In Australia the ACS (Australian Computer Society), "the professional association and largest community for Australia's technology professionals" is telling the world that the median hourly rate of $57.08 is too high and that professionals should expect "rebalancing" after the pandemic.
For context, inflation adjusted, in 1998 (25 years ago!) when I was a generic IT help-desk operator at a local University I was earning that rate. So, apparently in ICT we're earning too much and we should be happy about it.
Location: Perth, Western Australia (UTC+8)
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: AWS Docker MySQL Linux JavaScript node.js HTML CSS GraphViz R Tableau PHP Python bash git VMware VNC and many, many more...
Résumé/CV: https://www.itmaze.com.au/resume
Email: onno@itmaze.com.au
I have been analysing data in one way or another pretty much my entire career. Much of the time that takes the form of writing custom code to extract data, then to clean it, then to store it, then to analyse it.
I am a polyglot ICT professional and my resume is formatted as a list of work experience. As an example, for a recent large project I was contracted to analyse a large obfuscated codebase in active development.
The brief: Analyse a JavaScript library which may be subject to legal action.
As the sole developer and data analyst under contract, I determined that the library consisted of about 300k lines of obfuscated code that was in wide use and under active development. After I attempted initial static analysis, I built a tool to capture the library and log its activity whilst it was running (ie. during run-time). The library under investigation actively monitored user activity and resisted simple screen-shot attempts. The capture and logging tool I developed simulated user interaction, scrolled pages, clicked on links and logged all activity including dynamic DOM changes made by the library. The tool also captured Chrome HAR files. I used the source-code for Chrome to discover and address several messaging and logging edge-cases.
The capture and logging tool I wrote in Node.js, used Chrome and puppeteer, and was implemented on AWS EC2 using Docker images I built from scratch, published to, and pulled from AWS ECR. Logs were stored on AWS S3. I deployed the tool across random AWS regions using AWS CloudFormation and bash.
For initial analysis, I generated Graphviz maps using Python with thousands of nodes and edges showing the URL calls being used and their relationships. I conducted in-depth analysis of over a TB of logging data with customised de-obfuscation tools that I built to use abstract syntax tree filters to generate names using four letter English words to enable the tracking of function and variable names. I mapped function calls, reverse engineered and mapped (mostly undocumented) Chrome HAR files. I also traced variable values across the codebase, dynamically inserting debugging statements during run-time.
Customised versions of the library were also injected at run-time to discover further interactions of the codebase with other "cooperating" libraries. I also mapped the evolution of the library codebase itself using git, by creating commits for each discovered and de-obfuscated version. I used PHP to download historic versions of the codebase from archive.org. I traced and documented small and large changes.
I documented the entire project, under the expectation of showing evidence in court.
Location: Perth, Western Australia (UTC+8)
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: AWS Docker MySQL Linux JavaScript node.js HTML CSS GraphViz R Tableau PHP Python bash git VMware VNC and many, many more...
Résumé/CV: https://www.itmaze.com.au/resume
Email: onno@itmaze.com.au
I have been analysing data in one way or another pretty much my entire career. Much of the time that takes the form of writing custom code to extract data, then to clean it, then to store it, then to analyse it.
I am a polyglot ICT professional and my resume is formatted as a list of work experience. As an example, for a recent large project I was contracted to analyse a large obfuscated codebase in active development.
The brief: Analyse a JavaScript library which may be subject to legal action.
As the sole developer and data analyst under contract, I determined that the library consisted of about 300k lines of obfuscated code that was in wide use and under active development. After I attempted initial static analysis, I built a tool to capture the library and log its activity whilst it was running (ie. during run-time). The library under investigation actively monitored user activity and resisted simple screen-shot attempts. The capture and logging tool I developed simulated user interaction, scrolled pages, clicked on links and logged all activity including dynamic DOM changes made by the library. The tool also captured Chrome HAR files. I used the source-code for Chrome to discover and address several messaging and logging edge-cases.
The capture and logging tool I wrote in Node.js, used Chrome and puppeteer, and was implemented on AWS EC2 using Docker images I built from scratch, published to, and pulled from AWS ECR. Logs were stored on AWS S3. I deployed the tool across random AWS regions using AWS CloudFormation and bash.
For initial analysis, I generated Graphviz maps using Python with thousands of nodes and edges showing the URL calls being used and their relationships. I conducted in-depth analysis of over a TB of logging data with customised de-obfuscation tools that I built to use abstract syntax tree filters to generate names using four letter English words to enable the tracking of function and variable names. I mapped function calls, reverse engineered and mapped (mostly undocumented) Chrome HAR files. I also traced variable values across the codebase, dynamically inserting debugging statements during run-time.
Customised versions of the library were also injected at run-time to discover further interactions of the codebase with other "cooperating" libraries. I also mapped the evolution of the library codebase itself using git, by creating commits for each discovered and de-obfuscated version. I used PHP to download historic versions of the codebase from archive.org. I traced and documented small and large changes.
I documented the entire project, under the expectation of showing evidence in court.
I looked at Brave a little while ago. It was actively attempting to install things and force me to comply to their world view, with too many options and buttons to make the user experience in any way palatable. In the end, even opening multiple tabs and navigating between them became too hard and I removed it after it started to demand that I install a VPN, even though I browse from within my own secure network.
