Two words: System Administration.

At the moment, that’s the main area where I really want more skills. I can do a bit, but I want to do much more. I’ll consider myself well on my way when I have finally set up a UNIX-based email server from scratch that’s capable of hosting multiple email addresses on multiple domains.

It’s not strictly geek related, but I also want to develop much better skills in the people area, both socially and in the management area. Being a polyglot or a polymath wouldn’t be bad either.

My eventual goal in life is to know everything about everything, have been everywhere, and have done everything. And have lots of fun along the way.

First off, I don’t really consider myself a programmer any more. I do code occasionally, but only when my degree requires it, or I have a pressing need for a tool that Google just won’t divulge.

My favourite programming language is C. It’s got so much power, and yet it’s such a clean language, unlike C++ or other similar languages. I used it a lot in the past for writing operating system kernels, which is what it’s really designed for. It makes me happy when I see some well-formatted, well-commented C code (hint: you won’t find any in the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds is a Git).

The language I code the most in these days though is the bash shell scripting language. It’s not technically a formal programming language perhaps, but it’s certainly very useful. I’m a system administrator for a number of servers in my spare time, and automating tasks is the best way to stay sane (that’s why we have computers, isn’t it?). I’m not brilliant at bash scripting, and I’m sure if the UNIX wizards of old saw my scripts they’d turn over in their graves, but I can get the job done.

There are a number of other programming languages I like the look of, or the concept of, but I just don’t use them as much. Java is one. I know most geeks reserve a special hatred for Java, but I honestly don’t know why. It’s a nice clean language, and the number of included libraries makes it really easy to knock together applications. Another language I think is pretty neat is Lisp. I almost never use it, and can only do the basics, but it’s just so wonderful and different. And that variety in programming languages is what makes every single one of them so special.