Automation & AI
Scan a work order to load the cutter program
Operators scan a code on the work order instead of typing every cut position.
Work
These 31 write-ups cover my work at Design Ventures, a sign and print manufacturer and independent technical projects. Each explains what needed doing, what I did and how it turned out.
Custom PC builds
Selected workstations, a customer desktop and a Linux server I designed or assembled. See the build list and specifications.
Projects
Infrastructure
The business database moved to a dedicated server
Moved the business database to a dedicated server after rehearsing the cutover and checking rollback readiness.
Infrastructure
Snapshots, a second NAS and an offsite transfer
Added file history and a second NAS, configured offsite transfer, and checked copies separately.
Endpoints
Office Macs moved onto one MDM in place
Proved enrollment on a reset pilot, then migrated the other Macs in place and checked their settings.
Automation & AI
AI agents with command limits and approval checks
Claude Code and Codex handle remote tasks with approval checks and command-blocking rules enforced outside the model.
Shop floor
Learned the machines, then trained new hires on them
Learned the machines on live orders, trained new hires on six of them, and ran the crew meeting.
Infrastructure
Monitoring and recovery for servers and production PCs
Scheduled jobs check, repair and back up the fleet, and alert only when something changes state.
Automation & AI
Building this portfolio and résumé with LLMs
I directed Claude Code and Codex to build this site and résumé, then checked the claims and results.
Infrastructure
Company files left Dropbox for storage the shop owns
Checked the Dropbox copy on the shop's NAS, filled missing folders and moved computers over in waves.
Automation & AI
An Obsidian runbook with a nightly AI filing job
818 Obsidian notes in Git, with a nightly AI job adding links and existing-note edits reverted.
Security & network
Network tested inside and out, then watched every week
Inside and outside vulnerability assessments, a weekly change scan, phishing response and an email-signing fix.
Security & network
Three long-running network faults found and fixed
A hung switch, recurring Wi-Fi drops and a Mac wired port mistaken for broken hardware.
Endpoints
Two failing shop PCs diagnosed while work kept moving
A hanging RIP station and a crashing shipping PC, diagnosed one change at a time.
Shop floor
A cooler camera wall that checks its own picture
Moved video decoding off an overheating kiosk PC and added checks that the picture is actually live.
Shop floor
An out-of-service DTF printer back in production
Repaired an out-of-service DTF printer with vendor support and got the $2,750 service fee waived.
Software & web
Rolled out, extended and retired a badge time clock
Extended a teammate's badge clock-in system with receipts, tamper-evident records and portals, then archived it and tested restoration.
Automation & AI
Voice memos from my watch become sorted task cards
Watch memos become task cards, with duplicate checks and AI-assisted sorting.
Endpoints
Paper in the feeder, PDF on the shared drive
A small service turns a consumer printer's feeder into walk-up scan-to-folder, with no buttons or logins.
Software & web
Documented an inherited cluster and added deploy checks
Documented an inherited Kubernetes cluster and added staging defaults, deploy checks and production confirmation.
Software & web
Rehearsed a legacy site's move to PostgreSQL 16
Moved 3.5 million rows from MySQL and MongoDB to PostgreSQL 16 in a rehearsal, with zero load errors.
Software & web
Fixed catalog images and automated Kubernetes deploys
Matched artwork to products missing images, fixed bad photos and descriptions, and automated deploys to Kubernetes.
Security & network
This site's home server, reviewed and hardened
Reviewed the server behind this site like a client's, then hardened it from SSH to DNS.
Home lab & side projects
This website runs on a server built from spares
This portfolio, built from scratch and hosted at home on a server made from spare repair parts.
Home lab & side projects
A home ground station that pulls images from GOES-16
A dish, an SDR dongle and Raspberry Pi boards that receive and decode GOES-16 weather images at home.
Home lab & side projects
An Arduino Nano that draws endless random fractals
An OLED and an Arduino Nano that started as a digital pet and became a fractal generator.
Home lab & side projects
Moved a Pi system off microSD onto NVMe
Moved a Raspberry Pi system and its files from a microSD card to a 256 GB NVMe drive.
Home lab & side projects
A Pi camera that previews live while recording 1080p
Python scripts for a Pi 4 recorder with a live preview, plus night-sky timelapses and still-image bursts.
Home lab & side projects
An Arduino clock with automatic daylight-saving adjustment
An Arduino clock that follows US daylight-saving rules, with a big-digit OLED, temperature and humidity.
Home lab & side projects
A replacement part modeled and 3D printed
I modeled a replacement RC helicopter part in FreeCAD and printed it on my Ender-3 V2.
Home lab & side projects
A snake game where two AIs compete and improve
A browser snake game with a pathfinder, a neural network and a league that tests new challengers.
Home lab & side projects
Adaptive browser graphics with WebGL
A MilkDrop-style WebGL shader that drifts between 19 patterns and ripples wherever you click or drag.