My Resume / Education / Qualifications

You may view my resume here: Link to my Resume – January 26, 2009.

Here is a short list of my achievements:

Release of Matthouse Web Hosting – October 2005, Humphrey, NY
National Honor Society: 2004-2006 – Ellicottville Central School
Certified CRLA Peer Tutor – May 2006 : Ellicottville Central School
Computer Science Award – June, 2006 : Ellicottville Central School
Regents Diploma – June, 2006 : Ellicottville Central School
Release of podnet.org: Spring 2008
Deans List – Spring 2008 : University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Release of Famousphil.com: Fall 2008
Release of adminreferece.com: Spring 2009
Deans List – Spring 2009 : University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Release of Exchange Hosting on Matthouse – July 2009
Acceptance into MS program for computer science — September 2009
Teaching Assistant for CSE116 (Java 2) – Fall 2009
Fall 2009 – Lecture Series – Developing a Website (for novice users)
Teaching Assistant for CSE111 (Intro to CS Concepts) – Spring 2010

My Story

Hi, welcome to my website! As you probably have guessed, my name is Phil. I am a 1st year Grad Student at the University at Buffalo, majoring in Computer Science. I am completing a combined degree in Computer Science and expect to graduate in May of 2011 with my Bachelors and Masters of science which is a combined degree. I enjoy web design, programming, general computer repair, server administration, and lots of other computer related activities.  As of late, I’ve been heavily involved with server administration and I feel that this will be my future occupation.

My permanent residence resides in the little town of Humphrey, NY, which is about 60 miles south of Buffalo, NY.  Early on, my location has prevented me from advancing with technology as fast as I would have liked to.  However, through determination and perseverance, I have managed to get by with what little technology I was given.  I live in a very rural community that has about 800 residents and thousands of acres of farm land.

I began using computers at Ellicottville Central School around 1995. During school, there was this certain period of time  where our class would go to a computer room (full of macs) for educational purposes.  We were required to complete educational puzzles with this software called “Success Maker.”  It wasn’t until about 1997 that I was introduced to the Internet. My first website was Dogpile (a popular search engine at the time).  Basically our teacher took us to Dogpile and taught us how to search for information pertaining to our research paper assignment.  I remember that I had to write about Yellow Stone National Park and that it had to be entirely typed.  Unfortunately, due to my lack of computing abilities, it took me over 2 weeks of 30 minute computer classes (I’d guess 6 hours) to type a 3 page handwritten paper consisting of 100 words because of my awful handwriting (3 words per line was my average).  Obviously, my handwriting and typing was awful back in the day.

In 1998, I remember having to bring home a portable computer from school.  This take home computer was part of some test to see if the school would order more (which never did happen).  I knew that I was a very slow typer (this was my second time typing a somewhat lengthy  paper) so I felt that it would be best to get one of these.  I’m dedicated, so I spent the entire night (about 8 straight hours) typing up that paper.  Some students lost their work on those computers and had to do it all over again, but thankfully, my data was copied in tact and I was left spell checking my work before printing it off.  I finished in time and luckily everything worked out well!

I began working with computers at home in early 1998 with a Texas Instruments home computer from the late 1970′s. It had 4k of internal memory and was capable of BASIC (yes, that is a language, and surprisingly its still used in some hardware controllers today).  I wrote a few programs on this computer by replicating what the manual had written in it. I don’t remember spending a lot of time with this computer because my typing skills were awful and I didn’t really have the urge to learn how to program back in those days.  It wouldn’t be until about 2001 that I was required to take a course with Mrs. Kaminski on proper typing.  She introduced me to so many opportunities later on that I simply can’t thank her enough.

I later got my first real computer in 2001. It was a 386 with Dos 6.0 and Windows 3.1. When I first got the computer, I loved to experiment and that led to my formatting the system and reinstalling everything from scratch at least a few hundred times.  With the help of my aunt and friends, I learned how to utilize this computer for what it was capable of.  I also learned how to reinstall operating systems and properly set up a computer with this excursion.  In addition, I began figuring out how properly use the command line to talk with this computer. I got rid of this computer in 2009 because of its age (I’d assume the battery died and I didn’t really see a reason to replace it).

My first modern computer was a 800 mhz Micron PC with a whopping 128MB of RAM and loaded with Windows ME.  It was purchased as a Christmas present in 2001.  This computer provided my first real experience with the Internet and software maintenance at home.  I remember that I would spend hours on this computer reinstalling the operating system to figure out how I could optimize the very poorly implemented Windows ME from Microsoft (it is the worst OS ever, even worse than Windows Vista!).  During this time in my life, I managed to learn about all the dangers of the Internet.  Along with this, I have discovered proven methods of preventing these dangers before they become a threat.  Although this computer was fully functional only 10% of its entire life, it provided an invaluable learning experience for my future computer work.

Instant messaging is a popular way to communicate in my generation, it also brings many dangers with it.  I can remember one instance in 2002 when I installed Yahoo Instant Messenger and got a virus on my computer.  I blamed it for years without fully understanding what caused the virus that day.  I began labeling it as malware for the longest time.  I now realize that it was due to me clicking on something without thinking first (and the lack of virus protection).  I now use Yahoo Instant Messenger after several friends pressured me into giving it another try around 2005. I haven’t looked back since.

