I got into a bit of a situation where I broke the main server. Instead of replacing it, I decided to wait a few weeks until I had access to a new case, mobo, CPU and PSU so that I could move it into that case, and take advantage of my Nvidea 970 graphics card. Previously the card WAS in the server, but there was one main problem, the graphics card wouldn’t fit in the case, see here: ...

I have been taking some extended time off work for the past month, to deal with my mum’s illness and unfortunate passing away, and because my work situation is so bad it’s borderline horrific. One thing that has cheered me up a bit is what my wife C. and I have been able to do to the house and to work towards our personal goals in this time. ...

A workbench. “vWorkbench” is my own personal Vim9 -based development environment and writing environment that I’m trying to ‘spin out’ into an open source project that is stable enough, reusable enough and well-documented enough to be used by others. vWorkbench Repo - This is the current version of my development environment that I use as much as possible, both in personal and work situations. vWorkbench Documentation - This is the documentation on my development environment, which I absolutely try and keep up to date. ...

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.92 2600 hacker magazine. 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. ...

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.

My electric cargo bike. 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. Unlike most people who buy ‘car-replacement’ bikes, I ACTUALLY use this as a car replacement. As in, I don’t own a car. In the country. ...

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.