calls on hardware and software issues. (It’s also where I met my wife.)
Before that, things get a little hazy. I did a three-year stint with Bentley’s Luggage and Gifts (since purchased by Wilsons Leather and disbanded) as a retail sales associate, but I wasn’t all that good at it. It did teach me a lot about providing support to customers, though, something for which I’m grateful to this day.
Q: Do you do anything else?
A: Not really. I’m a little light on hobbies and interests at the moment, something I’m hoping to change.
Q: What’s your educational background?
A: Hah, aren’t you funny. It’s a rather sore subject with me, but basically, I blew my chance to go to college full-time when I was 22, and I’ve only been able to make half-hearted attempts to return since then. As a result, I do not have an undergraduate degree, which limits my marketability, degrades my social status, and keeps me awake at night. But thanks for asking!
Q: Wow, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.
A: Sorry. Anyway, although I don’t have a formal degree, I do have a few IT certifications. I’m an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator for Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server v10.3, and also a Red Hat Certified Technician for Red Hat Enterprise Linux v4. I’m thinking about acquiring a Microsoft certifications just for the heck of it.
Q: So, you’re a Mac user?
A: Yes, I’ve owned Macs since 1989. Before that, I had an Apple //c, and before that, a TRS-80 Model I (my first computer), which should tell you approximately how old I am. However, I’m not a platform zealot, I promise; I also have a PC and I use both platforms regularly, along with increasingly frequent forays into the world of Linux. I do prefer the Mac, though, in most cases. Right now my personal machine is a MacBook Pro (technically, it’s work’s machine, but let’s not quibble), but there are many others in the house. I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with Macs in a professional capacity since 1997.
Q: What’s the site for?
A: It’s essentially my conduit to expression, on topics which interest me. Currently, those include local and national media articles of interest (particularly those concerning the Post and its assorted properties); Apple products and services, particularly on the server side; our cats and their various antics; and the occasional interesting tidbit that catches my fancy. It’s not much, but it sure is there.
Q: What does the title mean?
A: It refers to a now-out-of-date command-line utility in NeXTStep / OpenStep / Mac OS X used to load information into a NetInfo domain. (It’s a Mac thing.) For more information, see the man page for niload(8). In case you’re wondering, erikkennedy.com was taken long ago.
Originally, I picked the name because a) it was short and relatively easy to spell, and b) it symbolized my goal of providing Mac-related knowledge. Although I’ve expanded my interests, I think it still applies in a broader context… more or less.
Q: Any technical details about the site?
A: Sure, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s powered by Wordpress, and in the old days ran on a very cranky blue and white Power Mac G3 running Mac OS X Server. Following the blue G3’s retirement and a brief but exceptionally noisy interlude with my wife’s old Mirrored Drive Door G4, I’m now borrowing space at Dreamhost (the referral link there is not for me, but for a friend of mine). I do own a slot-load G4-based Xserve to which I’m hoping to migrate everything at some point; right now, it’s serving as a test bed for a variety of tasks at work.
Q: Anything else?
A: Well, let’s see. I’m a moderate Democrat, I’m married, and I own approximately 1.67 NewtonOS-powered devices for each household member. As mentioned, I also live with (at the moment) three cats; you’ll see them elsewhere on the site.
Q: Do you seriously expect anybody to still be reading this at this point?
A: Are you kidding? I don’t even expect people to make it to the site, let alone here. There’s no prize for reading the whole thing, sorry.