ΔIntroduction Hi, my name is Eddie Jackson. I have been an IT Professional for the past 19+ years. I grew up in Westville, Florida on a 19 acre farm where I spent most of my free time learning about technology and working on a computer. From student to professional, I am always planning and maintaining a successful IT career, and I expect no less than the very best of myself - academically and professionally. The many hats I wear: IT Professional, Cook, Pianist, Philosophy Student, Writer, Poet, Artist, Builder/Engineer, Innovator, Movie Connoisseur.
ΔMission Statement My mission is to understand my customers' technical needs and the internal and external factors affecting them, so that I may professionally and effectively create, design, engineer, implement and maintain superior, innovative technical solutions that exceed business expectations. I am but a technical crusader, an IT evangelist, a technical servant to the IT court of the corporate world.
This site began as a single page to highlight my resume to prospective employers; but has grown over the years into a well-developed collection of my innovative ideas, professional accomplishments, philosophy and computer education, and IT training. This site has become an overall notable representation of my character and personality. It contains many of the IT, personal, and professional projects that I have worked on. You will also be able to view training, learning material, and a timeline of my journey through the university. Please feel free to leave me a message or contact me via email.
ΔJob title for life Computer Systems Engineer; though I have held many other titles like: Senior Tech, Senior Technical Support Analyst, Desktop Administrator, Senior LAN Analyst, Developer, Engineer, Software Packaging Engineer, Network Administrator and Network Engineer.
ΔWhat's so great about my life? I get to experience life with my amazing girlfriend, Dalia Stoffer. I have an incredible IT career where I work with awesome IT people, with which I have the opportunity to pioneer and engineer some of the most innovative IT solutions that exist on the planet. And, no matter where I go, people are extremely receptive and share the common ideology that greatness is achieved through hard work and perseverance.
ΔPhilosophies [status updates] [timeline] [work & labs] [credentials] [items of interest] [contact me] Always stand tall for what you believe in, never stop questioning, keep an open mind, and learn to rise above it all. If you really want to change the world you live in, learn to develop and share your knowledge; become a doer, not just a mere dreamer.
Philosophy Quotes:
In philosophy an individual is becoming himself. - Bernard Lonergan
Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know. - Bertrand Russell
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. - Henry Ward Beecher
Philosophy is doubt. - Michel de Montaigne
"Philosophy is the product of wonder." -Alfred North Whitehead (Harvard University, 1925)
In philosophy, it is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way. - Havelock Ellis
"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates (470-399 BCE)
"Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily" - William of Ockham (1285 - 1349?)
"The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." - Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679)
"I think therefore I am" - Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)
"To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi)." - George Berkeley
"We live in the best of all possible worlds." - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716)
"The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." - G.W.F. Hegel (1770 - 1831)
"Who is also aware of the tremendous risk involved in faith - when he nevertheless makes the leap of faith - this [is] subjectivity at its height." - Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." - Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
"One cannot step twice in the same river." - Heraclitus (ca. 540 - ca. 480 BCE)
I have always said if you want to be the best, you have to do things that make you the best. I walk the professional line every day of my life. My enduring pattern of professional excellence, superior work ethic, and
pristine technical work has made me a success; and I didn't do it all by myself either, many thanks to all the great professionals out there who helped me all along the way --- you know who you are (special shout-outs to Kevin Noel, Larry Paulk and Philip Johnson).
What makes me so special? Nothing other than persistent dedication.
Success Quotes:
Action is the foundational key to all success. - Pablo Picasso
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. - Abraham Lincoln
Diligence is the mother of good fortune. - Benjamin Disraeli
Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil. - J. Paul Getty
I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate. - George Burns
Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other. - Erma Bombeck
Failure is success if we learn from it. - Malcolm Forbes
Nothing recedes like success. - Walter Winchell
Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world. - Lily Tomlin
Success is dependent on effort. - Sophocles
All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure. - Mark Twain
There's no abiding success without commitment. - Tony Robbins
Educating oneself is very much like building castles. You start with a solid foundation, and then brick by brick, you build a fortress. It's not only a personal monument of your own success, but can also be a sanctuary to those around you.
