I've grown up with technology my entire life. The first experience with technology that I can remember is when I was 2yrs old (1982) and playing my Aunt and Uncles Atari 2600. From that point I was hooked.
When I was 5 years old my dad bought me my first computer from Radio Shack. It was a Tandy Color Computer 2 and I used it to play games and write programs in BASIC out of the book. How many 5 year olds are programming even today? None that I know of. I literally grew up geek. And my computer was rocking with 64K memory. By today's standard you could barely open up one program on 64K memory. By comparison most computers come with ~4,000,000K today and the next default is going to be 8 million K.
The CoCo 2 really set me on the path. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school I was always involved with anything computers. If the computers at school broke, you didn't call Josten's (the consultant at the time) you asked Brett to stop by after school.
Technology evolved into a career for me as well. My first job at age 15 was providing computer support at Yale New Haven Hospital. From there I moved to New Haven Savings Bank which became New Alliance, which is now First Niagra. Some of the systems I worked on there over 11 years ago are still in place. After studying at UConn I landed a job as an Onsite Systems Engineer for Dell, and finally 5 years ago moved back to UConn to work as a System Admin and Project Lead in the Procurement Department.
If you were to search for me on Google or Bing and cross-reference me with Dell or UConn you'd find a lot of information related to some of the committees and projects that I've worked on. The most common hit being my involvement in the SLG, or Software Licensing Group, at UConn. You know all those Dell computers you see on campus, or all that software that students get for free (like Symantec Antivirus) or near free??? SLG is responsible for that. In fact I've been of the opinion that SLG has probably been one of the most successful and influential committees at UConn.
Some of the other hits you'll see are my involvement:
- In the Univ of CT Professional Employees Association (UCPEA). That's the union for all the professional staff at UConn.
- The development of the ATA Tool. A system we use for delegating signature authority for financial transactions at UConn.
- The Technology Implementers Group (TIG) - A group of IT people from all over UConn that get together on a monthly basis to discuss tech topics affecting the University, and to showcase IT projects that we've implemented that have benefited our individual areas
My life isn't 100% tech and hunting though. I also find time for my lovely wife and 3 cats which demand attention. My wife is actually jealous that I'm able to go to school. She loves school and wants to go back and get a second masters. I think I'm okay with doing the part time thing for now. The cats could care less. :-)
Other than that I try to find time to hang out with friends, watch football, and kick back and have a few beers. I ski in the winter, hike and fish in the summer/fall and overall really just love life experiences. I love to cook and try new flavors. I also love to travel, most recently visiting Greece, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, and Sicily. Spain and Japan are next on the list of places I want to go, but I guess I'll have to settle for exotic locations like Baltimore, MD around Thanksgiving.
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| Atop Alta Mtn in Salt Lake City, UT |
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| Inside the Roman Colosseum |
