MMS 2024 Flamingo Edition

I have over 25 years of broad IT experience including fleet/desktop endpoint management, server administration (Linux and Windows), and applications architecture and development. Theatre nerd and participant, mustache aficionado, storyteller, technology grief counselor, governance/process geek, diplomat, father of two, and jack of many trades.

For over 15 years I have been in higher education in the University of Minnesota system. Before my time in higher education, I developed an application (and its pre-smartphone era handheld companion app) for a startup. This app package was used by independent ag/crop consultants from central Canada to northern Texas, and used nationwide in Canada by a global agribusiness giant.

I like to fiddle with code and periodically Make Things, including a handful of novelty Twitter bots and their Bluesky ports along with a Slack-integrated weather bot. I'm also into 3D printing, home automation, playing roles in community theatre productions, and am enjoying some "free time" after recently completing a five-year run serving as president of a local nonprofit community theatre organization.

At the office I try to lead the change to a more DevOps/automated mindset. I also enjoy evangelizing Certbot for the automation of SSL certificate management and promoting the idea of "embracing laziness as the driver of innovation."

Lastly, I am the creator of the (sadly retired) Twitter MMSMOA Retweet Bot (@mmsmoabot), which was something fun and frivolous to make before Twitter screwed up their API access. Though it's gone, I still love to talk about it and/or share one of the remaining bot stickers with you...or the limited-edition tchotchkes I've been printing for this edition of MMS!