About Me
I have over 8 years of experience developing software in the healthcare IT industry and I've picked up a wide variety of skills over the course of my career so far. I've also made plenty of personal projects in my spare time because I like building things and learning skills when I'm not on the clock too. Most of those personal projects are probably too niche/messy/incomplete to be of any use to anyone else, but I've published a few so far and I plan to publish more of them soon.
A few highlights of my accomplishments that I'm particularly proud of:
- I helped build a suite of microservices in the Azure cloud for processing patient enrollment forms
- I created a utility library to reduce boilerplate code to a minimum in my team's unit tests
- I wrote a SAML Service Provider plugin from scratch for a Java-based web application
- I designed an IP security camera using widely available parts and open-source software
- I interned at NASA when I was in college and got to write code for Mars rover prototypes
Fun computing fact: I've been using Linux exclusively for my personal computing since early 2023. I still use Windows when I have to for work, but my personal devices all run either Fedora or some Debian variant (except my phone; I'm not ready to go that far yet!). There are a lot of reasons behind why I made that move, but suffice it to say, it's working great for me and I haven't looked back in quite a while.
Hobbies
I enjoy the occasional video game when I have downtime, but my main hobbies right now are 3D printing and tinkering with my home network. I like designing practical things, like Gridfinity organizers and wall hooks, but I will admit to printing quite a few decorations and fidget toys too.
The network tinkering is part practical and part just having fun. I'm running this beautiful hodge-podge of systems right now:
- Until recently, an old Framework mainboard running OPNsense under Proxmox (a rollercoaster of a story which I still plan to publish the beginning of even though the end is already here)
- A modest custom-built 20TB NAS
- A refurbished HP thin client running Home Assistant
- A couple of switches for all the wired connections I insist on using
- An old Ubiquiti Wi-Fi access point that refuses to let me log into the admin interface (guess what my next network project is probably going to be!)
- A small UPS to buffer against all the brownouts we've been having this year
- A couple of desktop and laptop computers
I enjoy it and I'm slowly but surely upgrading every part. For example, the Home Assistant machine used to be a Raspberry Pi 3+, but having dealt with a couple of MicroSD card failures in the past, I wanted to start migrating away from those for server applications where storage needs to be written to somewhat frequently. I find the HP T630 makes a great lightweight home server, and the best part is, it's still fanless.
I've also been into photography for a while, mostly seeking out gorgeous landscapes and interesting macro shots.