itramblings has been my notebook since 2007: things I built, and things I found and wanted to keep. The wolf builds things: the scripts and write-ups I made myself live in the Wolf’s Den. The raven finds things: good articles from elsewhere, always credited and linked back, live in the Raven’s Finds. And the dog is the guide: if you get lost, land on an empty page or search for something that isn’t here, it’s the dog who comes to find you.
The human behind the pack
I’m Shawn, and I’m the one who keeps this notebook.
I’ve been in IT since 1997. I started out running a network, then wrote software, then led an IT department, and today I’m a Managing Director at Avanade. There I help large organizations modernize how they build and run technology, across cloud, data, applications and, increasingly, AI. It’s work I love: big, complex problems, great teams around the world, and results a business can actually measure.
I’ve always believed I lead better when I can still build. Being hands-on keeps my judgement honest. So I still write the scripts, rebuild the home lab and try the new thing myself, and this site is where that work lands.
Here is how the pack divides it up.
The wolf is the builder. When something takes real effort to work out, at work or in my home lab, it goes in the Wolf’s Den. That might be a PowerShell script, a Linux fix or a storage puzzle. I write it down so I never have to work it out twice, and so you don’t have to either.
The raven is the collector. A big part of good engineering is knowing where someone has already solved your problem. When I find an article like that, it goes in the Raven’s Finds, always credited and linked back to the person who wrote it.
The dog is the guide. I’m a dog lover first. On this site the dog’s job is to help you find your way when you’re lost.
This notebook has been open since 2007, so you’ll find SharePoint, Silverlight and Windows 7 right next to TrueNAS, UniFi and, more and more, agentic AI. That’s where I’m spending a lot of my time now: designing AI agents and reasoning-based knowledge platforms on Azure. I’ve kept the older posts up, because someone is always still running that version.
If something here saved you some time, I’d be glad to hear about it.
Find me: