Hi, I’m Tom. I love making software and breaking software. I’m a selftaught software engineer, have a solid base in systems- and network administration and am absolutely crazy for excellent design. Having worked for startups most of my life I decided to start as a freelancer in 2021, combining my knowledge, experience and passion into a single role as devops engineer.
software developer
Once you get past the initial stage of being a code monkey you realize software development teaches you more than just writing code. It is teaches you how to tackle big problems, how to cut problems down and break them up into manageable pieces that are easier to understand, solve and plan. It’s not until you’ve dealt with the hardships of solving a problem yourself that you truly grasp the solution to a problem.
Currently learning:
typescript, vuex, threejs
Currently queued to learn:
nextjs, modern react (haven’t looked at this since 2017)
Last learnt:
django, vue composition api
Learnt and used these some time ago:
html5, css3, php, codeigniter, symfony, java, spring, python, javascript, angularJS, node, express, mysql, mongodb redis, rabbitmq
security researcher
I was obsessed with the book “The cuckoo’s egg”, and it got me into the early infosec community. I screwed up a few times and got lucky I was either a minor or there weren’t clear laws about what I was doing yet. These encounters scared me away from what is now known as infosec for quite some time. Curiosity, however, is the trait that drove me to hacking and it never really ‘went away’.
Nowadays I do security research and bugbounties. Sometimes I also perform ethical hacks/pentests on company infrastructure. I hack because it’s fun though, and not for the money. And I still believe that most companies and individuals who connect to the internet deserve some semblance of security as they most likely don’t know the magics in which they are dabbling. (Magic, to them, that is.)
That’s why I’m an avid preacher of privacy and promote basic ‘cybersecurity’ principles to everyone. (Sidenote: shouldn’t we call ‘privacy principles’ internet OPSEC nowadays?)
system- and network administration
This might give away my age, but I started using a computer when MSDOS 3.3 was a thing. I’ve worked more with black screens with letters than I care to admit. It all started with reinstalling DOS from scratch. As I grew up I learnt how to install and manage Windows desktops and linux servers, and eventually windows servers and linux desktops. I eventually became MCSE enterprise certified and eventually grew bored of the microsoft ecosystem.
Of course, eventually, virtualization became ‘a thing’, and I played around with vmware, virtualbox and kvm. When docker eventually came around and made lxc useable for the masses I played around with that and you know - a few years later I found out that people who are sysadmin and play with these kind of technologies are now called ‘DevOps’. Cool beans.
design
Design isn’t just “artsy-fartsy handwaving” as many-a backend developer think. Design is not art per se. Design is actually visually solving a problem within a constrained space using preset rules. The art part of it is knowing when you should break these rules.
With regards to webdesign and print the problem design attempts to solve is the presentation of information. As a developer I really love the “form follows function” style of design - designing for a specific purpose and only applying as much design as the situation warrants. It may not be a surprise that I really love designing in swiss style. This is also why I’m a big fan of Massimo Vignelli‘s work. I try to create things that adhere to his canon whenever I can.
life-long learner
I live to learn. Curiosity is what drives me. Having a broad range of interests helped me build a latticework of mental models into which new ideas can be woven. If at any point my “to-read” list shrinks, then it’s probably because I’m stuck in the sand on the beach of an uninhabited island. As I never had any formal education, I actively hone my critical thinking skills by regularly reminding myself. (I am also a huge fan of farnam street)