Every day I wake up and ask myself what is a software development environment
Here I am, without my van, on the opposite side of the world, sitting at IHOP in Austin, Texas, and the story of how I ended up here is a strange one. It has now been just over a month since I left Gitpod, a company I thought I would
Why I left Gitpod
So, why did I leave Gitpod? It's hard to pick a particular singular reason but that internal all-company cost-cutting letter which was sent weeks after a wonderful, yet extravagant offsite, really spooked me; I guess it would be easy for leadership to paint me as disgruntled, but the reality is
Visual Studio Code is designed to fracture
A couple of moments ago, I finished reading the article by Rob O'Leary about the pervasive data collection done by Visual Studio Code. Now that I'm no longer an employee at Gitpod, I'm finally able to author a blog post freely about something that has been troubling me for quite
Welcome to Sydney, Australia
Hello there! First, you have made the correct decision to visit Sydney, it's a pretty chill place for tourists. To help you fall even more in love with the city, I have provided you with a list of awesome things to do. coffee Australia has some of the best coffee
what if instead of "responsible disclosure" as the infosec standard it was "responsible resolution"?
As hacker summer camp swings into full gear, I reflect upon the time where I was arrested under suspicion of transforming a Hong Kong university mail server into a 0-day warez site and almost spent time in hacker winter camp. I was, fortunately, 13 at the time and last week
the art of giving a shit
I was asked recently on the topic of leadership. In short, I’m an avid fan of servant leadership - being selflessly 100% focused on helping folks within my team / being a janitor. What is Servant Leadership? - Greenleaf Center for Servant LeadershipGreenleaf Center for Servant Leadership Back circa 2018,
omne trium perfectum
As the saying goes, all good things come in threes: * Last Friday, I submitted my resignation to Gitpod and signed with my 🔜 * On Saturday, I finally, after time apart due to COVID19, met in person with someone who will always be a special someone in my life * Yesterday, I submitted
Why are McDonald’s Self Service Kiosks so hackable?
McDonalds in Australia do a decent cup of coffee. It’s not great but it’s consistently decent so I often start my day with a cup. Due to my travels around Australia in a decked out van I have seen how many McDonalds operate and just how many of
Latest SOUNDBOKS firmware cuts the performance of their speakers by half in a "mandatory firmware update"
I'm saddened by the need to author this blog post about a product that I once loved. For the last eight months I've been traveling around Australia in a custom built van with a Denon 4 controller connected to two SOUNDBOKs v3 speakers and life has been pretty freaking good
a bored consultant on the bench
For some, this is the consulting version of Siberia; lost in a hopeless no-man’s land. Without a plan, you'll have very little to do and what you are assigned is often either busy-work or unfulfilling at best. Like a utility player on a sports team, you are sitting in
/new convention: think of it as "dotfiles" but "for computers"
Earlier last year I added a /new page to my website at https://ghuntley.com/new/ as a productivity shortcut and partly out of necessity of doing software development from an iPad. Reflections on software development from anywhere on an iPadThe Macbook Pro M1 is the software development laptop of
No other profession trivialises their profession to the degree of software
Software in 2022 is overwhelmingly built with little to no consequence and is made up of other components which are overwhelmingly developed by unpaid volunteers on an AS-IS basis that are being financially neglected. Systemically, I'm concerned that there is a lack of professional liability, rigorous industry best practices, and
Mentoring
Back in 2013, I stumbled upon this blog post by Brendan Forster which fundamentally changed my career trajectory. Knowing that there was a human I could turn to ask questions related to open-source made all the difference. Ever since then I've been setting aside time for coffee catchups with anyone
$ sudo rm -rf / === npm install
In what seems like a long time ago, in part because it is, I learned the catastrophic capabilities of this command the hard way and I'm sure folks my vintage have similar stories as it's essentially a right of passage in the sysadmin world. Back in 1996, I was 14
Reflections on software development from anywhere on an iPad
The Macbook Pro M1 is the software development laptop of choice yet I love my iPad considerably more. I'm all in with my thin client for hipsters. Here’s what I’ve learned over the months and how my baremetal homelab in the sky is setup.
COVIDSafe: Australia’s digital contact tracing failure
I'm here all by myself reading actual peer-reviewed publications from other countries where appropriate technology was rolled out to assist medical professionals whilst Australia remains in shambles.
There are six internet links on my office on wheels. Seven when Starlink arrives. Is this the best internet in Australia?
If you are going to work remotely anywhere in Australia from a van, you need damn good internet. Here's how I put together a vehicle with the best internet connectivity in Australia.
ablution
If you have been thinking about taking on #vanlife then the topic of keeping clean seems daunting at first but in reality, it's quite simple...
my office is a tent that my employer purchased for me
If you look up on Instagram, you'll see jaw-dropping pictures under the hashtag #vanlife. It's true. The big blue world is freaking beautiful, but beauty comes at a cost.
toilets
Everybody poops, even women. Fancy that. Anyway in the spirit of best toilet humour Mr 6 can muster: what did the poop say to the pee? It's simple, move over! Urine my way! Sorry, all my toilet jokes are pretty shitty and this post is full of them. Yes, welcome
how long
People routinely ask me how long do you see yourself living in a van for so let's unpack that question shall we? If you have read the my background story of the path that lead to #vanlife then this post will make more sense. This is Claire, she is 64
a new chapter: full-time working from a van in a forest
For many people, the year 2020 will go down as a moment in time of hardship in their lives but for me, the year 2019 was dramatically harder as it was the realization that a long-term relationship wasn't going to work out...
Receiving mail and parcels in Australia
One of the first challenges of #vanlife in Australia is solving how you will get mail and parcels. Here is a summary of the options.