1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
|
;;; -*- scheme -*-
;;; Copyright © 2019 - 2021 Jakob L. Kreuze <zerodaysfordays@sdf.org>
;;;
;;; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
;;; modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
;;; published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
;;; License, or (at your option) any later version.
;;;
;;; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
;;; General Public License for more details.
;;;
;;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;;; along with this program. If not, see
;;; <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
(use-modules (ice-9 match)
(jakob theme)
(jakob utils sxml))
(theme
#:title "About me"
#:content
`((h1 "About me.")
(p "My name is Jakob. I'm a 22 year-old living in Providence, Rhode Island. I
graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 2021 and am now pursuing a
Master's degree at Brown University. As for my day job, I'm either coded as a
\"systems engineer\" or a \"computer scientist,\" depending on which
organization you ask.")
(p "I work primarily with the design of secure systems. My research interests are
formal methods, cryptography, distributed computing, symbolic execution, and
signals processing. Of these, cryptography is what I worked on as an
undergraduate. The experience was gratifying and greatly influenced my career
path.")
(p "My free time not spent on chores or being with friends and family is spent
working on personal projects, which are outlined " ,(hyperlink "/pages/about.html" "here") ".")
(p "If you're interested in game engine tech, my younger brother is working
on a game engine + graphics engine of his own. You can read about it on "
,(hyperlink "https://p0ly.com/" "his website") ". I like to think of him as my
protégé, but he's mostly self-taught.")
(h2 "My Interests")
(h3 "(Functional) programming")
(p "I was introduced to computer programming at an early age. My parents were given
a Nintendo 64 as a wedding gift shortly before I was born, so I spent my early
years playing " (em "Ocarina of Time") " and the likes. My young, impressionable
mind drew inspiration, and I would go on about how I wanted to make games of my
own. My technically-apt father was able to point me in the right direction for
learning to do so.")
(p "I was writing small games in Python by the time I was ten years old, though I
have little to show for it with much lost to failing hard drives. The interest
waxed and waned, but picked back up significantly when I turned 14 and began
using GNU/Linux.")
(p "The renowned " (em "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs")
" was my introduction to functional programming, recommended by several in the
\"online\" circle I hung around circa then. It's an excellent book, but I was
not mature enough to understand it at that age. The points about higher-order
functions did, however, click for me, and I was inspired to begin using the
handful of functional programming tools available in Python, and to learn Common
Lisp (because I thought the syntax laden with parentheses was obscure and cool).
")
(p "This was all prior to learning about the sort of object-oriented style that was
taught in my AP computer science class. Having to deal with that programming
paradigm really cemented my opinions about why functional is the \"right\" way
to write software.
")
(p "Nowadays, my favorite programming languages are Scheme, Haskell, and Rust.
Depending on who you ask, some subset of those languages are \"functional
programming languages.\" It's not a clear-cut term, but what it means to me is
an emphasis on immutability and higher-order functions. I consider all three to
be functional, though Rust is somewhat of a black sheep.")
(h3 "Computer security")
(p "Amid my early years with computer programming, I was briefly introduced
to web development and, in particular, PHP. The language has a reputation for
the ease with which one can introduce security vulnerabilities, and as such, the
book I was using to teach myself at the time expatiated about SQL injection,
going so far as to walk the reader through an example. At eleven years old, this
piqued my interest, and I soon sought out as much material on computer security
as I could, showing my friends what I could do on "
,(hyperlink "https://www.hackthissite.org/" "HackThisSite") ".")
(p "I began playing capture-the-flag when I was in high school and came across
LiveOverflow's "
,(hyperlink "https://yewtu.be/playlist?list=PLhixgUqwRTjxglIswKp9mpkfPNfHkzyeN" "early
videos")", which inspired me to play in the (now defunct) "
,(hyperlink "https://ctf-x.github.io/" "CTF(x)") ". I was a team of one until
I started playing with " ,(hyperlink "https://0xbu.com/blog/" "0xBU")". I was still in
high school, only 16, but I noticed them on the leader-board. They were just a train
ride away, so I reached out to ask if I could show up to their
meetings. They said yes, so I spent most of my weekends downtown, getting good
at pwning.")
(p "In my university years, I was an e-board member of the " ,(hyperlink "https://umasscybersec.org/" "UMass Cybersecurity Club")
": playing for their CTF team, and putting serious work into the CTF's we
hosted.")
(h3 "Permaculture")
(p "My parents always had a garden when I was growing up, and I took to the idea of
self-resiliency: being able to grow one's own food. I have luck when I try to
grow things -- perhaps I have some natural intuition from observing my mother's
gardening all these years -- but I am not as dedicated to it as I am to my other
interests. I'm happy to throw a few tomato seeds in the ground and weed every
once in a while, reaping the benefits of delicious red sauce for pasta and
pizza.")
(h3 "Lifting weights")
(p "I exercise every day, barring extreme circumstances.")
(p "Sports didn't interest me when I was younger. I was signed up for soccer, and
basketball, and many other after-school sports programs, but nothing stuck.")
(p "At 13, I joined the " ,(hyperlink "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Air_Patrol" "Civil Air Patrol")
", which changed my prior attitudes toward fitness. Now I had to pass fitness
tests to promote, and I had to be in-shape for the emergency response work I was
doing, so I picked up a regular exercise routine. I began with body-weight
exercises and running outside, and I fell in love with it. Pushing yourself to
exhaustion -- until you can barely lift your arms -- is addicting. But I was
soon bored with calisthenics and begged my parents for a gym membership. I posed
it as something I could do with my dad, and that's how I spent my evenings in
high school.")
