Optimistic Computing

After 13 years of entrepreneurship, running businesses like Nilenso (India’s first worker-owned tech company) and Endatabas (earth’s first immutable HTAP SQL database), I’m looking for full-time employment. I’ve enjoyed starting unique companies from scratch and taking them as far as I can, but now I want to help grow something larger than I...

Hello, I’m Steven! I’m a project manager and developer from Halifax. I grow teams and ensure that we build the right product. Lately, I also build, evolve, and maintain backend Rails codebases for companies and non-profits. I’ve been writing code for 30 years, but I will always sweep the floor. 🇨🇦 🇮🇳 🇺🇸 🇪🇺 I lived in India for 10 years...

Commercial Open Source Softare (COSS) is an only-loosely-agreed-upon term for businesses built upon selling open source products. COSS has seen two significant waves pass, with a third now emerging. The head of each wave lasts approximately a decade. The tail of each wave extends into the future indefinitely. Each wave subsumes all previous...

I am carrying a bucket of human waste. Two buckets, actually. I’m visiting an off-grid cabin in an Acadian forest where the vegetable garden is nourished by a humanure composting system. It’s my turn to take out the, uh, compost. Every visit to this forest is an opportunity to get away from Twitter, away from the noise of the city, and enjoy a...

Driving down the #9 highway in Southeast Saskatchewan yesterday, I giggled in surprise when I noticed a small piece of Internet lodged in a canola field. I saw the unmistakeable orange logo as we approached the unincorporated hamlet of Görlitz (population unknown) from the north. Amid the other billboards for bulk fertilizer and local honey was a...