Technology should do the hard work so people can do the things that make them the happiest

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Rewritten Content

Below here is an overhauled version of of your history/background tailored to British/Scottish conversation and spelling featuring the tecnical depth and expertise you are trying to expose.

Professional Profile & Technical Heritage

The Early Days: From Paper Rounds to Engineering

My journey into technology was self-funded from the beginning, starting with a fourboys paper round in my youth. With my grandfather’s guidance and my hard-earned wages, I purchased my first "real" machine: a Mesh Computers next-gen system. It boasted a 1.4GHz CPU and a 40GB hard drive—a significant investment at £1,440. That was the last PC I ever bought off the shelf.

As an Electronic Engineering HND student with four years of Computer Science studies under my belt, I moved quickly into bespoke builds. It was during my HND, spending every spare break in the college library’s computer lab, that I realised I had a genuine knack and enthusiasm for the "bits and bytes" of IT support and systems architecture.

The Attic Lab: Where the Passion Began

My "Attic Lab" was a testament to my dedication to hardware. Before the days of ubiquitous virtualisation, I was staging multiple machines using 4-port and 2-port KVM switches. I even ran an 8-way VGA splitter—a cracking piece of kit that looked incredible even on old CRT monitors.

From a networking perspective, I was experimenting with everything a student budget would allow:

Web Development & Systems Administration

I currently host and maintain my own web infrastructure to showcase my full-stack capabilities. My environment is load-balanced using HAProxy across Debian and Linux Mint hosts, serving:

Overcoming Modern Hurdles: Security & ATS

I’ve recently modernised my stack to meet current industry standards. While I initially thought a simple CV-hosting site wouldn't need an SSL/TLS certificate, I quickly adapted when modern browsers made them a requirement. After experimenting with self-signed certificates (which struggled with corporate proxies), I successfully implemented Let’s Encrypt for my primary domains and subdomains, including:

I am also aware of the challenges posed by modern Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). I’ve discovered that complex multi-column CV layouts can often be misread by these systems, leading hiring agents to overlook my technical skills. My current landing page is designed to solve this, using a clean, timeline-style layout with modern CSS that is both human-readable and bot-friendly.

Legacy Experience: The RS McColls Days

During my time at RGU (Robert Gordon University)—the era of my "No, I will not fix your computer" and "127.0.0.1" t-shirts—I worked at RS McColls. This role gave me unique "hands-on" access to retail tech. I learned to boot into MS-DOS 6.22 to explore the EPOS backend and till programmes. I gained experience modifying autoexec.bat files and using XCOPY to deploy software between the back-office controllers and the tills.

Current Status & Ethos

I am currently hitting over 70% on CompTIA practice exams and constantly refreshing my knowledge. I believe in the philosophy that "in the age of information, ignorance is a choice."

Technical Quick-Fire:

Original Content

Below here is the original content from your homepage.

Introduction - Modern Life is Good-ish

My journey into technology started with earnings from my fourbouys paper round. with the help of my grandfather and paperound I bought a Mesh Computers next gen originally with a 40GB hard drive, 1.4ghz CPU costing £1,440 new. That was the only machine I would buy outright as I built everything else myself as you would expect from an Electronic Engineering HND student who has done 4 years of a Computer science study. Whilst studying for an HND in Electronic Engineering whilst spending my breaks in the colleges library computer lab I realised I had a knack and enthusiasm for computer tech.

Alot of people have told me to change the website background to have it look more corporate but sioux falls is where i got married. Sioux falls through the winter months is light up and looks awesome.

To see how it looks as part of heading look at landing page #3. You can find my nodejs webserver app.js on port 3200. My J2EE dev Examples are currently available on port 8282 with the stable/production on port 8080. currently have a login servlet for with mysql backend. I also use php as frontends for the mysql backend. Two hosts serve the Tomcat and HTTPD servers one is debian the other Linux Mint (ubuntu) load balanced with haproxy. ATS has been hampering my efforts to get a job on the various job sites by not being able to read through Columns in the various files has left employers and their agents to think I have zero skills. I didn't originally intend to host site with mysql backend as I thought for a site with no submitted info/data and just hosting my thoughts/Cv and other streamed content that I wouldn't need a ssl cert but soon discovered that since I last hosted my own site firefox has made ssl/TLS Certs a requirement. With my various efforts at creating a self signed certifacates not working or not being accepted by hiring managers work proxies I have settled on using lets encrypt. I have certs for mail.skdj.co.uk skdj.co.uk www.skdj.co.uk khaleeq.skdj.co.uk (placeholder for hosting friends Website) and cameron.skdj.co.uk which is a side project I started when I thought I might need to negotiate for my next car bill. Using httrack I was able to download their rather old website found hereand modernised the code adding some CSS and Dynamic Javascript plus a bosch favicon. I changed the Heading to Charles Wright(the font used for Licence Plates) If I ever need to negotiate car bill I have an ACE in my back pocket and will ask them what if any other features they would like added. with any luck Hiring managers won't automatically just discard my job applications this landing page is designed to showcase modern css styles and with a timeline style. back in my RGU years I had a greyscale Firefox Tshirt as well as a "There is no place like 127.0.0.1" shirt, "select * from users where Clue > 0: 0 rows returned⁸;" shirt, and a no, I will not fix your computer in the attic Lab I had an 8 way VGA splitter a very cool piece of kit even with crts it looked awesome.

I'm going to upload pictures of my computer setup back in my CS student days as I believe these may help me secure a job in IT as it shows multiple machine staging with both 4 port and 2 port KVMs. from a networking perpective a load balancer is missing from this setup. hardware load balancers of the age being very expensive for a student. today you can easily use software loadbalancers like haproxy which is what I use now. Software raids, laser and Inkjets printers. ITSM office level equipment. what do I love about this homelab photo is the motherboard poster in the background really shows the inner geek saved so much time looking for it ofc today all these manuals are downloadable online(manuallibs). That rolling footstool was created from a previously broken chair and I loved it, made using laptop super easy testing wireless connectivity when I was or wasn't tinkering with wife settings as much as family would allow before complaining every other machine was hardwired ethernet origins originating from from ground floor stair cove. nothing says I have network knowledge that running my own website with other services like ftp and email. in the attic Lab I had an 8 way VGA splitter a very cool piece of kit even with crts it looked awesome, when I had a chance I would go to the nearest Linux user Group and kept up to date with the group via the IRC back when freenode was the defacto node host.

Just now when I do comptia practice tests online I find myself getting over 70% on most test exams. Some of my favourite Quotes:

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open my mouth and remove all doubt. in the age of Information ignorance is a choice /* no comment */ Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this standard under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the title page is labeled as modified including a reference to the original standard, provided that information on retrieving the original standard is included, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

In the attic Lab I had an 8 way VGA splitter a very cool piece of kit even with crts it looked awesome. dual booted windows Xp with Linux with a 40gb 40gb. split hard disk partition. Around this time I was working newsagent Rsmcoll and was able to boot into MSDOS 6.22 that was running the epos backend management tool and till programs and start modifying them. be it modifying the till autoexec.bat to change the CHOICE command to something funny or using it to get to the msDOS default prompt and then explore the till msdos instance. I would discover that there was a Bat file to copy using XCOPY or install the till software or epos BAC (Back office software) and so ofc I was able to install the back office software on the tills and then vis versa. I'm really happy with my time working at a range of rsMcColls newsagents stores as I meant I had easy access to reading material tech mags. bingo bango hello World Which hardware tool is specifically designed to trace and identify individual wires within a cable bundle?