Hello World with Background

About:

This is my personal website. I've decided to abandon web 2.0 social media platforms, and just do it all myself. A short summary about me:

I've got a degree in Computer Science and Physics. I like engineering and hands on field/factory work quite a lot.
I am very pro Data Soverignty, and stronly support P2P technologies. I am currently weaning myself off of free/mium services, by running my own web-server, email-server, and cutting my web 2.0 app exposure to a minimum. This is an extensive work in progress.
My interests include hobby repair/engineering, software progamming, landscape photography, creative writing, hiking, cooking, reading, minimal living, and p2p/crypto technologies.

C.V, Focus & Expertise:

My C.V can be found Here. The most relevent job roles I have worked are listed.

I have experience in the Software, Retail, Industrial Machinery, and Laboratory industries. Currently looking to expand my skills into Engineering, to qualify professionally.

To be frank: non-professional credentials have no value in an A.I driver world - for anyone can take a Udemy course or get chatGPT to code for them. Over the years, I have learned a number of skills, particularly in software programming as well as in blue-collar factory work. I won't bother with PDF certificates - the proof comes from my folk-knowledge and the problems I have solved.

I am a firm believer of having a brain in your head, and solving/owning problems end-to-end. We have infinite resources on the internet, and everything has already been done. At the end of the day, I paid a fancy degree from a decent university - so by this point I should be able to teach and guide myself, and look for supporting sources/coaching when I believe need it.

If one can't do that with confidence...then their diploma was really just a receipt the entire time.

Code Projects:

Further to my Data Soverignty goals, I use Radicle to host my code repos. Github is owned by Microsoft. And although Github is an excellent platform - this can quickly change as Microsoft can change its user policy at any time.

Some projects I have worked on are below:

Memstrom: An ideosyncratic post-it note app.
30 Second Challenge: React Implementation of the Daily Mirror's famous number puzzle.
ipvscanpipe: Image cropper for rapidly scanning notes into a computer.
TerraPi: Raspberry Pi based multi-sensor solarium monitor, inspired by RasPiVivarium project
Alien Isolation Graphics: Two.js implementation of console screens from Alien:Isolation (game)
Urbit: Various examples of Hoon scripts.

Writing/Blogging:

I've tried various blogging and messaging platforms over the years, and the usual Principal-Agent problems apply. In other words: you have to do-it-yourself if you want it perfectly tailored to you. Selections of my writing are below:

On Finding a Real Future: Against fake futures, and strategies for dealing with tech acceleration.
On Mark Laita's Painful Conclusion: You probably can't help the homeless (bring them back to society, that is).

Photography:

I enjoy hiking and landscape photography, with an increasing focus on the Highlands and Western Scotland. Below are some photos I have taken over the years.

Galloway Forest Park: Images from two hiking excursions up Curlywee and Muldonnoch hills.
Solway Coast: Various Images taken along the Solway Coast (Annan, Powfoot, and Brow Well areas).
Hamilton Infrastructure: Picures of the old CHCH TV Tower, and Hamilton Shore.
Leslie Street Spit (Toronto): A man-made headway (island) of used construction materials - which symbolizes the empty soul of Toronto.

About this Page:

Background Photo: "Day Meets Night", taken by Andrew Campbell-Jones. VeraType and Spectral fonts are used for titles and text.

This is a largely static nginx website. I use pandoc/python scripts to convert markdown to html (with templates for the sections). Some javascript extension libraries are used for dynamic content.

salba.space