Education Quotes:
A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated. - Horace Mann
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. - Anthony J. D'Angelo
Education is all a matter of building bridges. - Ralph Ellison
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. - Gilbert K. Chesterton
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. " - John Dewey
"Education is the transmission of civilization." - Will Durant
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." - Malcolm Forbes
It is always in season for old men to learn. - Aeschylus
It has been said that 80% of what people learn is visual. - Allen Klein
Spent 3 years in the gifted program in elementary school Spent 3 years in the Math Stars program in elementary school Skipped the 5th and 8th grades Won Grand Prize Science Award in High School Science Fair Awarded top student Algebra mathematics certificate Competed in Wallace College Math/Computer Tri-State Championship (twice) Graduated Holmes County High School with High Honors Nominated and selected Employee of the Month (1 in 5000 employees) Obtaining 30 computer and networking certifications January 2012 Coding the 3,000th production computer script in December 2011 Maintaining 4.0 GPA (Presidents's List) for the past 2 years in Philosophy/Liberal Studies BA Degree
Milestone Quotes:
"Direction is more important than speed. We are so busy looking at our speedometers that we forget the milestone."
"A milestone passed, new things begun, dreams as shining as the sun, a goal achieved, a victory won! That's Graduation!"
"My path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones." - Agnetha Faltskog
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Edison "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." - Edison "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Edison "Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something." - Edison "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Edison "Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure." - Edison "There is far more opportunity than there is ability." - Edison "The value of an idea lies in the using of it." - Edison "There is no substitute for hard work." - Edison "Discontent is the first necessity of progress." - Edison "Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." - Edison "The best thinking has been done in solitude." - Edison "What man's mind can create, man's character can control." - Edison
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Einstein "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Einstein "A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. " - Einstein "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Einstein "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination." - Einstein "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Einstein "Information is not knowledge." - Einstein "Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be." - Einstein "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Einstein "The only source of knowledge is experience." - Einstein "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Einstein "If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research." - Einstein "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." - Einstein "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." - Einstein "It is theory that decides what can be observed." - Einstein "Never memorize what you can look up in books." - Einstein
"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Gates "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose." - Gates "Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one." - Gates "DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience." - Gates "If you can't make it good, at least make it look good." - Gates "Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana." - Gates "Life is not fair; get used to it." - Gates "TV is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs." - Gates "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Gates "Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself." - Gates
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Leonardo da Vinci "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci "While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." - Leonardo da Vinci "A well-spent day brings happy sleep." - Leonardo da Vinci "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." - Leonardo da Vinci "Life well spent is long." - Leonardo da Vinci "All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions." - Leonardo da Vinci "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art." - Leonardo da Vinci "The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." - Leonardo da Vinci "Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" - Leonardo da Vinci "Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness." - Leonardo da Vinci "Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." - Leonardo da Vinci "Learning never exhausts the mind." - Leonardo da Vinci
"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life." - Beethoven "Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears form the eyes of woman." - Beethoven "Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors." - Beethoven "A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation." - Beethoven "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." - Beethoven "This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble." - Beethoven "Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors." - Beethoven "Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes." - Beethoven "Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience." - Beethoven
"The greatest task you'll ever undertake is trying to give back to the world more than you take." - Eddie
"Anything worth having, is worth earning." - Eddie
"If you want to be the best, you need to do things that make you the best." - Eddie
"No successful person ever followed all the rules." - Eddie
"Having the ability to see the future is not all that difficult if you combine the past, the present and hard work." - Eddie
"It's the bricks of today that build the castles of tomorrow." - Eddie
"There is something important to be said for the slower absorption of knowledge in concentrated studies." - Eddie
"You want a real challenge? Try reaching your potential." - Eddie
"Mediocrity is like swamp water; it's dark, murky, and filled with snakes and alligators." - Eddie
"It is cheaper for a country to live in the greatest wealth than to wage the smallest war against its brothers and sisters." - Eddie
"I saw the potential of greatness there in the code...I just continued developing and watched the future unfold right there before my eyes." - Eddie
"Your purpose in life should be making a positive impact on those around you." - Eddie
"In one hand I carry fire from the Sun, and in the other hand, lightning from Jupiter - and still, I want more." - Eddie
"Our greatest minds will reach into the next galaxy and bring back the future." - Eddie
"I like success stories - they remind me of my own potential." - Eddie
"A man of faith believes in only one truth. A man of science realizes there are many truths to be known." - Eddie
"Other than in rare circumstances, anything that you can achieve quickly, can be taken from you quickly." - Eddie
"You want the world to change? Better start with yourself first to show people it can be done." - Eddie
"Two very important life lessons you can learn: One, you don't need god to tell you something is wrong with the world. Two, you don't need god to help you make the world a better a place. If you need a god's input on either one of these things, you got bigger problems than any religion can help you with." -Eddie
"Be happy because life is amazing. Be happy because we are here, right now to enjoy everything modern life has to offer. Be happy because each of us have the power to change the world as we know it; in the most positive of ways." - Eddie
1986-1988 My first computer is a VIC-20(pic) that used cassette tapes for storage. I figure out how to link the tapes through programming, thus overcoming the size limitation of my apps. My monitor is a 13" black and white television that has the Radio Shack tv-to-game/computer sliding converter. I become instantly captivated by computers and technology.
