Hello! I'm Alex, and I'm an avid technology enthusiast. I love tinkering with Linux in particular, which I've been using since 2007. I recently earned my CompTIA A+ certification, and am working towards my CCNA next.
My dotfiles repository captures as much of my setup as possible. It's configured as a NixOS Flake on systems with the nix package manager, while also supporting other system types using the chezmoi dotfile manager.
When I'm not on my computer, I enjoy playing hockey and lifting weights, and I recently took up the piano as well.
Projects
Self-Hosted Services
Recently I've started working on running my own private network services instead of relying on cloud services. For this I lean heavily on Tailscale to connect my devices without exposing them to the broader internet. So far, I have set up:
- Nextcloud for files, photos, contacts, and calendars.
- Syncthing for syncing files. Nextcloud is configured to show and manage files I sync with Syncthing.
- Paperless-ngx for managing documents and digitizing paper records.
- Forgejo for private git hosting and issue tracking.
- Vaultwarden for syncing and managing passwords and other secrets.
- Miniflux for reading articles and other feeds from the web.
- hledger-web for tracking my finances away from the computer.
- Anki sync server for syncing flashcards.
- Portunus for centralized user management with LDAP.
Next on the list is Immich for better photo management and a Matrix server for secure communication. Most of the code for these services are currently in my dotfiles repository.
Eventually I intend to invite friends and family to use these services too, once my setup is a bit more stable and I can be reasonably sure that my tinkering won't negatively impact anything they start to rely on.
Nonguix
In 2019, I started the Nonguix project. Nonguix is a software repository for GNU Guix, an advanced research package manager and operating system. It provides non-free software which can't be included in the main software repository for policy-related reasons. Nonguix is still going strong today with many talented contributors, although I'm no longer very active in the project.
Certifications
CompTIA A+ (April 2024)
- Industry standard certification establishing competency as a computer technician.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Linguistics (May 2014)
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Courses included computer programming, formal languages, and computational linguistics.
Technologies
This website was crafted with Emacs and Hugo. You can find the source here. Some other technologies I know include:
Web Technologies
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- TCP/IP and networking fundamentals
- Linux (Debian, Red Hat/CentOS, NixOS, Guix System, and others)
- Shell scripting (bash, sed, awk, PowerShell)
- Git version control system
- Go
- Python
Contact Me
If you'd like to get in touch, you can reach me through email.