Websites from United States

Ben, also known as Venya, is a musician and audio professional based in the greater Nashville, TN area. A recent retiree from the US Army in late 2024, he completed the studio engineering program at Blackbird Studio in March 2025. He now works as a freelancer, focusing on tracking, editing, and mixing audio. Venya plays bass guitar for various local and remote projects, including Colors of Creation, Fall Line Drive, The Void Conspiracy, and Mr. Mark’s Improv Jam. He is interested in making music creation more accessible through open source tools, open licensing, and shared resources.

Alex Wood is a software developer who works on agentic AI applications for Amazon Web Services. He has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he worked on inventory planning and control at Amazon.com and on the AWS SDK for Ruby team. He also wrote the Ruby runtime for AWS Lambda and worked on serverless tooling in the AWS SAM and AWS SAM CLI space. He has spoken at numerous conferences and appeared on several podcasts.

Philip Mallegol-Hansen is a computing enthusiast who has been interested in legacy and making a mark since childhood. He once dreamed of contributing significantly to physics, but later shifted his focus to computing, aspiring to create impactful software. He blogs about a variety of topics including technology, society, and personal reflections.

Ben Weller is the author of a personal blog where he shares his views. He writes about topics such as converting Markdown to Anki cards with VS Code and AnkiConnect, YouTube enhancement, AGI prepping, dotfiles, and scheduling ad hoc commands.

Joel Alexander is a coder, writer, and listener of songs. He works at Chick-Fil-A and is involved in his church's tech and service teams. In his free time, he enjoys coffee, writing stories, and programming desktop applications. He is currently working on mDirt, a Minecraft Datapack IDE, and Crossed, a scheduling app designed for churches. He is also drafting Bloodstained Honor, a novel. He enjoys retro gaming and also writes songs.

Offby1 is a person who shares ideas and tools on their website. They are reachable via Mastodon (@offby1@wandering.shop), BlueSky (offby1.net), and email (ideas.feedback@offby1.net for post feedback, or offline@ for general contact). They are interested in automation and shell tools, as evidenced by their post about using fortune to remind them of shell tools and integrating it with chezmoi.

Kyle Jennings is a freelance copywriter based in Denver, originally from NY. He specializes in helping high-ticket businesses increase revenue by improving conversion rates with his copy. Kyle writes to organize his thoughts and shares content that he hopes will be helpful to others. He is interested in helping people create sustainable businesses aligned with their interests and achieving more agency over their lives. He enjoys meeting new people and talking on the phone, often while walking.

Isaac Wyatt, MBA, is an adventurer based in the Seattle, WA area. He enjoys flying planes, riding motorcycles, and climbing mountains, in addition to being a Dad and making video games. He has built growth systems at pre-IPO B2B Software startups like New Relic and HashiCorp, before joining Google. Isaac accelerates revenue growth by enabling Marketing and Sales teams with automation, analytics, process, and tools. He holds a BBA from Siena Heights University and an MBA from Michigan State University.

Andrew Wickliffe is the blogger behind The Stop Button. He writes about movies, comics, and television. He has been blogging on the site for a long time. He also writes longer pieces occasionally. He can be contacted through the site. Readers can support The Stop Button through Ko-Fi, direct sponsorship, or by purchasing Stop Button post collections for Kindle.

Chris P. Thompson is a composer and percussionist whose work draws from electronic music, marching percussion, and contemporary classical music. His influences include growing up in California’s Silicon Valley and being part of the New York City contemporary music scene. He released his 5th solo album, Stay the Same, in April 2024. He is a member of Alarm Will Sound and has been a long-time member of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has toured internationally as a performer with Tyondai Braxton’s HIVE and participated in the world premieres of over a hundred new works. He is a graduate of UCLA and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Mitchell Peters and Daniel Druckman.

Curvise (they/them) is a joyously queer and autistic professional software engineer specializing in web technology, primarily TypeScript. Based in Texas, Curvise is also an amateur photographer with a passion for capturing images of small invertebrates. They enjoy reading, playing games, writing and worldbuilding, and building/designing mechs. Curvise opposes the continuation of war in Gaza and the actions taken against Palestinians.

