About
I like building independent systems.
I've been programming for a while - almost 6 years now! I feel most at home at the terminal.
At a glance
- Focus
- Software Development
Cybersecurity
Embedded Systems - Open to
- Full-time roles, contract work, volunteering
- Location
- Cape Town, South Africa
Links
Technologies I have worked with
The bar under each icon shows the rating. High ratings are for technologies that I use daily or have previously used for a long time. Lower ratings are for ones that I have used in passing or which I am currently learning. Only the icons are shown (I think it looks nicer); hovering reveals the text in a tooltip.
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Programming languages 7
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Developer operations 3
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UI frameworks 3
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Virtualization 2
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Monitoring & observability 2
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Databases 4
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Cloud platforms 2
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System administration 5
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Build automation 3
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Hardware platforms 4
What I am passionate about working on:
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Sustainable Energy
The world runs on electricity, but many of the processes used to produce it cannot be supported in the long term. There are alternatives; the goal is to find ways to address their shortfalls and increase adoption.
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Robotics
This union of software and hardware engineering can be very useful in solving various physical problems in the world. Robots are also great for collecting data about the environment.
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Software Development and Cybersecurity
It is now easier than ever to build software. Experience matters when it has to be secure - so it doesn't do something it's not meant to, or expose important data.
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Data Analytics
I love data. You can learn so much about the world from it, and I enjoy setting up systems that collect, process and present data in useful ways.
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Conservation
The Earth is a beautiful place. Someday, I would love to explore and protect it.
The journey here
Looking back, some of the projects were quite unique and useful; many of them were not. All of them taught me something. I didn't always make the best decisions, but I've learnt a lot from the journey and it has shaped my intuition and pattern of thinking.
I like getting things done, and I am particular about what is valuable. Learning useful skills is valuable, but it's easy to lose those without continuous use, so one of the ways I prefer to learn is by teaching.
In my free time
I enjoy reading - mostly technical topics, across many fields (they are all so interesting!), but sometimes fiction too. The occasional outdoor field trip is a nice change of scenery. At the computer, I explore open source software, self-host services, visualize data, and create illustrations and animations.
This website
You may have had a feeling that this website was created by Claude (or some other LLM), and you would be right. There is something that gives it away, and normally I am quite wary of such websites. LLMs do help get things done quicker (it still took over two weeks of irregular work to get this website up!), but there is a tradeoff when automatically generating code. I think the caveats are acceptable in this particular case: this website is statically served (all pages are pre-generated) and it works without JavaScript; this is low stakes.
All these words are written by me (I just like using dashes and semicolons) - commits with Claude's modifications are marked by "claude:" in the source repository. Claude was really good at generating the SVG illustrations; the output was very close to what I had in mind, and I was quite involved in the generation process. Still, it was created by Claude, so the text "AutoGen" at the bottom right corner marks that the image was automatically generated.
The theme is inspired by Gruvbox Material.