About the Author

Hello, and welcome to my digital workshop. I'm the person behind the keyboard here at esoup.net.

My journey in IT began back in 1993, a time when the internet landscape looked vastly different. Since then, I've navigated the evolving worlds of networking, systems, and security, often wearing multiple hats simultaneously – from the router guy to the firewall guy, the LAN/WAN specialist to the load balancer architect.

This long and varied experience forms the bedrock of this site. It has instilled in me a deep appreciation for:

• Simplicity: Striving for clarity and avoiding unnecessary complexity in design and implementation.
• Pragmatism: Focusing on what works effectively and efficiently in the real world.
• Questioning the Status Quo: Recognizing that yesterday's best practices aren't always today's optimal solutions.
• The Process: Valuing the learning and discovery involved in building, thinking, and even just speculating.

You'll see these themes reflected in the content here. Whether I'm documenting a software project, delving into network design philosophy, critiquing common practices, or exploring purely conceptual ideas, it all stems from decades spent hands-on with technology. A particular passion driving my current explorations is AI-assisted coding and collaboration – understanding how these new tools can augment the creative and building process, much like the collaboration used in generating parts of this site and its content.

This site, esoup.net, represents a fresh start for sharing these explorations. My previous blogging attempts were sometimes more experimental (like letting an early AI loose on mcyork.com – an experiment I've left running its course). Here, the focus is more deliberate: a true digital workshop built using tools I've created (like the static site generator powering these pages) to document projects, ideas, and reflections as they develop.

It's less about definitive answers and more about exploring the process and sharing the journey.

Thanks for stopping by.