logo

Coding, Cloud & Calculations

Title

About Me

Hi reader, thanks for taking the time to read this about me post in my blog. I'm Steve, I'm currently employed as a Platform Engineer and Capability Lead but in my time I've worked as a software engineer, in support departments, I was an architect for a brief period and I studied for various degrees including a PhD in pure mathematics. I've worked in a variety of industries and projects too including large ecommerce platforms, video gaming, networking appliances, aerospace engineering, gambling, important public sector projects, insurance and investment banking.

I'm writing this blog for a few reasons:

  1. I think I have learned a lot over my years as a Software Engineer, Platform Engineer and other disciplines and I like sharing knowledge.
  2. I've spent a lot of time helping train engineers in the last few years, and I'd like to be able to stop repeating myself and point people to blog posts and maybe even videos in time.
  3. Teaching is the best way to know if you understand something.
  4. It's a showcase of my talents an ability.
  5. It was a chance for me to build my skills as a frontend developer.
Title

My interests are pretty varied too, so you can probably expect articles on:

  • How to successfully build software in IT.
  • All things DevOps/Cloud/Platform Engineering/IaC/CI/CD/etc.
  • Rust has been a love affair of mine for the past few years, I even managed to get a small PR merged for the Rust compiler at one point.
  • Scripting, all things Python/NodeJS/Bash/PowerShell/etc.
  • Other languages like GoLang, C, Java, C#, etc.
  • All things operating systems, Linux, Mac and yes, even Windows.
  • Productivity in Software Engineering, so Vim, Terminals, etc..
  • Open Source Software.
  • Virtualisation.
  • Mathematics and Science.

Amongst various other things that take my interest at the time.

In my spare time you'll likely find me spending time with my family, friends or playing with my cats. I've been happily married since December 2016 and we live in Worcestershire with a couple of adorable Ragdolls that I can't resist sharing a recent photo of. I also play (roughly in order of competency) guitar, piano and drums and like playing various styles, including (not quite so in order of competency) Classical, Jazz, Rock and Blues.

Here's a link to my latest CV for those who want to know more about my background.