About
Why does this site look like 1986?
My first computer was a 16k ZX Spectrum, so the tech bug bit sometime in the early 80s. An Atari ST came next, then an Amiga A500, which is why the avatar in the corner of this site is drawn the way it is. I look back on those machines fondly, but this isn't a shrine to the past, I get the same buzz out of a well built serverless function today as I did out of a tape loading screen back then. The retro look here is shorthand, not nostalgia for its own sake: I like systems that are legible, that tell you exactly what they're doing, and that don't hide behind a marketing layer. That's how I try to run client relationships too.
$ cat career.log SINCE 1999 FREELANCE 2011 ROLE GENERALIST UPTIME — hours
The problem-solving technologist
Since diving into IT in 1999, and freelance since 2011, I've carved out a niche as a versatile "general practitioner" in technology. I thrive on variety: building a bespoke system one week, tightening up a client's cloud security the next, getting a piece of software that's sat unused for months actually live the week after that. There's no typical day.
I'd have automated myself out of a job by now if there were.
Turning complexity into simplicity
One of my greatest joys is turning what seems complex into something beautifully simple. Replacing an entire manual reporting process with a spreadsheet, a dash of scripting, and a dashboard, not because it's clever, but because it gives someone their afternoons back. More on how that works on the Bespoke Builds page.
Who I work with
Entrepreneurs and small teams who want a single, reliable point of contact for IT rather than a rotating cast of specialists. If that's you, the services page is the fastest way to see if we're a fit.