1989-1991 My uncle (Tom Jackson) gives me an Amstrad(pic) computer (which has proprietary disks) that has Amstrad BASIC.
A friend at school (Michael McDonald) gives me an ADAM(pic) computer (which has digital tapes), it uses SmartBASIC.
1992-1993 You can find me in the high school computer lab, and hanging out my best friend (John Schuhr - computer programming genius).
My computer teacher (Mr. Zorn) is helping me develop my programming skills.
I buy a Tandy 1000(pic) computer (which has my first modem) from a high school friend (Scott Watkins '92).
I start spending longer and longer hours programming all types of software. I build sequential filing and random access databases, inventory apps, recipe databases, simple games, and encryption software. You can find me hanging out in BBSs, IRCs and MUDs.
I start programming in Microsoft BASIC, QBASIC and Turbo BASIC. I also start repairing computers and electronics right down to their electrical components.
1994-1995 I build my second computer from parts. It is a 486DX4100, 8MB RAM, 80MB hard drive (later I upgrade to a whopping 16MB of RAM and 200MB HD (pic)). I create my own web site called Section One Underground. I use something called Zip Disks by Iomega, which are 100MB disks, to store all my backups on ('95).
In the Panhandle, I work at the new, local ISP - Panhandle Online, and I take a lot of contracted programming and computer repair work. I also work at the college library assisting patrons with all their computer needs. I start writing Shell scripts for Internet Service Providers. I also go to people's houses to install ISP software, hookup modems, and assist with other dial-up solutions.
I am using the Lynx browser ('94) to surf the web, however begin using the new, dearly beloved, Netscape browser ('95).
I work at the Chipola College library assisting patrons with computer questions and problems.
1996-- I work at the Jackson County Library assisting patrons with computer questions and problems.
1997-- I move to Daytona Beach to work at AMI, INC, a motorcycle college, and work there as a Network Administrator for 2 years. I convert the network from a LANtastic network to a full Microsoft based network, including backup and email system. I also wire the Cat3 and Cat5 telecommunications systems and upgrade all computer desktops from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95.
I learn about the administration of networks, how to manage servers, build computers for mass deployment, as well as providing computer support for business staff.
1999-- Realizing the need for certifications, I soon begin self-studies for the CompTIA A+, Network+, and MCP.
I buy all the study material from authors like Todd Lammle, James G. Jumes, and Neil F. Cooper; and then study each book, as well as go through all the labs. When I think I am ready, I will register for the exam with Sylvan Prometric and then take the test. I need a place to study, so I begin looking for a permanent place. I find a book store, Barnes and Noble (or it finds me), which I fall in love with.
2000-2010-- And, through the years I continue studying at Barnes and Noble, spending up to 30 hours a week in studies when pursuing a new certification, certifications like the CompTIA Security+, Cisco CCNA, multiple Microsoft MCSEs and various others. Many, many cafe mochas and cookies later.
The jobs I have had the opportunity to work at thereafter AMI, INC, have been: 4 years at Ormond Hospital, NASCAR-ISC, Florida Digital Networks, Robert Half International, Stratus Technologies, about 1 year doing side contracts for the private sector and setting up several doctor offices in the Daytona Beach area, 4+ years working for Halifax Health, and I worked a short stint at Kaplan University, in Tech Ops, doing Desktop Admin tasks, and then I did some enterprise packaging in the private sector as an IT Guru/Network Administrator.
2010-2013-- I am working on number 31 computer & network certifications.
I really love the technology industry and hope one day to obtain the Microsoft Masters Certification, the certification for the Technical Master. You can find me currently working in a new area of the private sector, where I am a Software Packaging Engineer/Desktop Engineer. I am responsible for building software packages and coming up with creative software solutions for 30,000+ computers, and student software potentially reaching up to 74,000 students. It's the most challenging and diverse job I have ever had - every day is a new adventure in the world of technology and innovation. I find my job extremely fulfilling, because I get to design and implement ingenious technical solutions that no one else in the company can come up with. I post much of my work in the Archives section of this site; I've even had people call me/email from other countries, around the world, asking me the details of some of my work!
A few personal interests of mine are Philosophy, of which I am working towards a Bachelor's Degree now (75% done), composing and playing classical piano, building and engineering all types of things at home, developing cooking skills, and taking over the world with computer scripts. I also spend as much time as I can with my girlfriend Dalia, the love of my life.
