Andy Piper – Medium

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On living with the feelings in my head

When I was 10 years old, I learned that my father had a brain tumour. He was treated, our family life continued. Around that same time — just before, actually — I’d been taken out of my state comprehensive education, and moved into a private school 10 miles from where…

Mental Health

4 min read

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21 years in tech

A few weeks ago, I Tweeted the realisation that I left university 21 years ago, and since then I’ve been working in tech — sometimes a surprise both to me and to others, given that I started out armed with nothing more than a degree in Modern History, and a…

Life Lessons

2 min read

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Building a compact Pi cluster

At the start of 2021, I built my first “Raspberry Pi Cluster-in-a-Box”. It was based on a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) expansion board for the Pi, called the Cluster HAT. Some folks thought it was cool… and others (somewhat predictably) asked… why? The answer…

Raspberry Pi

6 min read

May 23, 2021

Honestly? I love it. I cannot at all imagine going back to doing a fairly steady engineering job and reliably delivering applications. Even when I last did that sort of role, I was part-time and doing advocacy/consulting/training for …

Best Things About Developer Advocacy

Lorna Mitchell

I cannot imagine myself in a role where I need to deliver code to a spec on a specific schedule.

I cannot imagine myself in a role where I need to deliver code to a spec on a specific schedule. I've been fortunate through consulting, problem solving / support, and Dev Rel, to not have to do that on a 9-5 basis, and to have gained all the platform stack…

1 min read

Mar 16, 2021

Was it, a Dream?

A couple of weeks ago, I learned from my podcast co-hosts, Michael Martine and Michael Rowe, that something new was afoot. tl;dr I’ve long been fascinated by the convergence of the physical, virtual, visual, and digital worlds (as have Michael and Michael), and I have a background in literature, Shakespeare…

3 min read

Feb 8, 2021

Andy’s discoveries and musings — Issue #2

Well, if the “new” world of newsletters is going to be any, for me, it’s likely to be a slow burner. I remember Roo’s Letter was a fun weekly distraction, and Benedict Evans has had one for the longest time… Going even further back, Delicious used to post a weekly…

7 min read

Andy’s discoveries and musings — Issue #2

Nov 29, 2020

Upgrading my WFH desk setup

[this story was originally posted on DEV] Along with many others in tech, I’ve been working from home on a forced-permanent basis since mid-March. Over that time, I’ve incrementally improved my working environment. I’ve been living in the place I’m currently at for a little over 7 years, but up…

Wfh Tips

6 min read

May 4, 2020

On VE Day and its meaning in 2020

(spoilers: let’s move on) What was “Victory in Europe”? – it was a defining victory for peace and freedom. Amazon’s infallible algorithm is suggesting I might want to buy Union Flag bunting, or a “stick the cigar on the Churchill” game, stuff I assume is in high demand ahead of the 75th anniversary of…

Ve Day

3 min read

Mar 28, 2020

Loose threads, broken pieces — Concluding Picard season 1

As a long-time confirmed Trek fan (I read TOS novels at school… I was secretary of my university Star Trek society, I stood in line for the first of the Next Gen movies back when I was at university too, wrote magazine articles… oh, I’m the geek you always knew…

Star Trek

4 min read

Loose threads, broken pieces — Picard’s conclusion

Mar 27, 2017

At the edge of history

On Saturday, I attended the Unite for Europe March in London. It was the first time I’ve ever taken part in an organised protest or march, and it was probably also the first time I’ve ever felt strongly enough about an issue to feel motivated to do so. As I…

Brexit

4 min read