Who I Am
Hey! My name is Aaron, I’m 27 years old, and I live on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. I am a young, enthusiastic, and talented computer technician and web developer.
My employment has led me through a wide range of technology-oriented fields, with a focus on web development, computer building and repair, server deployment and maintenance, and theatre/entertainment production, to name a few.
In my free time, I’m often tinkering with my local development/storage server, making things by way of CAD and 3D printing, tenpin bowling, or catching up with friends. I tend to live by the philosophy of “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing“, which has led to interesting things such as running a full-height server rack in my home, or using a full-size digital stage mixer as a home audio solution (which goes along well with my ever-growing collection of vinyl).
What I Do
For the most part, the majority of what I do can be grouped into three categories – computers, websites, and custom development. Besides these main categories, my skills cover customer service and retail, including cash handling, merchandising, and managing orders for both customers and store stock.
Websites
One of my biggest skills is the knowledge and ability to develop websites. For the most part, my professional career as a web developer has revolved around WordPress-based websites, with a primary focus on the Divi theme (what this website is built with), however that doesn’t mean my skills are only limited to this one framework – I also have extensive knowledge with custom development too, prmarily with HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP, however lately, this has expanded into custom web services built using Node.JS.
Not only am I skilled with building websites, but I also have extensive knowledge of hosting them as well. I have dealt with a wide variety of hosting options, including cPanel services, Apache, Nginx, and even my own custom-built docker containers for hosting my own services (including this website). Not only this, but I also have dealt with a decent range of third party hosting solutions from companies such as Squarespace, GoDaddy, NetRegistry, and Crazy Domains, to name a few.
Development
For as long as I can remember, I have been engaged with some form of code development. Dating back to mid to late primary school, developing interactive Windows batch files using the CHOICE.COM, and then proceeding to develop Windows applications with VB6 (and subsequently, VB.NET), making a machine execute the code that I have written has always been fantastic. Nowadays, most of my custom development revolves around both PHP and JS, however there are still projects that fall outside this scope.
Most of my custom development, if not for part of a website development project, is primarily for personal use – little tools and such to make my life easier. A few examples are a tracking system to monitor fuel mileage (which is detailed below in the Projects I’ve Done section, a handful of Discord bots (built using Discord.js) for status monitoring and alerts of some internal services, my own custom Docker containers for hosting, and a wide variety of shell scripts (both Windows and Linux) for device management.
Computers
I have many years of experience with pretty much every aspect of computers. Throughout my professional career, I have built an estimated 200-250 (probably more!) computers for both residential and business customers alike.
In addition to this, I am skilled with diagnosing and repairing faults, having been promoted to Senior Technician during my time at VirtualCity Pty Ltd, which involves overseeing all workshop repairs, and being the point-of-contact for other staff members for advice on repairs or for knowledge on technical aspects.
I also have experience with server environments. Having deployed both Linux and Windows servers alike for business customers (and several of my own Linux servers), I have dealt with both physical and virtual (ie. KVM VPS) services with a wide range of use cases, including docker hosts, ZFS storage arrays, and web servers (using both Apache and Nginx).
Where I’ve Been
The Disability Trust
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Engineer — August 2023 – Present
Providing combined Level 2 and Level 3 support to the ICT Service Desk, in addition to administering physical and digital infrastructure including physical server hosts, the virtual machine hypervisor (ESXi), and virtual machines with a variety of operating systems. Responsible for reporting and remediating any digital risks that the business may face, and proactively finding solutions to prevent information security issues from arising in the first place.
ICT Officer — December 2022 – August 2023
Providing combined Level 1 and Level 2 support to over 1800 staff across over 110 locations throughout the state, assisting with day-to-day account and device management through Active Directory, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), PowerShell, and the Microsoft 365 platform, along with network management via the Cisco Meraki dashboard.
Additionally, managing a growing ChromeOS device fleet including developing and deploying device policies in line with operational requirements, assisting integration engineers with product development and deployment through the Microsoft Power Platform, assisting with website management via the Cloudways platform, and successfully designed and implemented an overhauled method for ICT system documentation for ICT Helpdesk staff.
VirtualCity Pty Limited
Senior Technician / Web Developer — May 2021 – December 2022
Additional responsibilities of overseeing all operations of computer repairs, being the point of contact for several other technicians about procedures and guidance.