From 2001 until 2005, I continued to learn how computers worked. Sometime in 2003, I began repairing computers as a side job. By this time, I knew a vast amount about how computers worked and was able to successfully repair most of my first computer repair jobs. However, I lost valuable email information and other various information from not realizing that Windows stores data in places other than obvious locations. Since this time, I have been learning many new tricks about how Windows works to install Viruses. I have also learned how uneducated many computer users are to the spam attacks that occur on the web every millisecond of the day. I have plentiful knowledge to fight off such attacks and have not had attacks to my own personal computers in a very long time (that is until I discovered malvertising on purpose and wrote a blog about it).

In early 2004, I began learning about server operating systems. Thanks to my Aunt, I obtained a copy of Server 2000 to play with. Although it was up 1% of the time, I learned how to successfully break, maintain, and deploy Windows Server 2000.  This has helped me in many environments, including my own Exchange / IIS environment.

Around the same time, I became a Technology Assistant at Ellicottville Central School. During this time, I was introduced to professional network technicians and administrators who work in the IT field.   During my Technology Assistant tenure at Ellicottville Central, I solved many computer related problems for teachers and administrators alike.  I was provided the opportunity to perform maintenance to production servers.  I was introduced to concepts that I thought weren’t even possible until then.  I also gained invaluable experience in replacing computer components during this time.  My tenure as a Technology Assistant was the most awesome role I’ve ever taken while in high school and I wouldn’t trade the experience I gained there for nothing (Thanks to Mrs. Hunt for that opportunity!).

In September of 2005, my computer oriented world began to accelerate.  I began my web development career as a Frontpage Web Developer.  This is the same time that I purchased Matthouse.us and began to offer web development to the local community.  Through this venture, I have learned a lot about how to develop websites.  I also learned how to deal with customers professionally such as Dr. Illig of Ellicottville Dental Group.  Soon after this, I also got into Linux web server administration and the true meaning of maintaining professional uptime.  Although I’m not a huge fan of being technical support (mostly due to the lack of time), I currently host several websites.

Shortly after I began my own website, I became a fan of the Kim Possible Fandom. I became a member at SaveDisneyShows.org, and then later a staff member. In early 2007, I resigned from SDS (I simply don’t enjoy management and damage control) and moved to RonStoppable.net where I could begin as a new member who didn’t have any worries.  I resided on this site until early 2008 when I moved onto CodeCall (John is actually and Admin there) to better align my interests with others.  I have since become inactive on CodeCall as well because I want to focus my efforts onto academia and my own website (which is what you’re reading!).

The Kim Possible Fandom brought many good friends that I still chat with on occasion today.  It is also the reason why I’ve seen California and have had the opportunity to shake hands with the creators and staff members of Kim Possible.  One of my better friends from KP was Adam and he taught me one skill that no one else probably could have taught me (since I didn’t enjoy formally doing it).  This skill was proper written English.  Adam annoyed me enough to where I began learning proper English on my own to improve my own writing to prevent him from correcting me constantly.  Ever since I’ve learned the foundation of English (fairly well I’d imagine), I can now look back on my days with both Mrs. Illig and Mrs. Friel (the librarians) and understand what they taught me at a much higher level.

Beginning in 2006, I began as a Computer Engineering student at the University at Buffalo. I soon changed my major to Computer Science because of my [then] newly discovered hate of calculus.  I guess I didn’t really hate calculus, but I didn’t understand it due to a crumbled math foundation that still haunts me to this day.  I constantly attempt to improve my mathematical foundation because it interests me, but I’m growing older and I simply am not as absorbent as I used to be.  Through my experience at the University at Buffalo as a CS major, I have met many new friends and have had many opportunities opened up for my consideration. I currently serve as a Teaching Assistant and I’m considering becoming an officer on the Student Council for my housing complex this upcoming academic year (I’ve been one in the past).

Beginning in 2009, I began working on my Masters Degree which will be combined with my Bachelors Degree.  Now that I am in graduate school, I have began concentrating on networks and system administration topics.   I really enjoy attending classes that are teaching concepts that I will use for a long time to come.  I am also half way through my Master’s project which is to implement a super computer and successfully program on it.  I’m using the condor project along with 35 nodes (computers in supercomputer talk) to accomplish my goal.  I’ve got the physical cluster set up, plentiful documentation written about how I got it working.  My next step is to program the packing problem.  Basically I’m working on fitting a bunch of physical parts into a confined area.  Think of a desk that you buy at your local office store, it comes in such a small box that you always end up wondering, how did they get this huge desk to fit in this small box?  Well, I’m solving that problem problematically as an exercise to learn a little more about super computing on both the administration and client sides.

Although I am certain that I want to ditch the snow in New York State after I graduate with a Master’s Degree, I am not sure where I would like to live or where I would like to work.  Currently, I’m looking at (in no particular order) San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Cleveland, New York City, Sydney, or somewhere in the Netherlands.  It all depends on where I can get a job offer and how much they will help me relocate.  I also will refuse to live in a location without high speed internet and access to modern technology.  I’m also hopeful that I end up working for a corporation where I can switch roles and maintain a challenge.  I find that I hate doing the same thing over and over and that is why I have both Windows and Linux servers (and I do go back and forth).

Last but not least: I would like to wish the best of luck to all of the friends that I’ve made over the years and those that have helped me achieve my goals!  Naturally, there simply isn’t enough room on my blog to acknowledge everyone, but you know who you are!

-updated 8/20/10 (completely rewritten)