About Me

I’m responsible for all technology at Chinasearch, where I continue to design and build our in‑house backend system and ecommerce platform. I joined as the first technical employee and took the company from a paper‑based workflow to a fully digital operation.

I like to understand a system to its core, whether it’s a software platform or a DIY project. It’s a trait I demonstrated as a child by removing all the screws from the tumble drier, and it still manifests outside of work in the way I take projects back to brick and rebuild them from scratch.

Current Work

Cloud-Based Dev Containers

I’m migrating our development workflow from WSL2 to cloud-based dev containers. The primary aim is to avoid the project indexing issues caused by WSL’s file-watcher behaviour, particularly after Composer updates or branch changes. Running Docker images in the same data centre also reduces query latency, and standardising the environment improves consistency across developers.

Home Projects

Home Automation

I’ve recently started experimenting with Home Assistant, beginning with Zigbee and Wi-Fi lightbulbs paired with proximity sensors, with daytime and evening modes. Next on the list are under-counted COB LEDs, smart switches and presence sensors. Further down the line, I plan to add some temperature and humidity sensors, TRVs, and room thermostats to control heating and ventilation.

Get in Touch

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss any of these topics or collaborate on projects!