Thanks, I'll have a look, but I'm not sure how it goes with privacy tracking and all the other great features that I pretty much take for granted with "Focus".
I'm an experienced polyglot IT professional, software developer, trouble shooter, researcher, public speaker, educator, writer and publisher, founder and small business owner, podcaster, and licensed radio amateur. I work remotely from my home-office in Perth, Western Australia, UTC+8.
If you're into resolving odd and complex problems, need someone with dedication and tenacity, and believe that "Social Good" is an important attribute to cultivate, get in touch!
Location: Perth, Western Australia (UTC+8)
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Résumé/CV: https://www.itmaze.com.au/resume
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onnobenschop/
Email: onno@itmaze.com.au
I'm an experienced polyglot IT professional, software developer, trouble shooter, researcher, public speaker, educator, writer and publisher, founder and small business owner, podcaster, and licensed radio amateur. I work remotely from my home-office in Perth, Western Australia, UTC+8.
If you're into resolving odd and complex problems, need someone with dedication and tenacity, and believe that "Social Good" is an important attribute to cultivate, get in touch!
Location: Perth, Western Australia (UTC+8)
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Résumé/CV: https://www.itmaze.com.au/resume
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onnobenschop/
Email: onno@itmaze.com.au
I'm surprised that Google Sheets hasn't been throttled on that url yet.
At one point I provided live tracking data to a popular event site using Google Sheets and advised their web team to create a local cache of the data and refresh it every 10 minutes. Instead they ignored that advice and included the document itself into the home-page. The document was hugged to death within about 30 minutes of going live on a four day event and it took days for Google to increase their throttle, at which point it didn't matter any more, since the event was over.
I realise that Google has infrastructure to handle this load, but an international event, with a (then) Google Apps account, was unable to make enough noise at Google to fix things in a timely manner.
I've been in the workforce for almost 40 years as an ICT professional. In my experience there's lots of other things going on in addition to the point you make.
People flat-out don't believe that the skills enumerated on my resume could be held by a single person, and are.
Apparently, I'm clearly "over the hill", having been at this for nearly 40 years. I should state that I have 20+ years experience instead, as-if having life experience doesn't actually make you better qualified to understand the contexts of any role in an organisation.
My skill-set is "threatening" to others, because, apparently, knowing things about a great many technologies means that I know more than the person hiring me, which somehow means that I'm a threat. As-if surrounding yourself by people who are smarter than you is suddenly undesirable.
I've been told to "dumb down" my resume because there's too much there, even if there's 99% chance that a computer will be the device actually reading it and selecting me. Apparently I'm supposed to "infiltrate" a company at a lower level and then "show" them that I can do more, despite 40 years experience showing that people only see the skills that they want to see.
According to some automated job technologies I have 104 years of experience. Not sure how that works.
Then there are those who want to know which of the experience is "professional" and which isn't. (I've been self-employed for the past 23+ years)
In the end, I liken it to this:
"How much experience do you have in eating food?"
"Do you mean, adding together each of the 15 minute meals, or how long have I been eating food for since I was born?"
"Okay, how much professional experience do you have eating food?"
I have a similar blessing/problem. I've filled forms that do the additions and keep you in check that you don't end up with 104 years. On the other hand, if you are anything like me you spend a good amount of these 40 years working 10-12 hours per day (and some times the weekend)(I remember in 2001-2003 I was working in a food company and during some weekends we would be doing the hardware work, so removing servers, installing new ones, setting up new racks etc. So those 3 years were in reality 4 or 4.5 (and I got the paid overtime to prove it).
The "system" still serves the ones who grow vertically Junior X, X, Senior X, Junior X Manager, X Manager, Senior X Manager, and so on. I remember listening to DOAC chatting with Harley Finkelstein of Shopify that was describing how he appreciates T-shaped skill-set. So you master skill X (as you 'grew up with it') but as time was going by you also developed other skills in parallel.
Modern companies & minds get it and celebrate it. Old-school-ers don't (and probably never will). There is also the thing "I want him/her to do X, so (e.g.) project management skills are not useful". And then I am happy when I hear this on an interview because I most definitely do NOT want to work with that person! :)
I'm an experienced polyglot IT professional, software developer, trouble shooter, researcher, public speaker, educator, writer and publisher, founder and small business owner, podcaster, and licensed radio amateur. I work remotely from my home-office in Perth, Western Australia, UTC+8.
If you're into resolving odd and complex problems, need someone with dedication and tenacity, and believe that "Social Good" is an important attribute to cultivate, get in touch!
Location: Perth, Western Australia (UTC+8)
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Résumé/CV: https://www.itmaze.com.au/resume
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onnobenschop/
Email: onno@itmaze.com.au
Over the years I've filled a variety of roles. Here are some of them: Business Owner, Compliance Officer, Data Analyst, Director, Founder, Installer, Interviewer, Lecturer, Presenter, Producer, Researcher, Software Developer, Software Sales, System Developer, System Integrator, System Support, Team Lead, Team Member, Technical Writer, Voice Talent, Web Master
For context, inflation adjusted, in 1998 (25 years ago!) when I was a generic IT help-desk operator at a local University I was earning that rate. So, apparently in ICT we're earning too much and we should be happy about it.
Source: https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2023/it-teams--salaries--rebal...