My technical capabilities are both broad and deep. I spend many hours per day engaged in technical pursuits, fitting my social and advocacy activities among them. Over the past 16 years, I have performed almost every role in a small IT consulting company (up to 12 staff) including all technical IT system administration, system integration, architecture design, web hosting, and software development tasks using a broad range of technologies, all open source and freely available. I am confident that I can already do most things that an IT or educational institution would need me to do, and I am certain that I will rapidly learn anything I do not already know “out-of-the-box”.
I have many years of experience with technologies like:
- Operating System: Linux has been my primary OS on desktop and server since 1994. Currently running Debian or Ubuntu on the server and Linux Mint on the desktops and laptops
- Email: Postfix SMTP, Dovecot IMAP/POP and other related tools like Procmail, Spamassassin, and ClamAV among others. In 2019, shifted all my mail systems to MailCow. Despite it's goofy name, it's superb.
- DNS: Bind, PowerDNS, even DJBDNS!
- Webserver: Nginx, Apache
- Version Control: Git and SVN
- Programming: C/C++ - a bit rusty, but have 5 years commercial experience, particularly with the Qt framework
- Scripting: PHP (16 years experience), lots of Javascript, Python, Bash, Zsh, Awk and I have decades of day-to-day experience with Linux command line tools
- Markup: XHTML, HTML5, CSS 3, XML, XSLT
- DevOps: Vagrant, lots and lots of Docker, LXC/D, Ansible, Drush, Composer
- Package/Dependency Management: pip, npm, compass, composer, etc.
- Documents: Vim, Etherpad-Lite (online collaborative editing), LibreOffice Writer and more recently both CollaboraOffice and OnlyOffice combined with NextCloud.
- Computation: LibreOffice Calc, spreadsheets in general
- Presentations: LibreOffice Impress, but my preferred tools is Reveal.JS (a recent keynote)
- Mobile Platform: Android, particularly Cyanogen Mod, and since its demise, LineageOS.
- Database: MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL (including some PostGIS), and quite a bit of CouchDB
- Web Application Frameworks: Drupal, Silverstripe, lots of WordPress, and more recently, I'm a big fan of Grav
- Web Applications: Matomo, Lime Survey, Rocket.Chat, Discourse, Gitlab, Mastodon, Mautic, and many many others
- Single Sign-On: SimpleSAMLPHP, KeyCloak
- Password Management: VaulWarden/BitWarden (with the Rust implementation)
- all manner of Fediverse services
- Matrix-based services (federated chat) including Synapse and Element
I seem to explore new technologies frequently. Here's a list of services I set up and maintain on behalf of the NZ Open Source Society.
I have worked with these technologies:
- Search: Apache Solr
- Scripting: Python/iPython Notebooks, Perl, Ruby, Javascript, jQuery
- Markup: Sass, DocBook
- Sysadmin: Puppet
- DevOps: Fabric
- Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 95 - 7 - I provided commercial support for organisations integrating MS operating systems with our Linux-based infrastructure, Apple MacOS
- Web Application Frameworks: Django, Ruby on Rails, Node.JS
- Content Management Systems: Mezzanine
I am currently interested in and learning about technologies like:
- Search: Elastic Search
- Programming: Rust
- Web Application Frameworks: Angular.JS, and Flask
- Static Site Builders: Pelican, Gatsby
I learn new technologies all the time, because I love doing it. When I have a particular problem, my broad base of experience means that I can find and assimilate the necessary technological lore quickly and effectively.
Update 2021-04-15: In the COVID19 era, I've expanded the palette of tools I support. As of 2021, I have set up and manage an array of tools on behalf of the OER Foundation to support their global educator and learner communities, as well as a range of tools for NZ users wanting to work remotely (under the auspices of the NZ Open Source Society, for whom I am currently the "Deputy Chair"), and a number of tools for my own use and communities I want to support, too.