Sam Boswell

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Personal

Solar-powered and biodegradable, but for best results add coffee, chocolate & whisky.
Prone to jigging along to good music. Daydreams in code. Rebellious but squishy on the inside.
Occasionally effervescent but mostly quiet.
Intermittently climbs walls and wanders around outside..
To ensure lasting use, expose to long hugs by lovely people.
Sometimes mint condition. Free P&P
Warranty not included. May cause some leakage.
Over-uses text-based emoticons :p
INTJ-A / RCOAI / CALM
Want to read more: I keep words at notes.samboswell.tech/blog

Working with me? Have a look at my userguide

Want to chat? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Professional

An entrepreneurial and strategic collaborator who creates impactful value for businesses across industries in software and technology leadership.

Sam leads technology teams at terralayr, an energy tech company providing flexibility-as-a-service through virtual storage capacity to address the massive deficit in global energy storage. He has worked and consulted on technical projects in energy, high-risk cybersecurity, industrial and commercial sectors. His focuses are on engineering for positive impact, building high-performing tech teams, and enterprise-scale software.

Prior to terralayr: VP Engineering at Dare, Engineering Manager at Limejump, Head of Engineering at Device Authority, CTO at Deciphered, CTO at WorkGaps, Lead Engineer at Workgaps, Engineer at Red Hot Penny, Engineer at InSiteTrack

Leadership & Management

Developed and led teams to deliver against goals and objectives, providing intrinsic support with a hands-on approach.

Led with transparency and honesty, displaying professionalism and integrity with sensitive information.

Created a conducive and productive work environment with a strong service delivery culture.

Leveraged a broad skillset with a rounded background across energy, finance, medical, automotive, and industrial sectors.

Participated and consulted in due diligence, M&A and IPO processes.

Key Stakeholder Engagement

Established strong and purposeful collaborations between stakeholders who sometimes have differing agendas.

Engaged external and internal resources to deliver strategies, extend expertise and benefit a wider audience.

Culturally aware with a deep understanding of global markets, successfully engages stakeholders of all backgrounds.

Strong networker with an ability to develop trust through listening, fulfilling promises and looking for win-win partnerships.

Technical & Commercial Acumen

Technical experience includes IoT, Info-Sec, SaaS, AI / ML, Cloud Architecture and Big Data.

Participated critically and consulted on due diligence, M&A, and IPO processes.

Consulting experience across high-risk info-sec, infrastructure, and technical architecture spaces.

Successes in event organisation, public speaking, moderating and as an advisory board member.

Working with me? Have a look at my userguide

Want to chat? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Deciphered

Deciphered is a bespoke software and development company offering clear and flexible solutions to your complicated technology problems.

As one of the founding directors, I lead a technical team in delivering:

Technology Consulting
Bespoke Software
Website Creation
High Risk Info-Sec
eCommerce
Web Applications

Learn more at https://www.deciphered.io

terralayr

terralayr is an energy tech company: creating a cloud platform for clean energy flexibility

terralayr addresses the massive deficit in global energy storage. The over-indexing in generating electricity from renewable energy sources leads to large volatility on the energy grid. The main problem is that wind and solar farms are fluctuating and by definition, unsteady - there is no sun at night, and it is not always windy. This increases the need for flexibility in the form of battery storage systems to balance the grid when supply and demand do not match.

By buying and developing grid-scale storage assets and virtually aggregating them across a layer, we are creating the world's first energy cloud. Imagine AWS for energy. Utilities, SMEs and industrial players use our flexibility-as-a-service, hedging products/power insurance and virtual storage capacity for PV & wind farms.

At terralayr, I lead the technology functions. The work of these teams enables the delivery of energy flexibility-as-a-service, unlocking storage capacity for PV and wind farms.

Learn more at https://www.trlyr.com

Talks and Workshops

Pizza parties and balancing the national grid
The fifth domain: an introduction to cyber-warfare
Speed up your developers
Pillars of IoT Security
How to pass my interviews
AI and Deep Learning
Inside the arrow: the hidden infrastructure of IoT
OPSEC basics
Industrial Cyber Defence workshop
Agile workshops
Lego Serious Play workshops

Want to chat? Book me in for a talk or workshop? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Investing

I invest at seed and angel rounds in companies that are making a positive impact on the world. Learn more at notes.samboswell.tech/efpi

Want to chat? Email me: [email protected] or book some time into my calendar.

Odds and Ends

A collection of other stuff on this domain

Blog - Thoughts, words, micro-essays and photos. notes.samboswell.tech/blog

Notes - collected notes resources and my commonplace book. notes.samboswell.tech

Photos - Augu is Icelandic for "eyes" - pictures I've taken and enjoy: /augu

∞ - an experiment in minimal page content: ∞

Markov chain based Mittani quote bot: /quotegen

Mood sharing chart: /mood

Node toolbox: /nodes

Doctrine mapping tool: /doctrine

Toybox, a collection of computational playthings: /toybox

Uses

I sometimes get messages asking about the specifics of some piece of software or hardware I use. This page is a collection of notes and links to my usual tooling, software, hardware and clothing.