John T. Maier is a psychotherapist in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also teaches philosophy at Lesley University and Simmons University. He is the author of *The Disabled Will* and *Options and Agency*. His current work revolves around understanding core topics in psychology from a broadly philosophical perspective. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton and has held research and teaching positions at institutions including the University of Colorado, Boulder, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, Cambridge University, and Peking University.

Yakka.space is maintained by an individual who describes themself as an old man still improving their typing skills. They have a large e-book collection and enjoy finding solutions to technical problems, often documenting their process of "doing it the hard way." They are interested in topics like Home Assistant, energy monitoring, and securing digital communications through encryption. They can be contacted via encrypted email.

Jacob Tender is a full stack web developer working in northeastern Ohio. He builds web experiences for brands, focusing on consumer and business UX. He is on his cloud journey in AWS and uses his design experience. Jacob has an AA in Music Industry Management and a BS in Computer Information Systems and Computer Programming. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, writing, camping, hiking, kayaking, and climbing. His interests include technology, film, and design. He has a history in the entertainment and technology industries, including roles in music blogs, publicity, and podcasting.

Phillip Herndon is a philosopher and technologist. He works as a product manager at National Geographic and maintains a Medium blog. His interests include building pro-social technologies and communities, as well as philosophical topics like responsible technology, business ethics, and moral responsibility.

Melvin Laguren is an experienced software engineering leader with over two decades of experience. He specializes in quality assurance, test automation, and engineering management. Melvin began his career as a support engineer and transitioned into software testing. He has advanced into leadership roles, managing and mentoring engineering teams. Melvin contributes to the tech community through public speaking and shares insights on his personal website and blog, focusing on software engineering and quality assurance.

Juan is a software engineer based in Santa Cruz, CA. Born in southern Spain, he has lived and worked in Barcelona, London, and New York City. He has worked as a software engineer for companies such as Dailymotion and Flipboard. He enjoys travel and writes about his experiences, as well as random thoughts and reflections. He also writes in multiple languages.

Tim Graettinger is a data scientist by profession, a writer by habit, and a lifelong student. He enjoys collecting, exploring, visualizing, and modeling data, and writes code to do so. He uses data to ask better questions and engage with the world. On his website, he writes about his attempts to figure things out using data and code, exploring topics such as water use during a drought, solar power, and Toastmasters club meeting locations.

Mathew Brown is an engineering leader. He is passionate about using technology to create positive social impact. Currently, he is the Director of Software Engineering at nVoq. He writes about topics such as productivity and reading.

Coy A. Lothrop is a fine artist, screenwriter, college educator, and treasure finder living in Northeast Texas. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but has spent most of his life in East Texas. He holds associate degrees in Advertising & Graphic Design and Fine Arts, attended the Royal College of Art in London, and graduated from the University of North Texas. He earned his Master of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Tyler. Lothrop has taught at Kilgore College for 25 years, where he is a Professor of Visual Arts. He is passionate about connecting people through art and helping students find their voice. He is also a horror movie buff, a video game nerd, and an avid outdoorsman.

Raven Winters is a nurse, photographer, and Linux enthusiast. She identifies as a trans girl and practices relationship anarchism. Raven is a vegan for the animals, a leftist, and a union steward. She enjoys outdoor activities and considers herself a silly adventurer. She creates free-to-use photography, mostly landscapes, and shares her thoughts and experiences on her website and Mastodon. Raven has many interests and strives to experience new things.

Brad Sukala is the Owner and Managing Partner of Fabrik Labs Media. Located in the Philadelphia area, he enjoys leading diverse teams to create engaging digital product and operational experiences. His strengths include providing structure to teams, establishing digital product strategy, and designing complex business systems. Travel is a passion, and he finds visiting new places and observing different ways of life fascinating.

Matthew Porter is part of the Porter family, along with Courtney, Avery, Gabriel, and Owen. He writes about topics such as AI governance, company culture, and personal development on PorterHome.com. He reflects on past experiences at companies like Contegix, IBM Global Services, and NetFactor Technologies LLC to provide insights on technology, policy, and human behavior in the workplace. He emphasizes the importance of intentionality, governance, and aligning organizational behavior with stated values.