(p "I don't lift competitively. I've had aspirations to over the years, but injuries
have prevented me from pushing enough weight to place (herniated disk circa
2017, gluteus medius tear circa 2020). Perhaps my time will come.")
(p "I'm selective about the fitness-related content I consume, tending to prefer
folks in the \"evidence-based fitness community\" like Greg Nuckols, Eric
Trexler, and Jeff Nippard.")
(h4 "Regimen")
(p "A given day is cardio xor weightlifting. It's rare that I do both on the same
day. This is for the resiliency of my routine; if I know I'm going to be stuck
somewhere without access to weights, I can still keep my routine by going
outside to run.")
(p "At the moment, I'm running the first of Jeff Nippard's \"Powerbuilding System\"
programs.")
(h4 "Music")
(p "I don't really play or write music at the moment.")
(p "My parents signed me up for drum lessons when I was 10, and I did that until I
was 18, eventually getting a summer job as a drum line instructor. I didn't have
time to keep up with practicing when I went off to college.")
(p "I tried to pick up the electric guitar in 2020 as my \"pandemic hobby\", but
stopped a few months in because I was incredibly burned out with school and
couldn't even find the five minutes to practice.")
(p "I love to " (em "listen") " to music, though, especially when I'm exercising or working. Old punk rock, in
particular. My favorite bands are the Descendents, Black Flag, and Minor
Threat.")
(h3 "Technologies I use")
(p "My preferred software stack:")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))
(tr (td "initd") (td "OpenRC"))
(tr (td "Shell") (td "Bash"))
(tr (td "Window Manager") (td "Awesome"))
(tr (td "Text Editor") (td "GNU Emacs"))
(tr (td "Email Client") (td "gnus"))
(tr (td "Web Browser") (td "eww, Mozilla Firefox"))
(tr (td "Torrent Client") (td "transmission-web"))
(tr (td "Keyboard Remapping") (td "xkeysnail"))
(tr (td "Version Control") (td "git"))
(tr (td "Hex Editor") (td "radare2"))
(tr (td "Disassembler") (td "NSA Ghidra"))))
(p "Humorously, I went: awesomewm → i3 → dwm → exwm → stumpwm → awesomewm")
(p "My Emacs configuration can be found "
,(hyperlink "https://git.sr.ht/~jakob/.emacs.d" "here") ".")
(h4 "Machines (In-Commission)")
(h5 "endseal (Workstation)")
(p "I built this computer with my father when I was 12, and I still use it today.
Of course, I've upgraded it a few times since then.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Custom"))
(tr (td "• CPU") (td "Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500 CPU @ 3.30GHz"))
(tr (td "• GPU") (td "AMD Radeon RX 460 Graphics (POLARIS11)"))
(tr (td "• RAM") (td "16GB DDR3"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h5 "whitecloud (Laptop)")
(p "My daily driver. Despite the abnormal hardware, it works perfectly fine for all
I use a computer to do.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Pinebook Pro"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h5 "misty (Server)")
(p "It's little more than a wireless hotspot at this point.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Raspberry Pi 3 Model B"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h5 "vela (Cellphone)")
(p "Blog post soon to come detailing my thoughts on this phone. So far, I like it
enough to look past its rough edges.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Pinephone Braveheart Edition"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "PostmarketOS (Phosh)"))))
(h5 "forte (Mobile Workstation)")
(p "For extended trips away from my apartment, I have this mini-PC I put together.
It's made me think a lot about hardware, since I spent only $300 on it, yet it's
plenty powerful for the things I do.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Custom"))
(tr (td "• CPU") (td "AMD(R) Ryzen(TM) 5 5560U with Radeon(TM) Graphics @ 4.0GHz"))
(tr (td "• RAM") (td "12GB DDR4"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h4 "Other")
(p "I've a TL-SG105 as the switch for my bedroom and I wear a Casio CA-53W. The rest
of my dragon's hoard is only in semi-regular use:")
(ul
(li "SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green")
(li "Raspberry Pi 2 Model B")
(li "Commodore 64")
(li "Commodore VIC-20")
(li "Nintendo Super Famicom")
(li "Nintendo 64")
(li "Sega Dreamcast"))
(h4 "Machines (Out-Of-Commission)")
(h5 "corona (Laptop)")
(p "This was a nice piece of hardware, albeit incredibly bulky and having meager
battery life.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Lenovo Y50"))
(tr (td "• CPU") (td "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700HQ @ 2.4 GHz"))
(tr (td "• GPU") (td "NVIDIA GTX-860M"))
(tr (td "• RAM") (td "8 GB DDR3"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h5 "Zeta (Cellphone)")
(p "This phone would be fine if it were capable of running something besides
Android. It served me the few years where that wasn't an option.")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Huawei Honor 5x"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "LineageOS"))))
(h5 "Digamma (Server)")
(table
(tbody
(tr (td "Hardware") (td "Raspberry Pi 2 Model B"))
(tr (td "Operating System") (td "Gentoo GNU/Linux"))))
(h3 "Other Bits and Pieces")
(p "I'm a vocal supporter of open access and the free software movement. I'm
an associate member of the " ,(hyperlink "https://www.fsf.org/" "Free Software
Foundation") " and I contribute to "
,(hyperlink "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ZeroDaysForDays" "Wikimedia") "
and " ,(hyperlink "https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Jakob%20Kreuze""OpenStreetMap") ".")
(p "I am a licensed (general class) ham, but I am rarely active. My callsign
is KC1KAS.")))
|