Editor

Visual Studio Code Able to handle remote coding, docker, terminal (bash, powershell, cmd) as well as nice markdown editing! I use the Solarized dark theme and Hack font with extra glyphs patched in using NerdFonts

VS Code Plugins

Bundled along with VS code, I extend it's usage with:
Beautify
Docker
GitLens
Markdown all in one
Material Icon Theme
Minify
Python
GoLang
Rest client
Settings sync

WebApps

Notion This is my go-to information hub: notebooks, databases, tracking, sharing, writing. Handling pretty much any content I can throw at it
SuperhumanFast, effective email client that keeps me ontop of my mails.
Reclaim.ai This tool does a bunch of calendar admin for me: defending and rearanging lunch breaks, GTD tasks and fitness sessions. Massive time and sanity saving effects.
Chrome Remote Desktop works across Chromebook and Windows machines
Discord free community based messaging
Keep virtual, shareable sticky notes, with geolocation and time sensitive reminders
Spotify for music, playlists, podcasts
Feedly allows pulling in multiple RSS feeds into one interface
MyFitnessPal aggregator for fitness, diet and weight tracking
Jira project management
Hemingway App for sanity checking writing style
Figma My go to design and whiteboarding tool.

Desktop Apps

SuperhumanFast, effective email client that keeps me ontop of my mails.
GIMP FOSS Graphic/image manipulation tool
Chrome being well embedded in the Google ecosystem, my browser of choice
Microsoft Powertoys addons for windows inclusing window management, colour pickers and a unified search/launcher

Chrome Extensions

Reddit Enhancement Suite A bunch of tweaks to make reddit a better site
Simplify Gmail Makes gmail look like Inbox(RIP)
uBlock Origin clear up ads and tracking
Dashlane password management
Notion Web Clipper clips content to my reading list in notion

Tech Hardware

Main PC:
CPU: Intel Core i9 10850K
GPU: ASUS GeForce RTX 3070
RAM: 64GB (4x16GB) Corsair Vengeance
Storage: 1TB WD Blue SN550 M.2 PCIe SSD
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B560-F
Cooling: Corsair H150i AIO Cooler (3x120mm Fans)
Case: Carbide Series 175R (1x120mm Fan)

ZenBook Duo 14 - my main laptop. Dual screens remain a force multiplyer for consuming information!
Pixelbook i7 my main personal & portable laptop.
For data work: Google Collab Pro notebooks backed by p2.xlarge and p2.8xlarge EC2 instances

Quad HD 34" Samsung Monitor
2 x Dell 24" portrait monitors
Logitech MX Keys Backlit, easy typing keyboard that can migrate between devices.
Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse
Ruark Audio MR1 MKII Speakers Short, awesome little speakers that slot under the screen.
Audio-Technica ATR2500x-USB Condenser mic for headset free calls and audio recording
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro daily driver headset, very strong wireless and battery life.
Elgato Streamdeck hot keys for my pc, lighting, camera control and timers.
Xbox Elite Series 2 comfortable controller for chilled out game time.
Philips Hue Play light bars bias and ambient lighting behind the monitor.
More information on my desk layout: blog post.

Personal

Pixel Fold
WF-1000XM5 Headphones noise cancelling, comfy enough for all day wear, pocketable
Pixel Watch alerting from phone, heart rate and activity tracking

More information on my EDC blog post.

Clothing

My go-to clothing items - I'm working to build a list of trusted items that are hardy enough to last. Jeans: Levi's Men's 502 Regular Tapered Fit: 32W/32L
T-Shirt: Merino Crew Neck size L
Hoodie: Unbound Merino Black Travel Hoodie
Vest: Patagonia Nano Puff
Daily boots: Fairfax and Favor Trafalgar
Trainers: Allbirds Wool Runner Mizzles
Hiking Boots: Salamon Speed Assault
Shirt: Charles Tyrwhitt White Royal Oxford

Probable Next Purchases

Amazon Wishlist

Unoffice Hours

I’ve been opening my calendar each week for video calls with whoever books a time. It’s been amazing. Thursday is now my favourite day.

I call it Unoffice Hours.

You can book 30 minutes in my calendar here. No agenda is required, no need to mail first.

I set aside a couple hours each Thursday for Unoffice Hours.

Feedback on new ideas, startups and concepts

Informal pitches from people who I might work with in future

Old friends and colleagues reaching out to catch up with what they’re up to

And those are all good, so feel free. I’ll keep this going for a while.

We can have half an hour to talk about whatever you want. If you're curious about how we could work together, we can dig into that. If you're looking to share ideas, or show me your latest project, or just catch up -- let's do that.

Office hours started within universities, with professors opening their doors for drop-ins. You could drop in, ask for advice, try out an idea and get the guidance you needed. These sessions evolved into the tech world - with people opening their calendars for networking and mentoring. These times help to replicate coffee break conversations - the open chats that can lead to the happy unexpected. Sometimes things that are in your head can only be formed into complete ideas over a conversation!

So why un-office hours?

This is the digital equivalent of grabbing a coffee - the “un-office” is a signal of this informality. It’s a place to allow serendipity to unfold.

Unoffice Hours