• IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional
• IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional • IT Professional
With solutions for
• System administration
• Security compliance
• Networking
• Data management
Why choose me?
I am a no-nonsense computer technician focused on efficiency, simplicity, and sharing my knowledge.
About me:
I am currently working as a PC Tech Department Team Lead at an IT company in Atlanta. My team diagnoses and repairs used desktop PCs, laptops, micro PCs, all-in-ones, and servers for resale, repurposing, or recycling based on their value and condition. We work with all brands of computers and servers, including obscure, vintage, and medical models. Our team ensures that any previous customer data in used machines is wiped and securely handled throughout the entire repurposing process.
I offer in-person and remote hardware and software support, troubleshooting, and configuration services. I also provide solutions for fast and reliable file sharing across Windows, Mac, and network storage devices, as well as data loss prevention/recovery services. I can consult and execute on what is needed to meet industry-specific security compliance requirements. I accomplish this through policy implementation, enforcement, and auditing. Additionally, I can deploy, maintain, and monitor workstations, servers, and networking appliances.
I hold an active CompTIA A+ certification. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Florida, and I have completed several continuing education courses through Emory University.
What others say about me:
“Andy is able to work within our budget. That is one thing that Andy is good at: being able to take whatever your budget is, whether it is small or large, and work within your means. He does things very quickly and efficiently. When Andy says he is going to follow through and meet deadlines, he does that, and he communicates. He keeps us in the loop on how things are proceeding.”
— Jimmy Orth
“Professional in every aspect.”
— Scott Reneau
“Andy is an extremely talented and hard-working. Throughout my time working with him for over 4 years, he was also an amazing leader and mentor. He always knew how to solve any problem, whether it was something technical or creative. He has a great work ethic and is very proactive and persistent when taking on projects.”
— Travis Misarti
“[Andy has] an attitude to be collaborative and to meet the needs of the client.”
— Dr. Nicholas Serenati
My cyber-life from now to the beginning :
The 2020s - Computing on a different level
When I finally began working exclusively as a full-time IT professional, it felt great to know that my many years of technical problem-solving in the video post-production field had paid off. My first IT role was PC Tech, and as soon as I started, I immediately began testing and repairing thousands of desktops, laptops, servers, surveillance systems, tablets, and more. My job entailed identifying defects and failing components in machines, researching the value of machines, and making repairs based on the machine’s worth. I gained extensive hardware experience with Apple, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP HPE, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface, and MSI products, as well as motherboards from AsRock, Asus, Gigabyte, and SuperMicro. I also worked with medical machines from Philips, Siemens, and G.E.
I was then promoted to my current role as the PC Tech Department Team Lead. My current position involves training and guiding new team members, monitoring their progress, and supervising for quality assurance. My supervision and QCing are focused on the team’s testing accuracy, consistency, compliance, and accountability for errors. This has also resulted in far lower error rates. I’ve had great success mentoring new staff, resulting in massive productivity improvements, increasing output by over 100% in some staff.
The majority of my professional work takes place in Windows; however, I personally own and prefer a Mac as my daily driver. I have been using an M1 MacBook Air for years. This laptop happened to be the first daily driver laptop I’ve used with an ARM processor. ARM software compatibility on Macs these days is great, and I love the long battery life. I have also installed Asahi Linux (a fork of Fedora) onto the laptop. Learning how to dual-boot on an M1 chip without using a virtual machine was a very neat process. I’ve also learned that Linux software compatibility for ARM is still very limited.
Late 2010s - Bigger is better
In 2019, I audited the IT security of the company I worked for to meet Disney's production vendor requirements. Completing the process required extensive paperwork and speaking with consultants. Through this process, I understood what it takes to be truly cyber-secure. Making investments in security, intentional policy-making, relentless monitoring/enforcement, and a deep understanding of the technology deployed within a production environment are all critical to day-to-day security.
I worked with and helped build several custom PC for my employer during the late 2010s. A notable example was one with an i9-9900K and an AMD Vega 64 card, a very exciting combination at the time. This particular build took place shortly before Apple released the first M1 processor, which notably changed the value proposition of custom-building computers moving forward. During these same years, I would gain a lot more exposure to Linux. I began to tinker with CentOS, Kali Linux, and Parrot OS. I also worked extensively with NAS systems operating TrueNAS Core (based on FreeBSD) and QTS (the operating system for QNAP NAS devices).
I oversaw over 15 iMacs and other PCs, NASes, and servers. The experience of managing staff and administering their workstations was eye-opening. I learned that data management situations can get out of hand quickly when policies are unclear or not enforced. I now know that all files should have an exact, known saving location. I also began archiving footage on LTO-7 and LTO-8 tapes. This helped reduce overall cost compared to strictly hard drives and the cloud. In total, I have helped oversee roughly 1PB of video footage working in the video industry.
