Sam Boswell

Personal

Solar-powered and biodegradable, but for best results add coffee, chocolate & whisky.
Prone to jigging along to good music. Daydreams in code. Rebellious but squishy on the inside.
Occasionally effervescent but mostly quiet.
Intermittently climbs walls and wanders around outside..
To ensure lasting use, expose to long hugs by lovely people.
Sometimes mint condition. Free P&P
Warranty not included. May cause some leakage.
Over-uses text-based emoticons :p
INTJ-A / RCOAI / CALM
Want to read more, I keep words at blog.bozzie.org

Working with me? Have a look at my userguide

Want to chat? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Professional

Experienced in leading engineers, maintaining effective software teams
Technical experience in IoT, Info-Sec, SaaS, AI / ML, e-Commerce, Big Data
Industry exposure to clean energy, med-tech, automotive and industrial sectors
Architected and built scalable, maintainable and secure applications at scale
Excellent technical problem-solving and clear communication skills
Participated and consulted in due diligence and M&A processes
Built, grown and sustained productive engineering teams
Consulting experience in high-risk info-sec, infrastructure, technical architecture
Event organiser, speaker, moderator and technical workshop leader
Driven by endless improvement and positive impact on people's lives

Working with me? Have a look at my userguide

Want to chat? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Deciphered

Deciphered is a bespoke software and development company offering clear and flexible solutions to your complicated technology problems.

As one of the founding directors, I lead a technical team in delivering:

Technology Consulting
Bespoke Software
Website Creation
High Risk Info-Sec
eCommerce
Web Applications

Learn more at https://www.deciphered.io

Dare

Dare is an energy tech company: balancing and digitising the world's energy to help the world reach a greener future, faster.

Using the power of data science, analytics, and trading expertise, we aggregate, manage, and optimise the market access for renewable power generators that lack the expertise to trade independently.

At Dare, I lead the software engineering functions. The work of these engineering teams enables customers to extract full value from their renewable power via optimised production management and balancing, hedging and market monitoring.

Learn more at https://www.dare.global

Talks and Workshops

The fifth domain: an introduction to cyber-warfare
Speed up your developers
Pillars of IoT Security
How to pass my interviews
AI and Deep Learning
Inside the arrow: the hidden infrastructure of IoT
OPSEC basics
Industrial Cyber Defence workshop
Agile workshops
Lego Serious Play workshops

Want to chat? Book me in for a talk or workshop? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Odds and Ends

A collection of other stuff on this domain

Blog - Thoughts, words, micro-essays and photos. blog.bozzie.org

Notes - collected notes resources and my commonplace book. notes.bozzie.org

∞ - an experiment in minimal page content: ∞

Markov chain based Mittani quote bot: /quotegen

Mood sharing chart: /mood

Node toolbox: /nodes

Doctrine mapping tool: /doctrine

Toybox, a collection of computational playthings: /toybox

Uses

I sometimes get messages asking about the specifics of some piece of software or hardware I use. This page is a collection of notes and links to my usual tooling, software, hardware and clothing.

Editor

Visual Studio Code Able to handle remote coding, docker, terminal (bash, powershell, cmd) as well as nice markdown editing! I use the Solarized dark theme and Hack font with extra glyphs patched in using NerdFonts

VS Code Plugins

Bundled along with VS code, I extend it's usage with:
Beautify
Docker
GitLens
Markdown all in one
Material Icon Theme
Minify
Python
GoLang
Rest client
Settings sync
Draw.io tool

WebApps

Notion This is my go-to information hub: notebooks, databases, tracking, sharing, writing. Handling pretty much any content I can throw at it
Chrome Remote Desktop works across Chromebook and Windows machines
Discord free community based messaging
Keep virtual, shareable sticky notes, with geolocation and time sensitive reminders
Spotify for music, playlists, podcasts
Feedly allows pulling in multiple RSS feeds into one interface
MyFitnessPal aggregator for fitness, diet and weight tracking
Jira project management
Hemingway App for sanity checking writing style
Diagrams.net sharable diagram and wireframe tool

