Introduction Thread

[bsatrom]

This thread is here for you to say hello to everyone in the community, and tell us a little bit about yourself. What are you working on? What technologies, dev boards, and languages do you love? Share whatever you like! I’ll start…

I’ve been a professional technologist for over 20 years, first as an engineer and team lead, then as a Developer Advocate, Product Manager, and business unit GM for a public company. I’ve never stopped being an engineer at heart and got into the IoT world seven years ago thanks to the likes of Arduino, SparkFun, and Adafruit. I made the IoT world my profession four years ago and joined Blues in May of 2020 as Director of Developer Experience and Developer Relations.

I look forward to getting to know everyone and working with you to help bring your IoT products to life!

Your turn…

[robot]

DZircher posted Oct 19, 2020:

Hi all,
I’m Dana; I’ve been working in software for about 25 years and recently retired from Microsoft.
I started an IoT company (Transparent Technologies) about 6 months ago and we are specializing in the sensor / notification / mitigation space. I spent a good bit of time programming asm for PIC chips and am just thrilled with these developer friendly devices. I love learning new programming languages, and each time I buy a new prototyping board, I’m like a kid in a candy store. I’m really enjoying integrating Notecard into our existing infrastructure and devices.

-dana

[robot]

JimM posted Nov 28, 2020:

I’m Jim. Hello Dana and Brandon and future members. I too am focused on IoT now as a founder of a start-up on a mission to enhance the safety and wellness of senior residential facilities, specifically adding intelligence to facilities via sensor networks and alerting applications to benefit residents and leverage caregiver staff coverage. After decades of building electronic product and systems development teams to commercialize new technology in medical, automation, telecom, and other industries, I am enjoying returning to my computer engineering roots (remember the Intel 4004 microprocessor and DEC minicomputer?). And having worked with and led both large global corporate teams and early stage ventures, I find Blues very well positioned (product/solution, team members and market timing) for the rapid ramp-up sure to follow their pending formal launch!

[Carl-Henderson]

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been programming since I was on my dad’s knee. Now, at Blues Wireless since summer 2019, I’ve helped to grow every part of the Blues ecosystem from Notehub.io, to dev.blues.io, to Notecard firmware testing. I’m a maker through and through, and I’m passionate about making great tools and helping people to use them to their fullest.

-Carl

[vanya-blues.com]

Hello, everyone!

I’m Vanya, and a self-professed data nerd. I’m new to the IoT realm, but not to technology in general – over the last 20+ years, I’ve worked in just about every aspect of the software development lifecycle from project ideation to post-release support, and my history with technology dates back to working on terminals connected to a VAX 11/780 in nineteen-mumblety-mumble.

My strengths are in data visualization and, to a lesser extent, in Geographic Information Systems/mapping. I joined Blues in mid-November 2020 after a bit over a decade at Tableau Software, and bring with me the intent to help people see and understand their data. I look forward to being able to help people here use the data they collect to help answer questions and to help define potential use cases based on data-driven decisions.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have about how to get value out of your data or how to effectively present it to others.

-V

[mobeen]

Just joined the forum! Exciting to see the start of community engagement!

[eschnei]

Hello Everyone, I am pumped to be pushing cellular projects with you all! I am a Designer and Entrepreneur with a few hardware focused businesses. I’ve been designing hardware devices as an interactive artist for almost 10 years now starting originally with the Uno and moving to some more custom focused ESP32 based boards. I’ve built everything from interactive sound scapes to IoT products and viral marketing stunts to consumer electronic prototypes. I am excited to help out where I can and continue learning more about the NoteCard.

[timboie]

Welcome! I’m Tim. Big fan of the creative process. Infinitely curious, and hyped up to work with you all. My most recent and most completed work (lol) is a bluetooth midi controller designed to work with my open sourced music production app. (need to update the cert!). Talk to you all later!

[pavan]

I have been a technologist for over 20 years, first as an engineer for RSA Security working on the earliest versions of the SAML standard, then as a product manager at a few startups. Most recently, I was an executive leading go-to-market strategy at a publicly traded company. My first foray into the world of IOT was about 5 years ago when I worked on building a vaccine temperature monitoring and food safety solution that has now been deployed at over 60,000 pharmacies and restaurants around the world. That experience sparked my interest in bridging the yawning gap between our physical world and digital worlds.

An engineer at heart, I enjoy solving complex problems. My father taught me that all engineering problems are - at their core - about logic and patterns just like a Rubik’s cube. I am still working to get under 90 seconds to solve one (nowhere near 4.22 seconds!), but I did bond with my 8 year old as I taught him how to solve a Rubik’s cube a few months ago. As it turns out, there is an IOT solution for that! I missed the memo.

I am excited to engage with all of you, learn what patterns are critical for your business and help you capture significant value as you deploy your IoT products.

[mat]

Hello Everyone!

I recently joined Blues this week after taking 18 months out to relax (perfect timing during the pandemic!)

I’ve been deeply into software since I was a kid, writing programs for microcomputers in the 80s, demos on the Amiga in assembler and generally trying to advance what is considered possible. I have a degree in Software Engineering, 30 years experience in Software Development, 10 years in Firmware development. I got into IoT by wanting to build an internet connected fridge that could precisely control the temperature of beer and wine during the fermentation and conditioning process.

To me, engineering is primarily about the end result and outcomes, and I have always been mindful of the engineering impact on the developer experience, and I aim to advance this continually, whether it be via test-focused approaches, clear documentation or worked examples and reference designs. As Director of Experience Engineering I want to make sure your journey with Blues technology a smooth and productive one, with accelerators that get you to market quickly and with confidence.

I very much look forward to working with you all!

[tjvantoll]

Hey all

I’m TJ VanToll and I joined Blues last week as a developer advocate.

I’ve been a software developer for well over a decade, spending most of my time on the web, but dabbling in mobile, and in a handful of server-side technologies as well.

The IoT world, however, is brand new to me, and that’s pretty exciting actually. Looking forward to building and learning from you all

[ethanpierce]

Hey friends,

I’ve been taking things apart and putting them back together (sometimes I forget screws) for as long as I can remember. l started off as a software qa engineer and then became hardware engineer, after that I stumbled into the world of sales as a Solutions Architect. More recently I’ve been a director of hardware engineering and supporting early stage hardware and IoT startups. My specialty is maintaining holistic design intent from concept to mass production, and producing successful IoT deployments at scale. I’ve found a knack for building these weird IoT things and as of September of 2021 I took the role as Head of Acceleration Hardware Engineering at Blues. I’ll be building some super cool IoT hardware. I look forward to working with our communities developers and businesses building on top of Blues and making your IoT solutions a reality!

Reach out with any questions!

-Ethan