Jake Deery
Systems Administrator, PTFS Europe Ltd
Contacts
jahdobble@llownd.net π¨
γγπͺπΊ Devon, UK π
github.com/perplexedtheta π¨πΌβπ»
chat.koha-community.org/@perplexedtheta π¬
Work
Most recently, I've been working remotely for PTFS Europe. We are a UK-based organisation that primarily provides open-source software solutions. I mainly work with Koha and Aspen Discovery, written in Perl (Koha), Java, and PHP (Aspen).
Koha was my gateway into Perl whilst working at City College Plymouth, so being able to work with it full-time has been great, and I've also enjoyed learning a bit of Java and PHP (both languages I previously thought lowly of) when working with Aspen Discovery. π
Background
Originally from Devon, I now live on the Cornish border, by the sea, with my partner and my pet blackbird (not really my pet, but he does sit in my window while I work).
My interest in technology goes back to 2001, when my family bought our first desktop PC. It had a 533MHz Pentium III, 512 MB of memory, and a 20 GB hard disk. Pitiful by today's standard, but we were the only family amongst my peers that had 1Mbps cable broadband.
This beige box opened up a line to family members both in the UK, and Ireland. It also allowed me to tinker with the machine, install new software, and discover all the Internet had to offer.
Since 2021, I've been working in this industry I've spent my whole life aspiring towards. Initially this was as a technician, but since 2024 I've been working full-time as a developer, love every moment of my work.
Education
Applied Computer Science
University of Plymouth
September 2019 – May 2020
First class with honours
Software Development
City College Plymouth
September 2016 – May 2018
First class
Technology
Mac machines are my current tool of choice. I've fallen in and out of love with Apple over the years, but the current line-up of Mac laptops are irrefutably the best on the market for basically everyone, except from gamers. I currently have the pleasure and fortune of being the owner of an M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and two years later, it still gives me enormous pleasure to use.
Just because I'm a Mac user, that doesn't preclude me from using other operating systems. I tend to prefer Debian on headless systems, and either Pop!_OS or Fedora on PCs.
I'm currently experimenting with neovim, but for now my daily code editor is VS Code. It is a very dependable editor, and the plugin market is quite mature by now. I do want to get into neovim – I've been a vimmer for a year or so now, and the keystrokes are second nature to me (I used command-line editors a lot whilst I was a technician).
I cut my teeth on C/C++ (I know, rightβ¦), but I wouldn't consider myself fluent these days. I mainly write in Perl & HTML/SASS/JS now, though I'm getting familiar with Java & PHP as well. I'm also a fan of a well-constructed bash script. π
I'm about to learn Vue.js as my first proper framework. Wish me luck! I have dabbled with pseudo-frameworks, like Jekyll & Bootstrap (which this site uses), and Koha makes use of JQuery, but Vue.js feels like a move into the major leagues.
My only serious foray into the world of databases is with MySQL & Postgres. I'd love to do stuff with nosql and MongoDB, so if anyone has any interesting pet project ideas, get in touch!
I'm a shameless /bin/zsh user, and have a fairly minimal but useful oh-my-zsh setup. Maybe one day, I'll publish my config!
