Snooping are we? Just joking, glad you're here. I'm Brenden, an IT professional and developer with more hobbies than I can remember. I created this website because I found myself using its predecessor every single day at work. The previous version was hacked together with overlapping CSS elements and lacked many features that made it less of a one-stop shop for device troubleshooting.
I caught the technology bug at a very young age, taking apart my toys in 2nd and 3rd grade to see how they worked. While my parents weren't too happy to see the new Christmas presents in pieces, every component taught me more about electronics. At age 12, my interests shifted to programming. I bought Petit Computer from the 3DS eShop - a Turing-complete BASIC interpreter with a decent graphics engine. If taking apart electronics was the gasoline, this was the match.
The program had a built-in manual documenting every function, though with varying completeness. The challenge was that the manuals were definitely written by programmers, so the explanations were over my head. Additionally, I usually didn't have internet access while using my 3DS. I found that by reading EVERYTHING repeatedly, I could slowly grasp the different concepts and grow my knowledge. By age 13, I had created FOCS (File Opening Calculating System).
Throughout life, I've continued learning everything I could about computers and electronics. Some highlights include:
Recently, I've been diving into engine tuning, reverse engineering proprietary embedded protocols, and even starting the process of converting my car into a hybrid (definitely my craziest project so far!), and of course this website.
It's easy to feel like you haven't done enough with your life, even with a substantial digital footprint. There's always more to learn and never enough time to learn it all. If I had to give advice, it would be:
"Never stop learning."
"Everyone has something you can learn from them"
The Dunning-Kruger effect is difficult to avoid, but remember that no matter what field you're in, there's always more to learn. My "curse" is that if something's right in front of me and I don't understand it, I won't stop until I get as close as I can to total knowledge of it (or lose interest).
To me, the idea of just driving my car is terrifying - I want to know exactly how the power is made, how injection timing changes with throttle input, how much torque the gearbox can handle, and whether I can still stop the car if the brake booster loses vacuum. This curiosity has saved me thousands in mechanic fees (though a lift would help save even more)!
I hope none of this comes off as pretentious. My worst fear is people closing themselves off because they think I'm "smart" - I'm not. I've just put time into some hobbies, and I definitely still make mistakes. The things I've done and learned are within everyone's grasp.