I have been around computers since the mid 1980s. These were the early days of Commodore64s, DOS, and 4″ floppy diskettes. In fact, my first data storage unit was a special cassette tape recorder!
Web Tech
The first website I ever cobbled together in the early 2000s was done using Yahoo’s Sitebuilder. It was a very crude drag & drop interface. A few years later, I was tasked with creating my then company’s website during a slow period of work. Again, I resorted to the 1&1 web host’s built in sitebuilder tools.
As I began to get more requests from small businesses to create websites, I searched for a platform I could use to streamline the process. My choices eventually narrowed down to Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal. In the end, it was WordPress and its community that won me over.
- WordPress (dotcom/dotorg)
- FSE/Blocks/Gutenberg
- CPanel/FileZilla/FTP
- MySQL/phpMyAdmin
- Staging/Dev (Local, Studio, XAMPP)
- IDEs / GitHub
- HTML/CSS/JS/PHP/MD
- Custom Domain Email/DNS setup
- SEO/Performance Optimization
- eCommerce
Web3 + AI
Technology moves fast and keeping up with the trends have always been important and fascinating to me. In the online space, Web3 (decentralization) and AI have dominated the conversation in the past few years.
I have focused my learning in these sectors by becoming familiar with the following ecosystems
- Unstoppable Domains
- Brave Browser ($BAT + Leo AI)
- SEO for AI
- Mastodon (Social Media)
CRYPTO
Crypto currency and blockchain tech are part of the decentralized web3 environment. I have held and followed $BTC, $ETH, NFTs, among other projects since 2009. Helping me navigate and learn the crypto landscape are
- Coinbase
- Ledger (NanoS)
- Brave Wallet + Uphold
- CoinGecko + CoinMarketCap
- Robinhood
OSS
WordPress was my gateway into the Open Source Software (OSS) universe. Most of the programs that I have become proficient in are Linux based. I use the following tools on a daily basis:
- Linux Ubuntu
- Linux Mint
- Libre Office Suite
- Inkscape
- FileZilla
Security + Privacy
Google has been the legacy juggernaut of all things data on the internet. Maintaining a high level of proficiency in Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics was a requirement for any reputable website admin.
But recently, the quest for tighter security and higher degree of consumer/user privacy has led to alternative methods and tools for online engagement. The organizations leading the way and building business models on these two principles, that I have chosen to invest time and resources into are
- Brave Browser (all products)
- Proton (Business Suite)
- KeeperSecurity
- WordFence
- Signal Chat
- Session Chat
Other Software
Different applications serve different needs and preferences. These are programs that I use on a regular basis and am comfortable browsing throughout their admin interfaces
- Trello
- Toggl
- Zendesk
- Stripe
- Jetpack + WooCommerce(WordPress)
- AutoDesk (CAD, Revit, Sketchbook)
Hardware
The most common computer devices I use today are mobile smartphones and laptops. Tablets and desktops follow close behind.
- Apple/iOS
- Android + Amazon (Fire/Kindle)
- Linux Mint + Ubuntu
Tech Stack:
(see above for each category)
Skills