Some amiable-looking guy with glasses Dan Blumenfeld, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, photo by the author

Personal Information

Hi, I'm Dan. I'm a jack-of-all-trades techie with a passion for tinkering and a tendency towards verbosity (and frequent parenthetical digression).

Nice to meet you!

I was born in York, Pennsylvania (USA) in 1976, and lived on a small farm until I came to Pittsburgh for college in 1994.

College didn't last long, but I liked the city enough that I've lived there ever since, and will likely be here at least until my children are grown.

I entered the tech industry through a less-traditional path than many of my colleagues, and occasionally wish I'd gotten more of a grounding in fundamentals like algorithms and data structures, but I'm happy with where I stand today.

I love making things. I write code for a living because I can better support my family that way than by being a blacksmith; but it's the underlying act of creation that matters most to me rather than the details of whether it's digital or corporeal.

Profile

Professional

As a software engineer, I'm passionate about process and automation. I don't subscribe to any particular dogma regarding the "best" programming languages, software development processes, agile practices, or much of anything; my experience has taught me that every team, and every project, is different and warrants different approaches.


That said, I do believe in certain core principles for software systems: keeping processes repeatable (generally through automation), keeping them understandable(self-documenting code, peer reviews, DRY and YAGNI), and keeping them stable(IaC, active monitoring, regularly tested disaster recovery plans).


I've been moving away from traditional software engineering and into cybersecurity and DevSecOps for the past year or so, and am enjoying it immensely. I intend to continue this professional trajectory for the foreseeable future.

Skills and Tools

Certifications and Credentials

After Hours

I'm a bit of a cycling nut. I enjoy riding recumbent bikes over excessively long distances, as well as administering the Pittsburgh chapter of Randonneurs USA and serving on the board of a local bike club.


In order to shift gears from cerebral creative efforts, I enjoy working with my hands, such as simple household repairs, landscaping, carpentry, bicycle maintenance, or light fabrication via welding or 3D printing.


Recently, I've been focusing on home automation: nothing crazy, just using Home Assistant to control various devices via WiFi or ZWave.


I sporadically foster kittens for one local shelter, and help foster dogs for another.


And, to ward off boredom in my children, I've been known to run the odd TTRPG.

Work Experience

Tobii Dynavox, October 2008 - present

Senior Software Engineer (Cloud Services), June 2022 - present

In June of 2022, I officially left the Congenital team to become the first engineer in the new Cloud Services group. There, I took on responsibility for several new and ongoing projects, including:

Senior Software Engineer (Firefighting, Web+DevOps), March 2019 - June 2022

In early 2019, I informally transferred over to the Education team to assist with the biggest application rewrite in the company's history, in order to use my knowledge of access methods such as eye tracking and scanning to help them finish their implementation. This allowed me to learn a bit about integrating managed code (C#) with Javascript in Electron apps, although much of what we learned was "don't do it".


Then, due to losses of several key personal in the Congenital, Web, and Education teams, I spent the next two years helping to keep three separate-but-related product lines afloat.

Senior Software Engineer, October 2008 - March 2019

I came to Dynavox (before acquisition by Tobii) in October of 2008, and spent the next ten years working on various hardware products using C# and C++.

McKesson Automation, September 1999-October 2008

Senior Software Engineer/Software Engineering Technical Lead

Software Engineer (Internal IT Systems)

Level Two Support Engineer

Odd Jobs, Spring 1995-September 1999

Assistant Network Administrator, DCS Systems

My introduction to the tech industry. As the exceeding junior third member of a consulting group, I helped to administer a Windows 95 network for a local nonprofit.

Retail Sales and Education, Tandy Leather

Taught Cub Scouts and church groups basic leatherworking, sold leatherworking tools and materials.

Line Cook, Silky's Sports Bar and The Crow's Nest

Here, I learned that fast and good are not mutually exclusive, but it takes effort to produce both.