Meet Prescott Kulow, Server Support Engineer

Prescott "Scott" Kulow is a Server Support Engineer at FastServers.Net. He has been with the company since November of 2004. A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Scott earned his degree in computer science with an emphasis on systems and artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence is an exciting field. The possibilities with AI are endless." He said it could be used for everything from fun stuff such as games and simulations to the real "betterment of humanity" things such as handling dangerous jobs, medicine, and space exploration. We think artificial intelligence is cool too, Scott. Question - will machines take over the human race?

That question has yet to be determined. But until a solid answer can be given, let's admire the fact that Scott has an astonishing collection of 300 games on 20 different gaming systems. Quite impressive, don't you think? We asked Scott which of the systems and games he owns are his favorites. "Super Nintendo is my absolute favorite. I really enjoy old school 2D games. The Super Nintendo is the pinnacle of 2D graphics. Plus the system plays some of the most impressive games of its time - Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Metroid, and Zelda Link." Scott dreams of meeting the creator of Zelda and Mario - Shigeru Miyamoto. "If I get to meet Mr. Myamoto, I will shake his hand and thank him for giving us Zelda and Mario."

Scott told us if he doesn't get to me Mr. Myamoto, he would be happy trading his Thunderbird for a DeLorean. If you have seen any of the Back to the Future movies, you would know why we asked Scott the following question: Why a DeLorean? His response justified his eagerness to trade his old Thunderbird. "DeLoreans look like what cars from the future would look like, if they were made 25 years ago. They have very unique styling that signifies a futuristic feel, but at the same time is outdated and completely impractical." Scott finally confessed that he has always been a big fan of Back to the Future.

Doc and Marty McFly are not the only movie characters on Scott's list of favorites. He said Jay and Silent Bob are at the top. "Any movie by Kevin Smith can be classified as one of my favorites. Smith's movie can be clever such as Dogma or Chasing Amy, or completely over the top and disgusting such as Clerks. Besides, I don't know anyone that doesn't like Jay and Silent Bob." Scott said Clerks 2 is a great movie too.

Scott does not have any favorite bands, but said he prefers to listen to older rock music from the 70s and 80s. "Rock bands from those two decades are the best. I really enjoy breaking out an old favorite and listening to the sounds they [rock bands] created 20-30 years ago."

Scott has significant experience programming Java client/server applications and has been involved in some in-depth, complicated projects. "The most involved thing I have developed was a chat program that is still being used by the UNI psychology department. There are two separate programs, a client and server program. The server supports up to a couple dozen simultaneous clients." He said the unique thing about the chat program has to do with mapping its users. "On the surface it looks like a fairly standard chat room, but the person conducting an experiment with the software can define various maps where people participating in the conversation can talk to specified people, while others are restricted. For example, it could be setup so that everybody in the chat room can talk to one person, but that one person can only talk to a couple other people in the room." Scott said the psychology department utilizes the technology to perform experiments on groups of people.

Scott's ability to troubleshoot hardware and software issues has been a tremendous help to FastServers.Net. With his ability to troubleshoot complicated issues comes the need to acquire massive amounts of caffeine, primarily in the form of "Mountain Dew." He said on an average day he drinks at least 3-4 20-ounce bottles and even more when it has been a really bad day. "I work the second shift, noon to 9:00 PM, so I need the caffeine to keep going. The middle of the afternoon can sometimes make me drowsy if I haven't loaded up on the Dew or some coffee."

We asked Scott to name a couple of interesting things he has learned lately while on the job. His response was that most of it is too technical and boring to describe, but would like to share a couple of tips that he adheres to on a daily basis. "The first tip needs to be habitual! 1) Read what you type in a terminal twice, press Enter once. Basically, double-check your work. 2) Never assume anything works without testing it. Trust me on that one." Those are great tips Scott. Tell us how you feel about working at FastServers.Net. "Working at FastServers.Net is never boring and there are always new challenges being presented to me. A day never goes by that I don't learn something new."