Hi. I’m Neil Wilson.

I’m a Principal Engineer at Ping Identity, where I work on all things LDAP, including their Directory Server, Directory Proxy Server, and the UnboundID LDAP SDK for Java. I also maintain the LDAP.com website and the @LDAP@mastodon.online account on Mastodon, both of which provide news about LDAP-related content.

I’ve been working with LDAP in some form or another since 1999. I started as a server administrator at Caterpillar and then at TidePoint, before moving on to working as a lead technical support engineer at Netscape for the Netscape and iPlanet Directory Servers. When iPlanet dissolved, I moved over to Sun Microsystems, where I worked in various roles, including as a sustaining engineer, performance engineer, and developer for what was eventually known as Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE). I was also the original lead developer for the OpenDS Directory Server until they moved the majority of its development outside the United States. I then co-founded UnboundID, which was acquired by Ping Identity in 2016.

In my non-professional life, I watch a lot of movies and television. I tend to watch more of the classics than new releases, but I still see a fair number of new films, and I have a pretty indefensible soft spot for Hallmark Christmas movies.

Favorite movies:

• Oldboy
• Strangers on a Train
• 12 Angry Men
• Back to the Future
• Ernest Goes to Camp

Favorite TV shows:

• WKRP in Cincinnati
• Night Court
• Mama’s Family
• The Golden Girls
• The IT Crowd

I also play a lot of pinball (both real and virtual). On occasion, I’m not utterly terrible at it. Favorite tables:

• Stern’s Ghostbusters Pro (boo to the magna-slings on the premium)
• Williams’s Bride of Pinbot
• Multimorphic’s Weird Al
• Bally’s Fathom
• Gottllieb’s Jacks Open

I also enjoy 3D printing and some occasional lock picking. You can follow me on Mastodon at @KindOfABigNeil@mastodon.online and at https://letterboxd.com/kindofabigneil/.