I was born in West Yorkshire in 1974 and spent my youth in a rural village called Clayton West, near Huddersfield. I first moved away to University studying at The University of Hull (which was in Humberside when I started, but East Yorkshire by the time I graduated). After University I moved to Warwick to take a job with IBM, first living in Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa before buying my first house in Coventry. I have since moved to Redditch in Worcestershire where I now live with my wife Sarah and children Amelia and Oliver.

Education and Work History

After school I went to Huddersfield Technical College to gain a BTEC National Diploma in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I then went on to study electronic engineering at The University of Hull. I graduated in 1996 with a 2:1 Masters Degree.

I then went to work for IBM as a SNA Network Sys Prog. During my first year with IBM I followed the graduate training programme. My technical skills were identified in 1999 when I was added to the Higher Technical Potential employee list, which provided an opportunity to study for the Network Skills Academy at Pace University in New York.

I transferred to AT&T when the IBM Global Network was sold by IBM. I then became responsible for some AIX servers (IBM’s UNIX operating system) and attained IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert status in AIX. I then trained in IT security including firewalls and intrusion detection systems whilst working for the Managed Security Services team. I then moved to the newly formed server provisioning team where I undertook self study towards the Linux Professional Institute Certification attaining LPIC level 2.

I currently work in AT&T Enterprise Hosting as a Data Centre Manager / Project Manager with responsibility for multiple data centres located around the world. Responsibilities include working on data centre expansions in both the AT&T owned and third party data centres.

Websites

I currently run three of my own websites as well as being webmaster of the St John Ambulance Warwickshire members website and contributor to the public St John Ambulance website. I am also the administrator of an intranet Sharepoint website at work.

WatkissOnline.co.uk

My personal website. The main features are the Children and Baby – Days-out and other activities and my personal blog.

The website is powered by Wordpress which has been integrated into a dynamic site using a custom designed theme.

FirstAidQuiz.com

The First Aid Quiz web site was created to provide a fun way to brush up on your first aid knowledge. It features online interactive quizzes, crosswords and wordsearches. The quiz runs on a quiz engine that I wrote using perl and a mysql database running on a Linux server. It also features a first aid, health and safety, and health and fitness blog, which is auto-updated from the watkissonline Wordpress blog.

You can also find First Aid Quiz on Facebook or follow First Aid Quiz tweets on Twitter.

PenguinTutor.com

Technology and Computer based website focussing on the Linux Operating System and resources helpul for anyone working towards Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC). This includes a practice exam style quiz and Linux tutorials. The quiz runs on a quiz engine that I wrote using perl and a mysql database running on a Linux server.
It also includes a Linux and technology blog which is auto-updated from the watkissonline Wordpress blog.
There is also a PenguinTutor Facebook page and you can get status updates by following PenguinTutor tweets on Twitter.

Volunteering

I’ve been a member of St John Ambulance since joining through The University of Hull LINKS in 1993. I’m currently the County Staff Officer for Emergency Planning for Warwickshire. In the past I have been trained up to the standard of an Emergency Ambulance Attendant, but I am currently an Advanced First Aider. I help provide first aid cover when I find time. I have also trained as a St John Ambulance first aid trainer and assessor and provide occasional member training at Rugby Division.

Email

You can contact me using the email form, or see below for the social networking sites I use.

Social Networking

• Friends that know me can become friends on Facebook – Stewart Watkiss (facebook.com/sbwatkiss)
• You can follow my personal micro-blog on identi.ca identi.ca/stewartwatkiss
• You can also follow my tweets on Twitter: personal tweets twitter.com/stewartwatkiss; first aid, health & safety and health & fitness tweets twitter.com/firstaidquiz; or my Linux and technology related tweets at twitter.com/penguintutor.
• For my CV or more details on my work history please visit Stewart Watkiss’ Linkedin Profile
• Finally, if that’s not enough already, I occasionally browse and comment on some of the Linux user forums in particular Ubuntu Forums and normally go under the Alias of PenguinTutor.