About

About me

My main job these days is as a full stack web developer at Rose Scaffolding. In this role, I like to work with libraries and frameworks like the following:

• Backend: Python, Django and Django REST Framework, for creating nice healthy APIs for interacting with databases - preferably PostgreSQL. Lately, I need to add messaging and chat stuff to my app, so I have been starting to work with Django Channels.
• Frontend: JavaScript, React and Redux (and lately React Native for mobile app development).

Before this, I worked as a teacher and trainer. I taught English as a Second Language (here and in Việt Nam), mathematics (VN), and even programming and web development. I also worked as a software engineer in the 90s and early 00s: writing middleware in C and C++.

Personal Details

I currently live in Brisbane with my wife and daughter. At the moment, Forest Lake is my home - a sleepy if suspiciously well-planned suburb 20-odd km from the CBD. Before that, I lived in West End for over 10 years.

If you wish to contact me, the best way to do it by email. My address is peterkmurphy at gmail dot com. My resume is available on request, and so is my phone number. Other social media accounts of mine are:

• A GitHub account, if you want to see what code I've worked on.
• You are probably aware that I have a Twitter account as well, considering my tweets are on this site.
• I also have a Facebook account...
• A LinkedIn account...
• And even one from Ello.

I used to have other personal details on my website, such as my postal address upon my website (a PO Box, which at the time was not the same as my residential address). I also had my mobile number as well. I even provided links where visitors could even download my resume in both Word and PDF, as an encouragement to recruiters and would-be clients. I've removed all of this information. Having my resume online has not made my job-hunting easier. Instead, it appears to have been harvested "for stock" by certain US-based recruiters, and added to their "database" of leads and contacts. So every couple of months, I get spammed about programming jobs in Kentucky or Ohio, no matter that I don't hold a Green Card, or for that matter live in that country.

In addition, having all these details public makes identity theft a lot easier. One person from the local PostgreSQL User's Group - out of the blue - rang me on the phone number I had provided on this website to warn me of the dangers. I took his advice to heart.

My other websites

I have several websites that I have developed or am currently developing. The ones that I can provide links to are:

• Toxic Bears: an avant garage and experimental punk band out of Brisbane.
• Sudesigns: bespoke and commercial jewellery from Brisbane.

Colophon

This site is built using the programming language Python (3.8), the web framework Django (2.2), and the content management system Mezzanine (5.0). I used to be at WebFaction, but the folk that took over the company didn't like PostgreSQL databases, and I needed to look for hosting elsewhere. So I ended up at Linode. I appreciated WebFaction's automated installation scripts when I was learning Django, but had to learn to work without them. These days, I prefer to get myself a virtual Linux machine and install my own web and mail server on top, rather than use some sort of automated cPanel interface. Two articles that explain how this website was installed:

• How To Set Up Django with Postgres, Nginx, and Gunicorn on Ubuntu 20.04. Digital Ocean's documentation is superb, and I actually use them in my day job. But I had free hosting credits with Linode, which is why I went with them for this website.
• Build Your Own Email Server on Ubuntu: Basic Postfix Setup. An amazing, comprehensive tutorial, covering software such as Postfix and Dovecot, and anti-spam technologies such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Another thing I miss with WebFaction was their email servers; I used them for administrative tasks, such as sending emails on 500 errors. But I like learning new things, so I followed the guide (more or less), and now have a working email server along with my web servers.

For theming, this website uses Bootstrap and an almost untweaked Cosmo theme from Bootswatch.  

Acknowlegments

Thanks to my wife and daughter for their love and support.

Copyright © Peter Murphy 2009-2022.