I think that there is a very real problem around the definition of the purpose of a ‘QA’ or ‘Quality Engineering’ department and what it is expected to do in an organisation. I have been hired for many ‘QA/QE’ roles which had vastly different ideas about what the purpose of that role was, what my responsibilities were, how I should communicate with other people, and what I should do day-to-day. ...

To send a secure message to me: Use my Signal username: granddesigns.79 I am currently familiarising myself with tools to implement cyber security solutions. This is in preparation for my research project as part of the MSc Cyber Security masters I’m taking from the University of London via distance learning. This research is strictly for informational purposes and I don’t do anything criminal with it. I realise some of this information may be seen as ‘over-sharing’ and is a security risk in itself, but I believe that the benefits of sharing this information outweigh the risks, and that there is no ‘security via obscurity’. ...

Every year I’ve been doing these ‘retrospectives’, usually once per year but sometimes a couple of times per year. Things have changed quite significantly since the last retrospective , and I was in a pensive mood, so I thought I would write a retrospective for half the year. I finally found a job, with CGI, early in the year, and started in March 2023. Unfortunately, for reasons I’m contractually obliged not to get into, it wasn’t long before I was looking for work again. I resigned from CGI at the end of June. ...

I have moved over from wordpress.com that I was using before on DavidCraddock.net to self-hosting using Python’s Hugo. I hope this will be a good move! A bit of content didn’t make it, but most of it, thankfully, did. I will continue to tidy up bits and pieces as I go along.

(Cargo bike and trailer) I use this as a bike as a general-purpose car replacement, as well as volunteering and long-distance cycle challenges and trips. It has a maximum average power-assisted range of 60 miles on a single charge, assuming the lowest power-assist setting, up to 20 miles per charge for the highest power-assist setting. I have configured it so that I can move large objects and cargo similar to a small car, and cycle and navigate safely and comfortably in all weathers, as well as use it as an exercise machine to keep fit and lose weight. ...

Here is a quick diagram I mocked up to detail exactly how video routing works in the studio.

If you’re currently in high school in the UK and want to be a GOOD and EMPLOYED software engineer.. this is my advice. Start programming on personal projects right away, and keep it up during your entire working career. Always have something going on in the background. Get into a RUSSELL GROUP university in the UK and take a technical, demanding degree in a computing-related discipline, for example, Physics, Electronic Engineering, Maths, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence. If you can’t get into a university and course that isn’t in the top 25% of courses for your subject in the UK, and someone isn’t paying all your bills (e.g rich parents), don’t bother going to university, It’s not worth the loan. Find another way. Look into apprenticeships. Try to not be a total ’tech head’ and develop some creative and artistic side to you, taking up writing is a really good idea as it improves your thinking and communication skills. Ideally learn to write humanities essays to the standard of the first year humanities majors at your university. Try and get onto as many technical internships and technical work experience as possible throughout your degree. Once you have graduated, and found that the Junior tech worker job market is depressingly non-existant, move back in with your parents and start your informal and free ‘post-graduate’ learning. Take AT LEAST this free course but also certifications such as AWS certs, and anything that you have researched on Reddit etc that you can do cheaply and is sought after by your chosen target job (as evidenced by being mentioned on job descriptions of jobs you’d like to apply for). Increase your work on your personal projects and move to open source them and build up a following from them, and possibly a side-income. Keep in contact with your old uni friends, especially the ones that have got jobs. Read ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’ by Cal Newport , learn to market yourself, build your LinkedIn presence, network like crazy, and hopefully you will get your foot in the door with that ‘all important’ first job that you can launch a career off of. You’ll certainly deserve it.

I use this setup plus my e-bike to work from university libraries, public libraries, and in the summer, from a portable camping table in parks, nature reserves etc. Hercules DG400BB Laptop Stand w/ Bag - this portable laptop stand is very sturdy and is designed for mobile DJ use. I find it is excellent in all situations, not just DJ use. Lenovo Legion 5i - Intel i7 12th gen CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, 4TB in 2x 4th gen NVME SSD drives, 3070Ti graphics card, 15" 1440p IPS Dolby Vision HDR screen - This is my laptop that I’ve put a lot of money into upgrading. Logitech MK295 Silent Wireless Mouse & Keyboard Combo - This is a good mobile keyboard and mouse setup, which I got because I was making too much noise typing at ~100wpm in libraries. Portable Battery charger - A good quality external battery charger which will charge and release charge via USB A and USB C ports Lenovo Legion 17" Armored Backpack II - This is an excellent quality padded laptop bag - by far the best laptop carrying case I’ve owned. It distributes the weight of my setup properly over my back so I can walk long distances Google Pixel 7 Pro running GrapheneOS - This is a top of the line phone which runs GrapheneOS for extra security. Sony MX1000 Mk3 wireless headphones - This is a top of the line HDAC/Apt-X HD wireless noise cancelling headphones. They work well with my laptop and my phone. 750ml vacuum thermos flask - This fits in a pocket on the side of my laptop bag, and is usually enough unless it’s a very hot day. Pro-plus caffiene pills - My lifestyle means I am tired sometimes, and I don’t drink tea or coffee, so I always keep some of these in my wallet if I need to walk home, for example. SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD, USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2, External NVMe Solid State Drive - This is very useful for transferring large file collections to and from other peoples computers, and is very small for carrying. Fasgear Cat 6 Ethernet Cable, Retractable Network Cable 10Gbps - If I ever need to connect to a wired network, I can use this network cable - it takes up very little space. Octopus style USB cable adaptor - Can be used for any connection between standard USB A, USB C, micro USB and lightening. It’s very useful for connecting to other peoples devices. USB C privacy guards - Allows me to plug into a USB C port and block data transfer, so I can charge my phone from other peoples computers without worrying about data transfer.

My music acquisition process for DJ music: ARM (Automatic Ripping Machine) rips CDs I buy into FLAC form without any interactivity. You just insert a CD into the Linux server, and then it ejects it when it’s done. Lidarr downloads FLACs of any tracks of artists I have in my collection, but I don’t have their full discography. It does this automatically and silently in the background. Once a day, a cron job imports ARM and Lidarr downloads into my Beets.io music library, and deals with file integrity checks, tagging, metadata, library file structure and embedded images of the artist. Whenever I’m ready to have a fresh library copy, I run my batch script on my W11 DJ laptop and it robocopy mirrors the entire library from my Linux samba share onto my computer. I then send it through MixedInKey 10 to analyse the BPM and the music key of each track, and to check again the integrity of each file. Once that is done, and any corrupt files removed, I import the file library into Serato DJ Pro, and analyse the entire collection. This again removes any dud files from the collection. Now I have a complete music library, I run a batch file to reverse mirror the music from the DJ library back onto the server, so my collection doesn’t accumalate corrupt files. Now I have a full DJ music library of FLACs on my DJ laptop, over 22,000 files, great for requests!

I have built a 10Gb/second network in my home in a network cabinet. Hardware: I use a Mikrotik router and Mikrotik switch to route at 10Gb/sec speeds, and 2x Ubiquiti wifi 7 APs in mesh mode. I have a Protecli custom network interface fanless PC that runs Opnsense with Suricata IDS that monitors all traffic to and from the internet on my network. I have a ZigBee to IP adaptor which allows me to interface the HomeAssistant setup with low cost ZigBee buttons etc. A 6 bay 48TB NAS Linux server that runs Debian, and hosts around 20 services, mostly using docker compose. A couple of Windows 11 PCs which I use day-to-day. Several tablets, e-readers and smart phones. Many IoT and smart home devices. Security goals: ...