My name is Michael William Malloy but most people call me Mick and I was born on 15^th May 1961 in Griffith, NSW, Australia. Griffith was a large town in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, south-west of Sydney and has since become a city.

My mother, Evereldha June, and father, Michael Jude separated when I was young leaving mum to raise myself and two elder sisters, Cheryl and Helen. Check out Cheryl's site for her adventures in Vanuatu, the United Arab Emirates, China, and now back to UAE. Meanwhile Helen has some interesting stuff both of Australian interest and our family genealogy.

This page used to have what was basically a precis of my resume but I feel like doing it differently this time so...

A defining characteristic of who I am is that I have been awarded the Most Valuable Professional award by Microsoft all years 2004 till present. Officially, that's Windows Server Systems - Small Business Server but in searches I'll show up as "SuperGumby [SBS MVP]". At the time of writing there were ~45 SBS MVP's worldwide and only 5 of those in AU, out of a total of ~4500 MVP's including all disciplines. The short story of how I became an MVP appears as part of my MVP profile, http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Mick.Malloy.

I have, for some years, focussed on SMB space and the use of SBS as the basis for your network. This has resulted in me supplying support services to a number of companies ranging from few(3) to the high 20's. SBS can cater for 75 users (or devices) but I heard from a reliable source some time ago that really MS expectation is 50. I'd like to see SBS user/device limits increased and have raised this with MS, particularly around the cessation of EBS development, but we have no indicators of this happening yet.

January 1998 a friend of mine, Craig, asked me if I was busy over the next several days and as I am pretty well always looking for more work to do, I put m' hand up. We worked with Visual Event Management to set up for the Sydney premiere of Spice World: The Movie at the State Theatre and brought The Spice Girls in on a double-decker bus with me standing at the front hanging onto a couple of speakers that, though they were securely tied, we didn't want falling on spice. The Girls were 'coolly friendly' and liked the crowd we had gathered, 16 thousand screaming tweenies were packed into Market and Pitt streets near the theatre and I think everyone had a great time. I worked with VEM, mainly for movie premieres but also for some corporate functions, through till 2008 when we partially closed off George St for the opening of Australia (the movie). Other premieres I was involved in include the Mission Impossible and Fast Furious series, several of Nicole Kidman's (Others, Interpreter, Moulin Rouge), Robin Williams Centennial Man, Iron Man, and well, the list goes on...

Craig has moved on (but still works with VEM, and other companies) to become Carpet Hire and I have also participated in some of these projects. I also worked with Craig and various companies on Stadium Australia, installing additional sound systems, and Holland Heineken House (audio and some computer stuff) for the Sydney Olympics. We provided 'in game entertainment' for Sydney Swans football matches for a while, and more corporate functions.

And if I move back into ancient history I must also account for being an Electronics Technician and training with Telstra (Telecom at the time) for communications before I get to Australian Associated Press where I changed to Computer Operations.

I was working for AAP when something 'new' hit the market, the IBM PC (and it's various clones, eventually). I had already entered into PC space as an 'enthusiast' after a friend Richard had shown me the computer he built, which could have been an Altair kit, several years earlier. Another Craig had also built a computer (which we called the disco machine, because of all the flashing lights) based on the 4040 (or was it 8008?) and about the same time some kid called Bill Gates was developing DOS we were developing something that resembled an OS. I guess you know who was the more successful player in that game.

A colleague at AAP brought into the country what he swore (and could have been) was the 1^st container load of 'XT clones'. I blew a couple of month's salary getting one which I'm pretty sure had both the 8086 and 8087 (math coprocessor) and ran at a STAGGERING 7MHz (with a mechanical switch to put it back to 4.77 MHz, for compatibility purposes). The 10MB HDD was WAY MORE SPACE THAN I NEEDED as I played with things like Lotus 123 and BASIC. This was an important 'way-station' on my journey through life as I started then to become 'the PC guy' and my knowledge of PCs was started to be valued by others.

AAP were also associated to MS in some way, some form of 'partner relationship', so when MS came out with something called 'Windows' I got to look at it during development.

About the same time I spent another few month's salary on a device that basically changed my life, Netcomm 1234SA modem. Capable of a bit tearing 2400Bd this device allowed me to connect to Bulletin Board Services and this allowed me access to FIDO.net (email). I started to correspond with like minded individuals all over the planet. BBS's and FIDO developed for a while and then got replaced by something called 'the internet', and the rest is now history. I consider the internet to be the main influence on society in my time.

My knowledge of communications and PCs allowed me to be considered for, and gain, a role in Computer Operations for AAP. We were designated 'System Controllers' for their Editorial System which was based on Tandem TNS II hardware (so nice, so nice, we do it twice) and I quickly became one of the 'Senior Controllers'. My time at AAP eventually finished but I have them to thank for putting me on the path I now tread.

Other positions as Customer Service Representative (Banksia Technology and OzEmail) where I handled a large number of customer enquiries, various efforts to run my own business (Computer Consultancy), and many years answering questions in 'public discussion areas' have allowed me to develop some ability to 'make contact' with people and sort out this question of 'what you are asking for' and 'what you want/need'. This is what I most enjoy doing, whether it be in the world of computers, the entertainment industry, or just plain getting by today.