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Hi, I’m Jared. (I’m not going to say “Hi, I’m Jared W. Smith” because that is a mouthful and sounds awkward.) I’m a geek residing in a generic apartment complex somewhere in a secure, undisclosed location in Charleston, SC.
Working and Learning
I maintain and grow the Web for a local college in Charleston (take a wild guess!). I work with cool people and the job definitely keeps me on my toes, which is a good thing. I can’t stand boredom. There I do a lot of server administration and coding, but also get a chance to play with new media stuff and integrate it in how we do things. I like to push the envelope, and I’m fortunate that I get a chance to push a little bit. 
I’m thisclose to a degree in Media Studies from the aforementioned college in Charleston. I’ve always had a thing for media, and I’ve grown a lot in my communication skills while working on this degree. I’m done in December, thank $DEITY!
Other Work, Hobbies, Etc.
I got started doing random stuff back in 2001 or so; I served as one of the first Support Team members at phpBBHacks.com. Later that year, I began contributing technical assistance to The Relationship Forums, which pretty much describes itself in terms of function. (I’ve since become the principal administrator there, as I’ve been hosting it since October of 2005.) This experience led me to write the phpBB section of Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress for Apress during the course of 2005.
I did other random freelancing as well, which I’ve put on the backburner for the moment as I finish the degree.
Finally, my weather addiction is pretty well-documented, I think. I’ve always been fascinated by it; and now that I have the chance to measure it reliably, I’m more obsessed than ever.
Gadgetry, Infrastructure, Etc.
I rely on several computers and gadgets to get me through the days. Let’s count the ways:
Primary PC: Gibbons
My primary PC is named for the character Peter Gibbons in Office Space. It’s powered by the venerable Athlon XP processor, has 2 GB of RAM, a few hard drives clocking in to about a half-terabyte of storage in total, and I’ve got a sweet Dell 20″ widescreen. I’ve had this machine in various incarnations since January 2004. It started with merely 100 GB of storage and 512 MB of RAM, so it’s come a long way. It was down for a while when its original power supply kicked the bucket and took the motherboard and video card with it.
It’s run three flavors of Linux (Debian, Gentoo, and Ubuntu), but primarily runs Windows XP. I did some testing of Windows Vista on it and came away pretty unimpressed with how old it made my computer feel (though it did do Aero Glass).
It’s falling behind a bit, though. To that end, I’m looking to replacing Gibbons with a Mac Pro as my fulltime machine within the next year to year and a half.
Primary Active Directory and VMware Server: thearbor
thearbor is my most recent computer acquisition. I landed it a few months ago from a friend. It’s a dual-processor Pentium III with 2GB of RAM and two 137 GB drives in a RAID-1 configuration. It runs Windows Server 2003 and runs an Active Directory for my house (I’m insane, I know). It handles DNS lookups and also runs DHCP for the network. I’m running the freeware VMware server on it, which keeps a CentOS Linux guest going. This Linux virtual machine provides a LAMP stack for a majority of my testing.
Secondary Active Directory and Weather Station Server: healer
healer is actually an oldschool Dell Dimension that runs Windows Server 2003. It props up DNS and Active Directory in the event thearbor has a problem. It also handles the uploading of my weather station’s data to Weather Underground. It came around last year and was previously the backup to nightwind, the now-retired original Active Directory server.
Other random computers
I have a strawberry iMac G3 from 1999 or so that generally sits idle until it’s called into action for the weirdest things (the last thing it did was serve as a jukebox for a party that we held at our house in late October). I use a Santa Rosa MacBook Pro for work. That experience has driven me to looking to buy a Mac, as it’s been the most enjoyable computing experience I’ve had. I also have several other random systems that are powered off, including my first computer, a 386 in a toaster-oven “portable” case.
Mobile devices
I’m using a BlackBerry 8800 right now for cellular communications. While it doesn’t have the 3G capability my old Samsung BlackJack had, it does have the best e-mail on any platform (IMHO) and it’s been pretty rock-solid for me. I really like it, and am looking forward to upgrading to the BlackBerry Bold by the end of the year. 
I have two iPod nanos, both 2GB sized, one first-generation and one second-generation. One is for my car, and the other is for me to walk around to. Not much to that.
Photography
I say “photography” as if I’m really serious about it, but I’m not. I use a Kodak EasyShare V1253 point-and-shoot. It does the job in 16:9 aspect, so I’m not complaining. It even takes 720p HD video, which can be fun (but one hell of a burden on my old computers to edit!!!)
Music
If my last.fm stats are any indication, then you’re likely to hear me listening to Ryan Farish and other assorted artists from The Weather Channel. My interest in chillout and jazz music has blossomed in the last couple years, and I’ve noticed a profound difference in my demeanor (much more positive than it used to be) and my dating prowess (through the floor). I also am a fan of alt. rock and some older metal. I used to be a real headbanger kid but I’ve pretty much grown out of it, though I do wear a few Metallica t-shirts on occasion still.
Sports
I’m an avid follower of the San Diego professional teams; the Padres in baseball and the Chargers in football. I do what I can from out here on the East Coast. The Atlanta Braves and Carolina Panthers are the teams that are most accessible to me, and I enjoy watching them for the most part. I’ve been to a few Panthers games — I’d like to do more, naturally.
I also follow the local Charleston teams. You’ll find me in the box seats at the Joe pretty often during the summer, and I also make it to a few Stingrays hockey games a year.
Poison
My favorite beer, thanks to Chuck Boyd, is Boddington’s Pub Ale. It’s such a treat when I can find one around here (tough to do sometimes) and have it served up properly. I’m generally weak for wheat beers, though, particularly Blue Moon and Purple Haze. I’m also pleased that the high gravity stuff has been legalized in South Carolina.
Liquor makes me sing 80s songs at high volume levels, so I generally avoid it.