UberNav[tm] Area More about me: * Who     (who *is* this guy?) * What     (work or play,       what the hell is he doing?)       * professional shane         (my resume...)       * semi-professional shane * Internet Graffiti * Main page

Vital statistics Shane Kevin Knapp * height:   6'4" * weight:   around 220 lbs * eye color:   hazel * hair color:   brownish-blonde * shoe size:   14 * last seen:   Berkeley, CA * been around since:   11.27.1972     (I'm a Sagitarius; here's my chart and reading) * most favorite thing in the world:   anything that rhymes with 'orange' Bad ass brass, circa '89. Note where my feet are versus those of that there trombone lady. I was born in Syracuse, NY way back in the day in '72, raised in Hyde Park, NY (the home of FDR and about 8 trailer parks) and educated in sunny, fun Buffalo, NY. I moved to California in January of '97, and currently reside in sunny, funny and exciting San Jose, with my roommate and my two cats (Audrey and Hamachi). Though the suburban sprawl gets to me, I really like California. Especially Berkeley. Oakland rocks, too. :)      ...return to the top! The Professional Shane After surviving the hairy days of 2000-2001, bouncing from contract to contract, and becoming accustomed to being "downsized", in 2003 I managed to procure quite an amazing job at quite an amazing company: Google. And, as I continue my career path of "learninator of as much as one can realistically stuff in to a brain", my current position is a great mix of general Unix systems administration, software engineering, systems and database development and planning. It's pretty sweet. Needless to say, it's pretty interesting walking in to work each day and knowing that you're not the smartest person around, and at the same time knowing that each minute I spend at work makes me smarter. Before my current job, I had another opportunity that I couldn't think of passing up: living my dream of pursuing music as a career. It wasn't a well-paying career (not even close!), nor did I plan on doing it forever... But I never, ever had the chance before, and probably won't again. This is something that would have made me kick myself in the ass for all eternity if I hadn't done it. I've been playing and performing music now since 3rd grade on variety of instruments (tuba, guitar, french horn, bad singing, piano/keboard) and a couple of years intensely exploring electronic music composition and production. With DJing, I perform at clubs and parties in and around the SF Bay area. As luck would have it, I received a residency (read: I get to play all of the time) at the DNA Lounge on Thursdays. And thanks to the DNA, I got my proverbial foot in the proverbial door. Happy Shane gets to play loud music on a wonderful sound system! For more details, music and music ramblings, please check out my separate DJ page. When it comes to "real" work, I am a certified jack-of-all-trades computer/systems/admin guy. I've been working with computers professionally since 1996, and have been programming since I was eight (on a Radio Shack Color Computer I). I have lots of experience doing lots and lots of things, and have worked at places like Excite (now defunct), NASA Ames Research Center, and currently the "darling" of the Silicon Valley, the company striving to keep the "dot-com dream" alive (not really, but it's kinda, sorta like that): Google. I spent the past few years moving from Unix and network administration, to system tools programming and then in to systems architecture. Admin and coding are fun, but I don't really want to be a full-time programmer for a while. My favorite job, ever, was working as a consultant in college. We had to know a lot of different things, have great troubleshooting and people skills... It was great work. Consulting taught me more, and kept me on my toes like no other job. I am also a dedicated "hardware geek", and have been building and repairing PCs now for 10 years for myself, friends and for work. I have wired three houses with ethernet, set up tons of little networks, dropped phone lines from the junction box, drilled holes and been bitten by spiders in an attic. My hardware cabinet is a trove of bits and pieces. I just love getting my hands dirty with computers, and I can't leave well enough alone. All of my computers, at one time or another, have been overclocked and tweaked to run as fast as possible. My current box is quite the champ: everything (processor, memory, video card) is over clocked, the OS is tweaked and it's rock solid. It's the first really nice computer I've ever owned, and I'm proud that I was able to build it. Take a peek at my watercooled desktop. Yeah, it's a little over the top. But man, the chicks dig it. All I need now is a wing and some spinners. If you'd like, you can peruse my resume in four different formats: M$ Word HTML Format Plain 'ol text Swedish Chef format (bork!)      ...return to the top! The Non-Professional Shane I have a lot of hobbies and interests to keep me busy when I'm not either DJing or being unemployed. To keep myself from rambling on for pages about what I do in my spare time, here is a nice little list for you:    Music      * see my DJ page    Video games         City of Heroes Look at me! I wear spandex, have a cape, and fight crime! I am known as Caligula Jones,                  an avenger of justice who excels at punching things. Lots of punching.         Return to Castle Wolfenstein (a great first-person shooter with a lot of tactics... I play as "Caligula Jones". Here's my autoexec.cfg file,                 with all of my custom keybindings. This was all set up courtesy of Michael's RTCW for Dummies page.)         Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin (WWII Strategy, Eastern Front)         Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (WWII Strategy)          Operation Flashpoint (Army squad-level based ground combat... quite intense!)    History         I'm an armchair historian, with most of my focus on WWII and some ancient history.    Gear, toys and BattleBots         Toys are fun. "Gear", of any sort, is just plain cool. It's just a matter of intelligently purchasing/acquiring all of it, finding a place to put it and then actually using it! 8^)         Here's a list of most of my computer and audio stuff.         I also just had a veritable dream come true: being part of a BattleBots team.         Still in the planning phase, and then will come the design and funding phase. Throw in some construction and redesign phases, and we'll see how far we actually get. I'm just glad, honored and still not believing that Nick asked me to hop on board with him. Hopefully MegaBite will be both a sucessful project and robot. In fact, I would be most happy if our robot were able to, well, rip apart another one. Oh yeah, and the more of our opponents parts flying through the air, the better. Can you say "stoked"? I thought you could...       ...return to the top!

Internet Graffiti:

'Ware the Aqua Duck[tm]

I support:

Shane Knapp