About SG

SouthGeek is a technology news blog, but from a Southern perspective. When technology is discussed, most people think of Silicon Valley or other technology areas in the West. However, there are a great deal many technology drivers here in the South. We want to provide our views on the world of technology, how we use it and how the people of this region use it as well. Plus, we hope to provide a reliable source of the latest tech news, our opinions, how-to’s and reviews to the Southern region. Of course, no matter where you are, we’re happy for you to visit us as well!

If you have a question, comment or tech story that you’d like to submit, please email us. The email address is media@southgeek.me, or use the contact form at the bottom of this page. You can also call us and leave a voice mail. The number is (205) 614-3350. Follow us on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/south_geek.

Staff/Pundits

Donovan (Don) Adkisson has been involved in technology since he was 12 when he took his first IBM apart and put it back together. Learning DOS from reading the manual and trying each and every command to see the results, he quickly moved on to learning programming in the form of BASIC and Pascal.

He spent his early 20s working for an interconnect company, building computers, designing and implementing networks (back when 10BASE-2 was just coming around), installing and configuring key systems and PBXs as well as alarm systems.

He shied away from technology for a couple of years, putting his efforts into learning about quality systems, ISO9000 and QS9001 certifications. It wasn’t long, however, before he had the bug again and he wound up working for a young cable broadband system which was one of a handful of municipal cable systems in Georgia at the time. There he also took on the responsibility of implementing an ATM network tying all of the City’s buildings together, along with providing VoIP communications over the same infrastructure. Starting as the Network Manager, he eventually became General Manager of the cable broadband system and MIS Director of the City’s IT department.

Today, he still manages the cable broadband system. In June 2011, he started Adkisson Enterprises, LLC for the benefit of operating this site (SouthGeek.me) as well as Tifton Talks (tiftontalks.com) as part of the Anairo Media network. He releases audio podcasts on a regular basis on both sites with the SouthGeek podcasts devoted to technology news and the Tifton Talks’ podcasts devoted to what’s happening in Tifton and the surrounding area.

Contact info:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/donovan.adkisson
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdadkisson
Xbox Live Gamertag: Kaladae
Steam handle: Wolfsoul

Walt has been in computer technology since age fourteen. His dad bargained with him to purchase a Tandy 1000 HX on the condition that he get a weekend job to help pay for it, which he did. From there he demonstrated his auto-didactic skills while learning DOS, Windows, etc.

Upon graduating high school, Walt pursued an Associate Degree in Computer Science for nearly two years. For personal reasons he diverged and jumped into nursing and earned an Associate Degree in Nursing. For the next five years, Walt worked in renal units and various intensive care units all around Georgia as a contract RN. During this time, he stayed current with PC technology and performed PC repair and upgrades as a strong hobby.

In 2000, Walt decided to return to his first love of technology and computers. He went to work for a newly established and municipally owned cable broadband system. Initially Walt started as a door to door salesman to get in the door. From there he became a full time employee and worked his way to Information Technology/Tech Support/MIS Manager of the same cable broadband system. He managed the broadband/digital tv networks and tech support, while also developing (with great assistance from Donovan Adkisson and Chad Purvis) an Active Directory based corporate network and VoIP system for the City (municipal owner).

During this time, Walt returned to finish his Associate Degree in Computer Science. After finishing his degree, he returned to nursing on the weekends to work in an open-heart cardiovascular intensive care unit. He did this for a few years until he decided that technology was his true path.

Walt is self taught with Linux, Perl, relational databases, Active Directory/Exchange management, and switching/routing with Linux and Cisco IOS. He also manages and maintains a Cisco/Scientific Atlanta Digital Broadband and Delivery System (DBDS). Perhaps Walt’s greatest achievement (with much help from Donovan Adkisson) was authoring a management system in Perl/MySQL to integrate cable modem/VoIP and other device provisioning with all the various systems needed in the digital cable broadband business.

Walt is currently working at the same digital cable broadband company under new owners. He continues to innovate with Linux and Perl when possible and participates with SouthGeek podcasts and articles.

Chad Purvis became involved with technology when he was around seventeen years old. He created and designed basic websites and later designed a few sites for his brother and girlfriend. Experimenting with web design became the catalyst for him to change majors in college from Golf Turf Management to Information Technology, in which he later earned an Associate Degree.

Upon successful completion of college, Chad was employed by the local, municipally-owned cable company in Tifton, called CityNet. He began his career as a door to door cable salesman. As fate would have it, this lasted two weeks, when he was promoted to cable modem installer. He remained in that position for a little over a year, until CityNet started it’s own in-house tech support where he stayed for about three years. Chad was then promoted to the position of Network Administrator with the City of Tifton.

Chad continued to work in his position as Network Administrator for several years and maintained websites and networks in his spare time. CityNet was sold by the city to Plant Telecommunications and Chad transferred with the merger. He is now the Network Services Supervisor overseeing day to day tech support operations for the rebranded Plant TiftNet cable company.

Chad still enjoys maintaining websites in his spare time and is a contributor on the South Geek podcasts each week.

Ben Rehberg had his first run-in with computers at an early age in front of a Tandy 1000. But it wasn’t until later with the publication of the Internet that captured him forever. After serving in the Army, he attended Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs, CO where he fell in love with system administration and software development. He has since worked with education, government services, ISPs, and financial services. Ben currently works in UNIX and Linux administration in Atlanta. He also develops software for Android and consults small businesses in technology solutions in his free time when he’s not reading or writing about technology. He lives between his family in Cook County, Georgia, and his job in Atlanta.

Lea Adkisson – Information coming soon!

Robert (Rob) C. Betzel, founder and owner of Infinity Network Solutions Inc., has been working in the computer network field since 1994. He is a BICSI certified RCDD with over ten years of experience in design and management of IT installation projects. Rob holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems from Georgia College and State University. While at GC&SU, Rob Betzel studied both the human and hardware sides of network installation.