Technician / Web Developer — March 2018 – May 2021
Additional responsibilities added including designing and building websites, with a focus on WordPress. Role also included managing customer websites through a variety of hosting platforms including (but not limited to) cPanel, Netregistry/TPPWholesale Cloud, CrazyDomains, and custom hosting using both Apache and Nginx software.
Trainee Technician — March 2016 – March 2018
Role included providing technical support via phone, email, and in person, to both residential and business clients, booking in computers for repair, assembling custom computer builds from components, along with diagnosing faults and performing repairs as necessary, covering a wide range of hardware and software issues.
Additionally, standard retail duties such as cash handling, till balancing, cleaning, merchandising, and handling orders for both customers and store stock.
Webics
SEO Assistant
Role included managing SEO on customer websites, ensuring that code was optimised for web crawlers (eg. Google), and link generation from other high-traffic websites to assist with site ranking for particular keywords.
Additionally, assisted web developers with initial setup of client websites via WPEngine, including creating hosting spaces for staging sites, installing WordPress, themes, and plugins required for development.
Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre
Theatre Technician
Role includes all aspects of theatre production, with a primary focus on front-of-house sound mixing, vision (projector/screen) mixing, followspot operation, stage management, and fly system operation.
Uncle Pete's / Jaycar Nowra
Retail Assistant
Role included standard retail duties including cash handling, customer service, general store tidiness, unpacking and displaying stock, and managing customer orders.
Technologies I Use
WordPress
Divi Theme
Well-versed in all aspects of theme, including custom styling, dynamic content, and theme building.
HTML
CSS
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Node.js
MySQL
Docker
Linux
Apache & Nginx
Projects I’ve Done
Website Aaron Moorley Photography
Year: 2022
URL: https://aaronmoorley.photography
Technologies: WordPress, Divi Theme (incl. custom theme building), CSS
Originally, my photography content was on my main website (this website, before it was redesigned). As part of the redesign of this website, I opted to separate the photography and professional IT sides of my interests into their own separate websites.
Website xeon927
Year: 2022
URL: https://xeon927.net
Technologies: WordPress, Divi Theme (incl. custom theme building), CSS
Built primarily as my own custom alternative to services such as Linktree, this website serves to direct to various websites I have created or social media profiles.
Website Cullunghutti
Year: 2017
URL: http://cullunghutti.org.au
Technologies: WordPress, Divi Theme, CSS
Website Norwood Accounting
Year: 2018, 2022 Rebrand
URL: https://briannorwood.com.au
Technologies: WordPress, Divi Theme, CSS
Website Treehaven
Year: 2017, 2022 Rebrand
URL: http://treehaventouristpark.com.au
Technologies: WordPress, Divi Theme, CSS
Dev Project FuelTrack
Year: 2018
URL: https://mx5.fueltrack.xserv.me and https://rx8.fueltrack.xserv.me
Technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS
Originally, I tracked my fuel mileage for both of my cars in an Excel sheet, however as the data grew, I wished to have an easier way to add entries to my list, at the fuel pump. Over a weekend, I threw together FuelTrack. In its current state, it is a little bit rough, and the project is earmarked for redevelopment as time permits.
The redevelopment has plans for being an open platform, allowing users to sign up and track the mileage of their own cars.
PC Build Personal Storage Server
Year: 2019
To this date, one of my most prized possessions is my storage server. This server was built originally to replace the stack of hard drives in my desktop computer, as the number of drives had been growing over time as storage requirements increased, but also each drive was beginning to show its age (with a few drives having failed).
The server was built from the ground up by myself, and configured with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X CPU, 128GB DDR4 ECC RAM, an LSI 9305-24i HBA, 2x 256GB NVMe SSDs (as boot drives, in software RAID 1), and 24x 4TB WD Red HDDs (96TB raw total, arranged in a ZFS RAIDZ consisting of 4x 6-drive ZFS RAIDZ-2 arrays).
The server was originally set up with FreeNAS, however this was soon changed to Ubuntu Server, as the requirements of the server changed from just a file storage server to my main applications server as well.
Get In Touch
Want to know more about who I am, or what I do? Drop me a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.