What do I do?

Halò à Alba, agus fàilte gu mo bloga! (That’s “Hello from Scotland, and welcome to my blog!” in Scottish Gaelic.)

I’m Kieran, a software engineer based in Scotland. I graduated from Heriot-Watt University with a BSc. (Hons) in Computer Systems in May 2024, and have since been working at VITEC as a Graduate Software Engineer. I’m part of the Core & Security team at VITEC, making sure our new products go above and beyond established security standards like DISA STIG and NIST. I work on things like full-disk encryption for servers, locking down networks, and hardening Red Hat systems to keep everything secure. I also set up and manage our internal GitLab Runners for CI/CD and our Sonatype Nexus Repository servers for our internal software and packaging needs.

What do I like?

In my spare time, I enjoy exploring new technologies and working on personal projects. I have a keen interest in aviation, radio communications, and open-source software. I also enjoy hiking and photography, often combining the two to capture the beauty of the Scottish landscape in and around Edinburgh, the Lothians, and Fife using nothing but my trusty iPhone 16 Pro. I have also taken an interest in Meshtastic, a project that uses inexpensive LoRa devices to create off-grid, decentralised communication networks.

I am also an avid music collector, primarily focusing on vinyl records and CDs. My collection spans various genres, including rock, electronic, classical, and soundtracks. I use Discogs to manage and showcase my collection. Similarly, I also collect physical media such as Blu-Rays and DVDs, with a particular interest in 4K UHD releases.

I routinely share ADS-B flight data collected from my home setup to FlightRadar24, FlightAware, and Plane Finder.

A magpie’s nest

I think what you’ve gathered so far is that I like collecting things. Whether it’s music, physical media, or data, I enjoy the process of curating and organising my collections. Really, I think I just like big data as a concept, in the broadest sense of the term. Making big data small, manageable, and useful is something I find quite satisfying, and I enjoy sharing my collections and knowledge with others through this blog.

Open data and open knowledge are important to me, and I believe in the power of sharing information to help others learn and grow. Similarly, I aim to follow established, open standards for web feeds. You can find my RSS feed here, as well as a list of other RSS feeds I follow and recommend on my Reading List.

Contact Me

Social Media

You can find me on the following platforms:

Secure Contact

If you want to contact me securely, you can use the following services:

Hardware

For a detailed list of my hardware, please see my Hardware page.