Early 2010s - The days of TonyMacX86
My brother-in-law helped me build a custom PC for the first time, explaining to me all the parts and how to buy used parts without getting ripped off. This experience solidified my love for PC tinkering and problem-solving. The first system I built was a Hackintosh PC. The CPU was an i7-3770K on a Gigabyte motherboard. What really set this build apart was that I unshelled multiple of my existing matching external HDDs and created an eight-drive RAID 10 configuration with a RocketRAID card. During the years I used this build, I experienced two different motherboard failures. This was quite the learning experience, and it tested the quality and consistency of my backup habits. The build started with a GeForce GTX 660TI. And later, my brother-in-law gifted me a GTX 980. The additional CUDA cores and VRAM made a huge difference for my editing software, rendering faster and being much less crash-prone. I began Linux distro-hopping for the first time while using this build, starting with Linux Mint and Ubuntu.
The late 2000s - Thinking different
Around 2006, my parents bought me a Pentium D HP Pavilion. This was way more powerful than the previous Pentium 4 computer I was using. This HP was easily capable of editing full standard-definition video resolutions, and it even included a capture card. This machine also did not use IDE drives; it used SATA. This would be the first PC that I would spur my parents to help me upgrade further PCs, ultimately needing dual graphics cards and 4TB of storage, a good amount of hardware for me request as a young student at the time.
Then, in 2007, I began my journey with Apple, which dominated the video production world as Final Cut Pro had a huge user base. My first Apple machine was a MacBook Pro 17” with a Core 2 Duo. I kept this laptop for 6 years, loved it, and experienced three dangerously inflated lithium batteries during its lifecycle. None exploded. This was my main machine for both studying and doing freelance work while I was earning my degree. With this laptop, I began producing professional-level media for the first time. I learned how to use Photoshop around this time. I made my laptop a dual-booting system. This was the first time I had done that on any machine. I had OSX Mavericks on one side and Windows Vista on the other. I also cloned boot drives onto external HDDs to have backup bootable images over FireWire. I needed a substantial amount of storage for my projects, 16TB total, a lot for an individual at the time. Through purchasing these many hard drives, I would begin to learn about using RAID configurations.
The early 2000s - “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!”
Computers had me fully enamored by the start of the new millennium as a very young person. I remember getting into a debate with my older sister: if my parents were to buy us only one thing and we had to choose, would we want a cell phone or a computer? To me, the choice was obvious. The huge price difference! The functionality! I did not understand the value of cell phones the way my sister did at the time. I loved being on the computer, and we finally got home internet access. My parents would buy a Pentium 4 Dell Dimension 3000 around this time. I would put my family’s spiffy new broadband internet connection to use on AOL Instant Messenger, exploring the web, and making videos, leading up to the rise of YouTube. I also began coding websites at this time using Microsoft FrontPage and later Adobe Dreamweaver. My dad also owned a Dell PowerEdge 1900 for his business, where I would get my first exposure to Windows Server, although I didn’t fully grasp its purpose at the time.
The 1990s - Beige boxes
Looking back, I realize that I’ve been around computers my whole life, including when I was very young. The first killer app for me was Paint on Windows 3.1. I learned to type in grade school, and I first explored the internet on a dial-up connection at my local library. Exploring computers, discovering new applications, and learning new ways of using the machine was very fun.
A perfect example of this was discovering Windows Movie Maker, which I found preinstalled with Windows XP on my Pentium III Gateway GP7-500 PC. The potential of this program blew me away. It is hilarious now to think back on the limited processing power I was using. The first video I created had a tiny resolution and was 11 minutes long, but unbelievably, it took 13 hours to render on the Pentium III. I only had a 20GB hard drive, so I had the free space to store only that one rendered video before my drive was full.
What I enjoy outside computing
I love distance running, road biking, and CrossFit. Also, I like to travel the world with my wife. The furthest away I’ve been to date is India, where I attended an Indian wedding with my relatives in New Delhi. Other notable places include Germany and Austria, where my cousins got married. I’ve also visited France, Italy, Canada, and many cities in the U.S.
Before working in the IT field, I spent over ten years working in video post-production. I switched paths because I saw a need for talented and knowledgeable computer problem-solvers. While working in video, I would regularly troubleshoot machines and engineer strategies for dealing with massive footage libraries hundreds of terabytes in size. Advanced IT skills were the critical factor for reliable and efficient operations, and this realization led me to my new career path.
If you would like to see some of my old video work, click here to jump to a page dedicated to that.