Desktop Apps

Stardock Fences desktop management tool
GIMP FOSS Graphic/image manipulation tool
Chrome being well embedded in the Google ecosystem, my browser of choice
Microsoft Powertoys addons for windows inclusing window management, colour pickers and a unified search/launcher

Chrome Extensions

Reddit Enhancement Suite A bunch of tweaks to make reddit a better site
Simplify Gmail Makes gmail look like Inbox(RIP)
uBlock Origin clear up ads and tracking
Dashlane password management
Notion Web Clipper clips content to my reading list in notion

Tech Hardware

Main PC:
CPU: Intel Core i9 10850K
GPU: ASUS GeForce RTX 3070
RAM: 64GB (4x16GB) Corsair Vengeance
Storage: 1TB WD Blue SN550 M.2 PCIe SSD
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B560-F
Cooling: Corsair H150i AIO Cooler (3x120mm Fans)
Case: Carbide Series 175R (1x120mm Fan)

Microsoft Surface Pro 8 - my main work laptop
Pixelbook i7 my main personal & portable laptop.
For data work: Google Collab Pro notebooks backed by p2.xlarge and p2.8xlarge EC2 instances

Quad HD 34" Samsung Monitor
2 x Dell 24" portrait monitors
Logitech MX Keys Backlit, easy typing keyboard that can migrate between devices.
Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse
Ruark Audio MR1 MKII Bluetooth Active Speakers Short, awesome little speakers that slot under the screen.
Audio-Technica ATR2500x-USB Condenser mic for headset free calls and audio recording
SteelSeries Arctis 7 daily driver headset, very strong wireless and battery life.
Elgato Streamdeck hot keys for my pc, lighting, camera control and timers.
Xbox Elite Series 2 comfortable controller for chilled out game time.
Philips Hue Play light bars bias and ambient lighting behind the monitor.
More information on my desk layout: blog post.

Personal

Pixel 6 Pro
WF-1000XM4 Headphones noise cancelling, comfy enough for all day wear, pocketable
Pixel Watch alerting from phone, heart rate and activity tracking

More information on my EDC blog post.

Clothing

My go-to clothing items - I'm working to build a list of trusted items that are hardy enough to last. Jeans: Levi's Men's 502 Regular Tapered Fit: 32W/32L
T-Shirt: Merino Crew Neck size L
Hoodie: Unbound Merino Black Travel Hoodie
Vest: Patagonia Nano Puff
Daily boots: Fairfax and Favor Trafalgar
Trainers: Allbirds Wool Runner Mizzles
Hiking Boots: Salamon Speed Assault
Shirt: Charles Tyrwhitt White Royal Oxford

Probable Next Purchases

Amazon Wishlist

Unoffice Hours

I’ve been opening my calendar each week for video calls with whoever books a time. It’s been amazing. Thursday is now my favourite day.

I call it Unoffice Hours.

You can book 30 minutes in my calendar here. No agenda is required, no need to mail first.

I set aside a couple hours each Thursday for Unoffice Hours.

Feedback on new ideas, startups and concepts

Informal pitches from people who I might work with in future

Old friends and colleagues reaching out to catch up with what they’re up to

And those are all good, so feel free. I’ll keep this going for a while.

We can have half an hour to talk about whatever you want. If you're curious about how we could work together, we can dig into that. If you're looking to share ideas, or show me your latest project, or just catch up -- let's do that.

Office hours started within universities, with professors opening their doors for drop-ins. You could drop in, ask for advice, try out an idea and get the guidance you needed. These sessions evolved into the tech world - with people opening their calendars for networking and mentoring. These times help to replicate coffee break conversations - the open chats that can lead to the happy unexpected. Sometimes things that are in your head can only be formed into complete ideas over a conversation!

So why un-office hours?

This is the digital equivalent of grabbing a coffee - the “un-office” is a signal of this informality. It’s a place to allow serendipity to unfold.

Unoffice Hours