My name is Faye Williams, and I create all the tutorials on this site. I’m based in Hampshire in the UK.

I write accessible, friendly, and easy to read guides that will never be boring or make you want to tear your hair out in frustration.

I also send out a technical post in my newsletter every Tuesday at 8am GMT.

How did you end up doing this?

I’ve worked on embedded systems running variants of Linux for over a decade. Eventually I started a blog to record little how-tos that I thought others might find useful.

That was almost four years ago, now it’s my full-time job.

Got any formal qualifications?

Yup. A masters degree in Software Engineering, awarded with distinction ;-). Oh, and a handy degree in Economics.

For those of you that want to know a little bit more about me, read on…

Early Days

I wrote my first program on my Dad’s BBC Microcomputer – remember those?

No?

Oh.

Now I feel old.

Growing up, computing wasn’t really the done thing at school, but we always had one at home, along with games consoles like the Megadrive, Saturn and PlayStation, so I guess my love of all things geek comes from those days. My Dad is an engineer too, so he was always busy building, fixing and sometimes even inventing.

Early Career

I did Economics at university, and after that I worked at, of all things, a publishing start-up in London.

However, I think my love affair with computers was just meant to be. I fell into helping out with the company website when our webmaster unexpectedly left. Then, when we finally got a replacement, and I had to hand the website back over, I realised that I liked working with the internet more than I liked being a print editor.

So, a friend recommended me for a job as an online editor at another company, and from there I progressed to being a content manager for another startup website.

For a while, I toyed with the idea of Microsoft courses and certification, dabbled in a bit of Java development, and did a short course in C++ programming.

Software Engineering

I loved the C++ course so much I dropped my hours to part-time and went back to university to complete a masters in Software Engineering. I discovered Linux, open source software and a world of freedom in programming. It was amazing.

After I graduated, I got my first ‘proper’ software engineering job at an enterprise storage company.

And the rest, so they say, is history.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend over a decade working on embedded systems, in both the UK and the US, even freelancing for some of that time as a C++/Linux consultant.

Some of the things I’ve loved:

• Working on the Sony Cell Processor (PS3 chip).
• Living just down the road from Apple HQ in Cupertino.
• Visiting the Microsoft campus in Seattle (my only Windows-based development experience!)
• Attending a plugfest for RAID drivers.
• Debugging a project with 2.3 million lines of code (yup).
• Managing amazing outsourced developers in Russia and Poland.
• The creation of a hardware emulator for a team of 17 while waiting for prototype delivery.
• The opportunity to work on so many Linux variants.
• Working with so many super-clever software engineers.
• Greenfield development on cutting edge RAID products.
• Code porting from ARM9 to Linux.
• Code porting from Windows to Linux.
• Code porting from GameOS to Linux.
• I’ve done a lot of code porting, and I still love it!

And some of the platforms and processors I’ve worked on:

• Linux: Yellow Dog, MontaVista, Fedora, Gentoo, Red Hat
• Solaris
• ThreadX
• ARM 7, ARM 9, PPC405
• Cell Broadband Engine Architecture
• Intel, Intel Dual Core

And debuggers I’ve used:

• GDB
• Greenhills
• Lauterback
• Visual Studio 6!
• And lots more GDB…

Oh, I could go on and on.

But you get the picture right?

I truly love programming and computers.

I started this site just to share little bits and pieces in a way that was accessible and easy to read.

Now I get to pick and choose what I write about and share it with you.

I am a very happy developer indeed, and I really hope that I can help you in your journey to create better software :-).

Updated: 20 May 2015
Written by: Faye Williams