First Post!

Thank you for coming to my new blog. I occasionally have forays into blogging, but over time they get stale and disappear into the internet's recycle bin. Maybe this time will be different? I think I've got a few interesting ideas at least.

Topics

What do I think will be interesting to write about? Largely about development. I'm a classic computer geek - I love all kinds of computer-y things, but development scratches a particular mental itch. So expect some:

• Development challenges: I quite often come up against issues that aren't well explained on the internet - so why not document them?

• Random projects: Ever wanted to write your own OS? Or project the temperature of your BBQ onto the TV so everyone knows when dinner will be ready? I love that kind of thing.

• Technical choices: There's so many different options out there that sometimes it's really not clear what technology to use for your project. Will my thoughts help? If nothing else, hopefully it'll help your frame your own thinking.

All about me

Why should you listen to me? Honestly, you probably shouldn't - I'm just a randomer on the internet after all. I'm not even - currently - a professional software engineer, although I have been in the past.

My professional engineering experience isn't massive - just 6 years. 4 of which I worked on telecoms infrastructure equipment, largely in a custom message passing platform written in C, and 2 of which was full-stack web development using custom frameworks written in Vue and PHP. Professionally I'd say I was either just into being a senior engineer, or else very close to it.

All my professional experience has been in, or adjacent to, networking of some kind.

On the flip side, I've got over 20 years of hobbyist experience. My favourite "area" to work on is close to the metal. This led to the high point of personal projects - over the course of a couple of years I wrote a hobby operating system - Project Azalea. If you look at it, you can really see how my coding style has changed over time! The main downside is that I hadn't really learned the benefits of good documentation for a personal project, so now I find it almost impossible to build a working image...

Most recently I've been enjoying trying to reverse-engineer a ThermoPro bluetooth thermometer. I have a wild dream of putting the readings from it onto the TV, or maybe some other "home status" screen. Why? Good question...