About Me

Hi, I’m Mike Grice and I’m the owner of this site. I’ve put this page up just to explain a little about myself for those of you who are interested.

gricey

Generic Humanoid Carbon Unit

So as you’ve probably guessed by me having a domain name the same as my real name, I’m a bit of a geek. I don’t let that get in the way of a social life though, so it’s all good.

I was born in Sheffield on October 30, 1979. This makes me (an alarming) 28 years old. I have two sisters (Samantha, Jennie) and a brother (Andy). They rule. My Mum is fantastic and does so much work it puts everyone else to shame.

I went to Marlcliffe Primary School, Myers Grove Secondary School, Sheffield College (Loxley) and Sheffield Hallam University.

Home Life

I live in Meersbrook, Sheffield with my long-suffering girlfriend, Kerri. No pets or kids yet :-) . I bought this house in May 2007 after putting in an offer in February that year. Not having bought a house before I’m pretty unimpressed with how glacial the process is. I don’t drive and while I don’t plan to own a car, I’d like to learn. Having a mortgage is a pretty big commitment – Kerri helps out with the payments, and if she plays her cards right she’ll get on the mortgage when it comes up for renewal in 2009 ;-)

Fun, Fun, Fun

When I’m not at work I do a whole raft of things (although work does take up a good chunk of my time).

I like to read, mainly fiction (people like Iain Banks, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, Howard Marks, Raymond E. Fiest and Neil Gaiman are recent on my list).

I like to watch films (my favourites include Blade Runner, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, The Matrix, Dune, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Blazing Saddles, Serenity), some TV series (Heroes, Journeymen, Firefly, QI, Two Pints of Lager are recent ones on my list). Some comedy I love, comedians like Bill Hicks, Bill Bailey, Billy Connelly (hey,that’s 3 B’s). Comedy series would have to include Father Ted, Black Books, Two Pints of Lager (and a packet of crisps), Black Adder, Red Dwarf, The Young Ones.IMG_2160

I like to listen to music though I would say my tastes are comically varied. If you look through my music collection, don’t be surprised to see Jurassic 5 alongside Vivaldi, Rage Against the Machine, Sandy Brechin, and DJ Shadow.

I like to travel (though there never seems to be enough time…), be it walking in the Peak District or flying out to Amsterdam for the weekend.

Computer Geekery

I love computers. A bit too much if you ask me. I got my first computer, an Acorn Electron, at 4 years old, and from then I was hooked. At home I use Mac OS X and Linux (Debian GNU/Linux is my preferred distribution), I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro. I threw away my Windows machines a long time ago, although Kerri swears by them (and I have a sneaky windows installation on my macs via Parallels and Boot Camp if I get stuck). If you look around my office, don’t be surprised to see rackmount machines with their lids off, Cisco routers, switches, and access points, laptops, external hard drives and so on. In terms of online gaming, I play too much World of Warcraft (which I’m sure will be one day rated as a Class A Drug).

Work Life

I work at the popular UK Internet Service Provider, PlusNet. 03012008311They’re based in Sheffield (right in the city centre) and they’re a great company to work for (in fact, they’re listed as one of the best in the UK). I’m a Senior Systems Engineer in the Network Services Department. What that means is that I design and implement new services (sometimes internal ones, some you’ll never see, and some we sell to our customers) as well as improve existing ones. In fact, in a typical day, I’d do one or more of the following:

  • Building machines, Ordering Hardware, Physical installation at a datacentre
  • Implementing a service (getting a working prototype, programming/scripting, configuring software, testing)
  • Designing a service (project documentation, proposals, functional and technical specifications)
  • Handing over a service (operational documentation good enough for a bleary 4am callout, training of a service owner, trickle-down training of the rest of the department with the new service owner)
  • Meeting with vendors (product updates, performance reviews)
  • Interviewing potential candidates, screening CVs (Resumés), mentoring junior colleagues
  • Attending project kickoff/update meetings with Project Managers, Business Analysts, and other departmental stakeholders
  • Answering technical customer questions on our Community Site (sometimes it helps if an engineer wades into the discussion)
  • On-call duties (I’m second line for when the first line engineer has their hands full or need help)
  • Helping our Operation Team with trickier problems

I would recommend PlusNet to anyone in the Internet industry wanting to work at a lively, fun ISP. It has an open and honest atmosphere and a great “dot-com” feel to it (we have a free canteen and a games room). If you’re interested, visit the PlusNet Careers page or drop me an email, I’d be glad to answer any questions you have.

IMG_2455I have also worked on the Sysadmin team at Google in their European HQ in Dublin. I had a great time there. Working at Google is like being at Geek University – the people there are amazingly smart and will be happy to talk to you about almost anything. It definitely wasn’t an easy decision to leave but they are always in my mind (and ruling out going back would be silly). If you’d like to know more about Google in Ireland (at least from a sysadmin perspective), feel free to give me a shout – they’re always looking for great sysadmins, desktop support people, video-conferencing specialists, network engineers and so on. It’s also worth mentioning that living in Dublin is great (although expensive) – and if you want information on that, give me a shout too.

My LinkedIn Profile has more work-like information on what I do.

Bored Yet?

I think that wraps it up for the generic ‘who I am’ page. I’m sure there will eventually be plenty of information about me on the site if you’re really interested. Failing that, feel free to drop me an email. I’ll chat to most people that aren’t crazy, and some that are :)