Khürt Williams

In 1966, I was born in the former British Overseas Territory of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Saint. Vincent and the Grenadines became an independent nation from the United Kingdon on 27^th October 1979 at which point I became a citizen for the first time in my life.

My father was, a banker, and following his career path, we moved around between the islands. During that time, I lived in a few other British Caribbean islands, including Saint Lucia and Barbados, where my baby brother was born. We were able to travel and live between island countries because of their membership in the [Commonwealth of Nations](Commonwealth of Nations).

In the late 70s and early '80s, during my teenage years, I lived in Antigua and Barbuda. In the mid-80s, my family moved again to St. Vincent, where I finished high school and completed my O-levels and A-levels. We also lived for a few months on Saint Kitts and Nevis. From all the moving around, I experienced a different West Indian culture on each island, much of which influences who I am today. I broadly consider myself, West Indian with no particular allegiance to any island.

However, when Antigua and Barbuda was granted independence from the UK on 1 November 1981, I participated in independence day ceremonies and obtained the privilege to apply for citizenship of that nation.

My family emigrated to the USA in 1986, so I could attend college. I became a citizen of the United States of American in 1992.

I’m an information security professional, Apple geek, web developer, and avid photographer. This weblog is where I share my incoherent and random thoughts and rants about technology, photography, coffee, diabetes, and life.

I love drinking craft ale and freshly brewed coffee. I buy fresh beans every few days from a local organic fair trade retailer and brew at home. I grind the beans myself, and brewing using either a French Press or Chemex pour over with an Able Kone filter. I don’t drink Starbucks.

There are two excellent craft ale breweries within 15-20 minutes in local traffic of my home. Between the Troon Brewing and Flounder Brewing, I am privileged to some highly-rated New England style IPA, American Pale ales, and porters. A little further out is Conclave Brewing, which makes super delicious and The Referend Bier Blendery, which produces spontaneously fermented ales in the Belgian tradition. I don’t drink Budweiser, and I rarely buy retail.

Work

My first ten years of my career was as research and development and web application development. I coded up backend solutions for various financial services and pharmaceutical companies. I mostly used Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, and PHP. The next ten were spent information security doing vulnerability assessments, log management, security awareness, security architecture, compliance, and advisory for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Since 2013, I have worked independently at Monkey Hill, LLC, a consultancy I started in 2013 after my role at Squibb was eliminated. My current work is in information security architecture.

Computers

The journey from Commodore VIC-20/Commodore 64 (1981÷1985) to DOS PC (1986) to Microsoft Windows PC (1990) to UNIX/SunOS/Solaris (1992) to Linux (1994) to Apple Macintosh (2005) took twenty-four years. I bought my first Mac, a Mac mini, in 2005, and fell in love with OS X, a Unix with a world-class GUI. Soon after buying that first Mac, I bought a MacBook, then an iPad Touch, then an iMac. Later the iPad was released in 2010, and I had to have one that same week. Then I bought my first iPhone (2012) and then an Apple TV.

The iPad is my go-to computer, but I use my iMac heavily for photo editing. I’m an app junky, and you can find many iOS and OS app reviews on this blog.

I also do exciting projects with the Raspberry Pi. It’s the smallest and cheapest Linux server I have ever owned.

Programming Languages

I started with Commodore BASIC in 1981, learned Pascal during a college course in 1986, and taught myself awk/sed/bash (1992) and Perl (1997), followed by PHP (2001) and JavaScript (2002). I've taken Java and Objective C courses but didn't use either language, and I have not written code professionally since 2013.

Science Fiction

Although that’s not reflected in the content in this blog, I love science fiction, especially cyberpunk, and Japanese animation and superhero graphic novels and dystopian futures and the name of the website, Island in the Net, is taken from a book, Islands in the Net, written in 1988 by a science fiction author, Bruce Sterling. It is a story of data pirates, mercenaries, nanotechnology, weaponry, and post-millennial voodoo. It represents a future where people can use the Internet to topple governments, change lives, and make history.

I read too few books these days.

Photography

As with the majority of photographers my age, I began with a 35mm film camera (1988). But in 2006 I switched to digital. The digital revolution has made photography more accessible.

My photography adventure started circa 1987 when I took a fine art photography class in college. I bought my first camera, a Pentax P3 with an SMC Pentax 50mm f/2 lens, and started to abuse Ektachrome and Tri-X film and develop my own prints in the college darkroom. At that time I sheepishly admit I shot anything and everything. I didn’t pick up a camera seriously again until 2006 when I bought a Nikon D40 and kit lens. I had exhausted what was possible on my point-n-shoot Sony digital camera. I stuck with Nikon, upgrading to new bodies every few years, until 2018 when the I realised I could no longer resist the lustful design of the Fuji X series. I bought a Fujifilm X-T2 and Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR.

I photograph mostly landscapes and nature, but more recently, I have tried my hand at street photography. There is an obscure word, nemophilist, that refers to someone with love for forests, woods, or woodland scenery and who often visits them. That’s me. I just love being in the outdoors, listening to the sounds of nature–birds, running water, the wind in the trees. For me, it’s a form of therapy, a break from the worries of the world.

I’m an avid photographer, and if the weather suits me, I spend my free time outside increasing my knowledge of landscape and nature photography. I prefer natural light, but I’m comfortable shooting anything that interests me-documentary, long exposure, architecture, wildlife. I take photos regularly both for my self and for others. I do almost all of my editing and exporting from my iMac. As far as gear goes, I alternate between a few cameras:

• iPhone 11 Pro
• Fujifilm X-T2
• Asahi Optical Co. Pentax Spotmatic II (SP II)
• Asahi Optical Co. Pentax ES II

Most of my images are shot with the Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR lens. I have a small collection of legacy 35mm lenses.

• Asahi Optical Co. SMC Takumar 55mm f/2
• Asahi Optical Co. Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 28mm f/3.5
• Soligor Wide-Auto 35mm f/2.8 M42
• Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 MC Telephoto

With my iPhone, I enjoy a kind of casual photography, snapping things and sharing them with my friends and family, and playing around with Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Auto-immune diseases

In 2006, I was diagnosed with Type 1 (LADA) diabetes, an autoimmune type of diabetes. I’m learning to live with it. I have a Medtronic 670G insulin pump and GuardianLink CGMS to help me manage my diabetes. I occasionally post articles about my diabetes tech.

In 2018, I was diagnosed with Graves' thyroid disease and Grave’s eye disease, an autoimmune form of hyperthyroidism. It was a challenge to live with it, so at the end of 2018, I had a thyroidectomy. Graves disease continued to affect my eyes and a year after the thyroidectomy, I had orbital decompression surgery.

History

I remember attending a presentation on open-source software by Richard Stallman. I remember getting my first computer, a Commodore VIC20. I remember learning Commodore (Microsoft) BASIC and writing my first video game. I remember when I upgraded to the Commodore 64 and floppy storage. I remember getting my first IBM compatible DOS PC, an Epson with one floppy disk, and a green CRT monitor. I remember buying and installing a 2400 baud modem so that I could dial into the bulletin board system (BBS). I remember using WordPerfect to write all my term papers. I remember learning Pascal and writing my first text editor.