I'm an aspiring software and IT engineer with additional passions for media & graphics, real-time systems, and other fields which supplement my hobbies. I'm also very fond of Linux, historically Debian-based systems. Within the domain of Linux, I also enjoy contributing to desktop applications and the desktop experience in general.
See my GitHub for public repositories or my listed projects on this site for past or present projects of mine.
I'm open to work. If interested in potentially hiring me for a software development or IT role (or otherwise related work), you can message me at my professional email address, self@wcyates.xyz.
Interests & Skills
I'm particularly interested in multimedia transcoding and many things related to arts and graphics as part of my hobbies. This also includes a small passion for game development and modding.
For the aforementioned interests, I currently have a suitable self-built desktop running Debian Linux for my use on a daily basis for games, transcoding, artwork, and other projects such as fiction writing and the like. Additionally, I occasionally use OpenSUSE [Tumbleweed], and have been lightly picking up NixOS.
I'm most proficient in Python, C and other C-like languages - namely Zig, C++, and Rust - as well as POSIX Shell. Since I made this website, I also have some proficiency in Javascript, Typescript, and CSS (See the source here).
For other skills:
- I've used Docker/Podman for container deployment and containerized software package builds.
- I've used FFMPEG to do extensive transcoding for video archival and recording, especially with SVT-AV1.
- To some extent, I have also used spandrel/chaiNNer to do explore video upscaling in tandem.
My perceived best trait is that I like to keep systems (e.g. codebases, documentation, etc.) consistently organized and parseable, almost to a compulsive degree, particularly with the goal of avoiding the disharmonious pitfalls and footguns of "hackish" and disordered code. As such, I continually look at projects I work on and wonder, "What can I do to both improve and future proof my work?". As such, when developing software, I believe improving the developer experience (e.g. readability, code deduplication) and ensuring accurate documentation and annotation goes a long way toward making everyone's lives easier.
Hobbies & Interests
Elaborating on my list of affinities:
I enjoy the visual arts, including creating graphics and artworks in my spare time. I sometimes publish these on the public internet, but under private pseudonyms.
Every other day, I am generally interested in anthropology and human philosophy as I seek to find axioms of humanity, to speculate how future technologies may emerge and develop/progress as movements, and how civilization(s) may evolve from those technologies or certain events. Additionally, I'm particularly interested in generalizing beyond Human study to broad thought experiments and theory of potential sapient life and civilizations.
In my down time, I enjoy writing and fictional worldbuilding that integrates the products of my intrigues, with illustrations and concepts - to include that my publications of artworks - produced in tandem.
If you come to know me personally, you can feel free to ask about these interests and works.
In other work, I presently have been volunteering and working at local organizations throughout my life and recently.
I also do volunteer video production for a local organization and have done video production for events and conferences.