Since 2016 I have been a member of the cloud team and helped transition ExtraHop from an on-prem performance company to an industry-leader in cloud-native security.

I help design, implement, and operate the systems which ensure secure communication and operation of ExtraHop services.

Everyone should have the opportunity to bring their ideas to life. For some people this requires just a computer and a flat work surface. For others however, more infrasructure may be required …like tablesaws, and welders.

At our home on Orcas Island, I am fortunate enough to have lots of tools and space. My question now is how to open those up to my wonderful community in a way that is safe and sustainable. I don’t have all the answers for this project yet, but it is a goal I am working towards.

Inspiration:

• Makerspaces, such as Artisan’s Asylum
• Tool libraries, such as the NE Seattle Tool Library, where I was on the steering committee while I lived in Seattle.
• Cooperative organizations, where the business exists only to serve the people.
• MMM HQ - coworking meets makerspace.
• Anacortes Cottage Hobby House

The Orcas Food Co-op is a local business, providing healthy, local, organic food to the community of Orcas Island, and several surrounding islands. As a co-op, our goals are set by the membership, and we strive to be an exemplar business with livable wages, equitable and affordable access, zero-waste, and local products. As we finish off 2020 the co-op is growing faster than ever, with several expansion projects underway.

As a member of the board, the community has elected me to help the co-op realize those goals they set. I work closely with the general manager to review the financial health of the business, and participate in monthly meetings with the management staff to strategize how the co-op can continue to better serve our island communities.

Ever since the Obsidian team released the beta public API, plugin development has been a major component of my morning routine. Developing plugins not only shapes this tool to better suite my needs, but also teaches me more about UI development than I ever expected. At this point I am very comfortable with TypeScript, Svelte, and React, and even becoming more comfortable with CSS.

I couldn’t be happier with what these projects have helped me achieve, and greatly enjoy this part of my morning every day.

Take a look at the plugins I have created at grosinger.dev.

I am an avid proponent of maintaining a personal wiki, or personal knowledge base. This can be as simple as a paper journal, or as complicated as programs like DEVONthink and ROAM Research. Over the last 10 years I have experimented with nearly a dozen approaches, but the last few have been fairly minor tweaks.

To reduce the wiki churn, I realized I needed a method which could be easily converted into any format in the future, was universally supported, and was relatively extensible. I tried out org-mode for a while, but even with Evil mode, I didn’t enjoy spending time in emacs.

I completed what I hope to be my last wiki migration over the 2020 summer, switching to Markdown. It’s simple, it’s used everywhere, and it seems to be gaining ground in the personal wiki space rapidly. But leaving org-mode did have some shortfalls. It has amazing utilities for editing tables.

Building off of the excellent library started by susisu, I have been working on adding advanced features to tables in Markdown. With an editor that has this library incorporated (often possible though a plugin), Markdown tables become nearly as powerful as they are in org-mode. Automatic formatting, adding/moving/removing columns, sorting, and now even some spreadsheet capabilities are all possible in plain-text Markdown tables.

I hope this enables you to make the jump to a Markdown-based wiki.

I recommend Obsidian.

For the last several years I have been using the GergoPlex keyboard. I love the ultra-thin profile, and the perfect balance it achieves with having just the right number of keys. That being said, there are a couple of changes I’ve wanted to make.

My first new keyboard, Chrysemys, is very heavily inspired by the GergoPlex, however it is a single piece rather than two half boards connected with a cable. I have also moved the thumb keys out towards the center a bit, added Bluetooth connectivity, and used even thinner switches. This board is an experiment, and has allowed me to learn a tremendous amount about designing circuits and keyboards specifically. I imagine there will be many more custom keyboards in my future.

Some ideas I want to experiment with:

• Adding an optical encoder and roller bearings to support a track ball.
• Adding a salvaged TrackPoint under the right hand index finger (obviously not on the same keyboard as the trackball).
• Integrate the MCU into the board, rather than using a separate socketed board.

Craigslist does not work on Orcas Island. It does not understand that even though Bellingham is only a couple miles away, it takes 2 hours to get there. On the island most people use a Buy, Sell, Trade group on Facebook instead.

This project started off as just the desire to use Craigslist without needing to use Facebook. I certainly have problems with Facebook, but the group just does not work very well for our needs! Orcashub is custom built for the needs of the island, and can be adapted as our needs evolve over time.

As the project matures I plan to also add mailing list and possibly a newsletter or events list feature as well. We’ll see what the community asks for.

Visit the site.

Help support the development.

More details to come as my role develops.