some code I wrote

The first code I was paid to write was a DOS program to control tape backup hardware for desktop PCs. The first Perl program I ever wrote was a printer accounting system for the same employer. Since then I have implemented a wifi+lan captive portal; a static website generator for lecture presentations with slides, audio and video (web 1.0 – very frame, much ew); a webform questionnaire processing system (that remained in continuous use for over a decade); and numerous small (and some not-so-small) bits of automation.

I am sporadically active on stackoverflow where it seems I mostly answer questions about shell scripting and unix utilities, especially bash, awk and sed.

I wrote some of the code that is in apcupsd, a daemon for controlling APC UPSes although these days I personally just use services baked into Synology DSM, or Network UPS Tools (NUT).

I have been listed since 1999 as an "Additional FreeBSD Contributor" but I forget why…

an anecdote

When I was a university undergraduate, the caterer at my hall of residence was taking a Pascal programming course because he wanted to change career. He would show me code he had written for his course assignments. I would skim it and suggest test input. He would enter the data and his code would crash, or otherwise misbehave.

I spoke to him years later after he had become a programming analyst. He reminded me of my crashing his programs and happily told me: "I do that to other people now!"

(cf. Bruce Schneier's book, A Hacker's Mind)