Hello! I am a 20 year old UTSC student hailing from Canada, who has a strong passion for technology. My passion first began when I got into gaming as a kid (shocker). But as I grew older, my interests also began to mature. As of now, my primary interests are in software engineering. I am primarily interested in application development and OS development (taking CSCC69!), in other words, I am interested in what happens on the user's computer. As a result, I also am interested in the more hardware based side of Computer Science. I largely have a disdain for cloud computing (I will expand on this point, I do not hate the cloud with the fury of a billion suns), though I do recognize it's importance, this website is hosted on a VPS after all, and I use the Internet.

I think web applications and always-online services, these things rely on the cloud, are a dangerous trojan horse that will make the world worse. Why? Because of freedom. Lets take the G-Suite for example. Lets say you spend decades on it, you have mastered it and your whole workflow works around it, and it is the most efficient way for you to complete your work. Sure there is cloud saving so there is always a backup of your work in some far away data center, sure you don't need to install anything other than a web browser, sure it doesn't clutter your physical computer's filesystem. However, what if they introduce some update that completely breaks your workflow? Will your crying and complaining bring the service back online after the shareholders decide that it is no longer feasible to operate profitably? What are you going to do if you have no Internet connection and you need some work done (yes, there is a work offline feature for the G-Suite but not everyone offers this option)? And what will you do if they suffer some security breach and all your stuff is encrypted by NotPetya? Nothing. You can do literally nothing. Your productivity will literally die like a dog, and there is nothing you can do. Now take something like the Libreoffice suite of software. You don't need an internet connection, you can maintain your own backups of your work wherever you want (on the cloud!), if there is an update that you really don't like you can usually rollback to an older version since many organizations host their own repositories that hold several versions (you can even modify the code yourself if you have the expertise), and if the people behind Libreoffice were raptured tomorrow, your software will continue to work as long as the libraries that it depend on work on the hardware you have. Even if you pay for your fancy cloud service, you don't actually own anything other than a license to use their stupid service (some companies are doing this with games now, shame on you, Ubisoft). It is a hot pile of garbage that frankly I want as little part in as possible.

But don't worry, I am not some anti-cloud extremist who would rather die than touch some web app. Obviously there are use cases, and some cases where a local solution is just stupid and unreasonable. But like I just said, there is a time and there is a place.

Now, if you will tolerate my mandatory technology ramblings. I currently use a Dell XPS 15. I opted for this because it had most of what I was looking for all rolled up into one. Its got 32 GB of RAM, an Intel Core i7 and a RTX 3050. To pair with it, I have a Wooting 60HE and a Logitech G Pro, connected via a Steam Deck Dock. For audio I use AirPods Pro 2nd Gen.

As you might have guessed, I also own a Steam Deck LCD 512 GB that I had pre-ordered. I use this exclusively for gaming. I used to be into more competitive gaming, but now I am more into casual gaming. My all time favourites (take into account these are all time, so they might not be my current favourites anymore) are: CSGO, Apex Legends, BattleBit Remastered, Plants vs Zombies, Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare, Minecraft, Terraria and last but certainly not least, Roblox.

I am a Linux user. I have been using Linux for about 4-5 years at this point. What started out as a fun experiment on an old obsolete HP laptop, playing Super Tux Cart on an Ubuntu installation, it has snowballed into every computer I own running Linux, and unless absolutely necessary, never using Windows again. My favourite distributions for normal users are Arch, Gentoo and Fedora. This server is running Debian. If you want to read more of my Linux ramblings, you may check them out here. Currently on my laptop, I am running Fedora 42 KDE edition.