Since 2013 I've been working on a free application platform called Promontory. It covers the full software development lifecycle and enables me to rapidly develop, deploy, and operate applications that are secure, robust, and durable for a wide variety of use cases.

The only way to go fast, is to go well. Robert C. Martin

I want to help SMEs and public institutions with the automation, digitalization, integration and optimization of their processes by delivering bespoke, carefully crafted applications. It's my credo that these applications should be self-hosted, based on open source software and only depend on external services where necessary.

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Agile Manifesto

My hourly rate for contract work is CHF 150. This is based on the experience, creativity, and extensive toolkit that I bring to any undertaking. I work fully remote, but I'm available for on-site meetings. All work is done by me, and no communication or code is written by GenAI or subcontractors.

My best clients were those I could argue with. It wasn't about winning or being right, it was about doing the best work. Erik Spiekermann

Email me and we'll find a time to talk; no obligation, just curiosity.

2013

From 2001 to 2005 I completed my apprenticeship in "Informatik, Fachrichtung Applikationsentwicklung" at Winterthur Versicherungen (AXA Winterthur). This marked the end of my formal education and the start of a never-ending journey toward becoming a software craftsman.

Between 2005 and 2013 I worked for a few small companies and as a subcontractor for larger companies. In 2013 development started on the first version of my application platform (unimaginatively) called "Platform". I continued to work on this platform between 2014 and 2023 and also delivered applications based on it. In 2023 I started exploratory work on a completely new version of this platform under the slightly more imaginative name "Promontory".

applications

In this context, "application" is defined as any type of software that can be built using the technology stack of Promontory. Meaning a Java-based backend running on Linux and web-based frontends running in any modern browser. Examples include internal tools for employees, customer facing applications, and also glue to integrate existing applications.

contract work

Every undertaking starts by talking to knowledgeable people. Asking questions and my keen perception help me to quickly understand the field, process, and problem at hand. Everything in software design (and solving things in general) is about tradeoffs.

Software needs to start simple. Taking inspiration from the Double Diamond's "Discover, define, develop, deliver" process, a short concept document is created containing the problem statement, requirements, a system overview, and the scope of the first deliverable. Then the iterative process of developing and delivering working software begins. User feedback, reevaluated requirements, and ongoing priorities inform this continuous loop. At some point the application enters a steadier maintenance mode, where feature development stops and only infrequent releases for updating dependencies and bugfixing remain.

On the last day of the month I send out a timesheet together with the invoice for my work, due within 30 days. Everything created under a contract is your property. If you are not satisfied with my work or decide to work with another developer, you are free to do so, and I'll facilitate the transition.

external services

I experimented with AWS (EC2, S3, SQS) around 2008. For smaller applications with predictable usage patterns, it's more cost-effective to use traditional hosting solutions, and there are excellent, self-hostable open source solutions for nearly everything. Everything essential to the operations of a business should ideally not depend on anything outside of its control. The incentives of a large commercial software/SaaS vendor rarely align with the needs of its customers. Using smaller providers carries different risks: they get acquired and then promptly shut down. Choosing a cloud provider or SaaS vendor results in various types of lock-in and a worse price-performance ratio.

GenAI

Developing software has always been about not being restricted by anything except my own imagination. The computer screen is my portal to a sandbox of infinite possibilities and freedom, where a text editor and some programming language binaries are enough to get started on a skyscraper and where I can apply my creativity and precision to a problem, pondering over details and naming things. The older I get, the more I want my work and its results to be autonomous with a minimal set of dependencies, especially on anything touched by commercial interests.

The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Fred Brooks

GenAI is not just a "faster horse", people are actively outsourcing their critical thinking to a mathematical model. A model that is deterministic, but because we are whimsical beings who like a human touch and pulling levers on slot machines, the chatbots we interact with are made nondeterministic. The need to think through a problem takes effort and focus, which causes friction and is an opportunity to learn. Removing all of this is detrimental to our abilities and will cause brain rot.

If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking. Leslie Lamport

AI labs are trying to insert themselves into everything we do and extract as much value as they can. Consuming all of our collective works and selling them back to us as a subscription is peak capitalism. With hyperscalers and AI labs reserving most manufacturing capacity and suppliers deciding to maximize profits by selling to them, we mere consumers are left high and dry. Next up: Can we interest you in underpowered hardware paired with a mandatory cloud subscription? The amount of money spent (and projected to be spent) on data centers (in space!) is comical compared to the value it adds for the general good. If a company's product is directly responsible for a person's death, that company should not exist, and the people responsible need to be found and held criminally accountable. Don't make AI (and previously "the algorithm") the accountability sink. There are also a myriad of other problems like AI psychosis, cognitive biases in the training data, deepfakes and disinformation at scale, power grid capacity, LLMs confabulating and making things up, menial work of data annotators, prompt injection, uses in surveillance and autonomous weapons, and so on.

GenAI is extremely interesting and impressive technology. Pandora's box is open and we have to learn how to use GenAI responsibly. But this ain't it, chief. The enshittification and downfall of the current version of this industry cannot start soon enough.

We build our computers the way we build our cities -- over time, without a plan, on top of ruins. Ellen Ullman