Who Am I?

My name is Karl Southern, I'm a 25 year old professional geek (read: (sys|net|desktop)admin) from the South West of England. Online I go by the name 'the_angry_angel'.

I work for a small company, as an outsourced sysadmin (amongst other things), providing IT support for Small-Medium Enterprises in the UK, where I attempt to advocate Open Source, and standards compliant, software and solutions. However, the software I work with is predominately proprietary which has given me a a wide range of experience with Windows deployments, of various scales and technologies. My current passions include clustered virtualisation, IPv6 deployment in real-life scenarios, automation, and monitoring.

I use this blog for 3 main purposes:

  1. To vent.
  2. As a notebook for weird problems. For more every day stuff that has a habit of falling out of my head I use a wiki.
  3. Sharing information with other professionals. I cannot imagine being a sysadmin in the past when it came down to more esoteric issues. For that reason I want to get as many of the weird fixes and combination problems out there as possible. What I experience may help someone else.

Additionally, if you want to know about /me/:

  • I love heavy, chugging metal and rock music. You can find out more over at last.fm.
  • I love coding, but have had relatively little time for it recently.
  • Most of my personal computer systems run various forms of Linux or other unix-like OS'.
  • I love the command line 'long and hard into the night', to quote a colleague.
  • I attempt to advocate Open Source software and solutions. but despite this I predominately use and administer closed source software at work.
  • I'm a bit of a SciFi and fantasy nut.
  • I like gaming. I used to have an obsession with EVE: Online, and attempted to ration myself to a few months of play a year. Unfortunately the love has dwindled.
  • I'm currently off the World of Warcraft train. Something about Cataclysm wasn't holding my attention.
  • I don't "get" minecraft. But I have paid for it and do play it occasionally.
  • I genuinely believe that Blade: Trinity is actually quite a funny film. The character Hannibal King also has one of the greatest and crudest insults of all time in this film.
  • I have a strong interest in Body Modification, but have few alterations made to date. I'm currently looking for the time to get more stuff done.
  • I freely admit that I am (already) basically bald.
  • I love driving, and currently drive a Lexus IS220d Sport. They're apparently the Japanese Mercedes.
  • I have been inside the Blizzard offices in Velizy, France, for a job interview. I didn't accept the job.
  • I've shaken the hand of Andy C from Ugly Duckling has Audacity. It was in the Mole's Club bathroom.
  • I've been kicked in the head by Kerry King, from Slayer.
  • I'm currently syndicated on Planet SysAdmin, and on Planet #PHP (that I know of).
  • I used to moderate for the LFS Forum.