ammmir

Remote: Yes / No

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Go (golang), node.js, Erlang/Elixir, Rust, Swift, Objective-C, C, C++, JavaScript, Cocoa, Win32, SwiftUI, iOS Network Extension, Ruby on Rails, Terraform, Vault, AWS, Packer, VPN, IPsec, IKEv2, WireGuard, OpenVPN, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, HTTP, QUIC, UDP, security, X.509, TLS

Résumé/CV: https://amirmalik.net/resume

Email: amir@amirmalik.net

I have 10+ years of experience building and managing software projects. I thrive in roles where I can architect solutions, prototype, and bring ideas from concept to prototype to production. I love interacting with customers using the product, as I find the user feedback loop extremely fulfilling. I also enjoy full-stack engineering projects that involve more than just slapping a React UI on top of a GraphQL API (not that there's anything fundamentally wrong with it :) I'm not big on specific languages or frameworks, as they can be learned by most competent engineers in a short amount of time.

It turns out someone wrote a tutorial on how to automate COVID-19 appointment slot bookings and used KVdb to store SMS OTP codes. Never expected it, but a great surprise. Long tail of SaaS is just wonderful :)

It wasn't as fast as something like mod_perl [1], but much easier to integrate with quickly hacked scripts, as long as you were lexically scoping everything with my() and not screwing up your globals. Fun times.

[1] https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=108008

I have 10+ years of experience building software and can help you solve your business problems. I'm available for the next 4 weeks for a challenging project (part or full time), so if you’re in the need for a CTO-for-hire or a full-stack professional with a wide range of experience, please reach out!

Email: amir@amirmalik.net

Resume: https://amirmalik.net/resume

Buzzwords: Go (golang), node.js, Erlang/Elixir, Rust, Swift, Objective-C, C, C++, JavaScript, Cocoa, Win32, SwiftUI, iOS Network Extension, Ruby on Rails, Terraform, Vault, AWS, Packer, VPN, IPsec, IKEv2, WireGuard, OpenVPN, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, HTTP, QUIC, UDP

Matrix isn't the answer. That's like saying just use SMTP for email.

The slackification of Keybase did not lead to a viable business model, unfortunately. In fact, it's such a no brainer, I can't wait for someone to build Keybase 2.0. It might not be a VC enterprise, but could be a great lifestyle business for a small team.

Full-disclosure, I also develop a "competing" (if you can call it that) service: https://kvdb.io - my landing page isn't as nice. Our buckets offer some atomic operations on keys and Lua-based scripting (you can spit out arbitrary text or HTML and handle basic GET/POST requests with parameter parsing), which might be useful for prototyping.

You should figure out how to sustain this kind of service on $FREE. In my experience, I've found a lot of people sign up but don't use it for anything serious. One of my first customers signed up and demanded a refund immediately after he discovered "oh, your simple key-value store doesn't support SQL queries?"

Good luck!

I have 10+ years of experience building software and can help you solve your business problems. For the past 5 years, I’ve been in the VPN and cybersecurity space, but I’m open to projects in all areas, and eager to learn about other industries. I don’t follow the latest development fads, but rather, I try to understand how to create more value for your business with technology, and work with you to truly understand your business and product.

If you’re in the need for a CTO-for-hire for a short or long term project and a professional with a wide range of experience, please reach out via email: amir AT pilvy DOT com

I recently blogged about the backend architecture of a project I built a while back, check it out: https://amirmalik.net/2019/11/06/technical-architecture-of-k...

Resume: https://www.pilvy.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik/ | https://github.com/ammmir

Languages & technologies: Go (golang), Erlang/Elixir, Swift, Objective-C, C, C++, JavaScript, Cocoa, node.js, Ruby on Rails

Shameless plug: if anyone's looking for a key-value pair API with a more rich API with support for buckets, access control, and server-side scripts, check out https://kvdb.io (disclaimer: I built it)

Tried and true principles and architectures will outlive any libraries. Remember, React is only 6 years old, do you think new projects will use React in another 6 years? Remember Meteor framework that was all the rage 7 years ago? I don't know anyone using it for new projects. It's the natural cycle of development. Don't get emotional about frameworks.

If anything, build _your own framework_. I don't mean a competitor to React or whatnot, but your own set of tools that can be reused over time across projects. Back in the days before jQuery, people were doing DOM manipulation themselves and everyone built their own wrappers around the DOM. Nowadays, I notice too many people reach for a framework without thinking about what they even want to accomplish.

At the end of the day, "best" is always subjective, relative to your own experience and expectations. For what it's worth, I used to be a node.js developer in the pre-1.0 days and switched to Rails, Elixir, Go, but I'll probably use node for my next project since it's super easy to get stuff running in messy JavaScript compared to something statically typed like Go. In most cases, performance is moot for projects without users. Hell, a CGI script written in Bash could rival the performance of modern web frameworks.

I'm a product engineer and systems architect with 10+ years of experience building software and solving business problems. I recently left my full-time gig and have been focusing on side projects, but thought I'd put out some feelers on HN and see what else is out there :)

My most recent product is https://kvdb.io a hosted key-value database and app platform. It has a few hundred users, a pretty diverse group of developers. It got a bit of a controversial launch on HN (see the blog if you're curious), but I'm powering through it :) Previously, I was heavily involved in the VPN space, building custom VPN SDKs, clients, servers, DPI tools, etc.

I'm really open to all new projects in any space and technology, so please feel free to reach out if you think I may be of help, email amir@pilvy.com

If you like links, check these out:

KVdb Tech Blog: https://blog.kvdb.io

My company: https://www.pilvy.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik

GitHub: https://github.com/ammmir

You mean Xiaomi?

Sorry, but you're going to have to provide us a little more evidence when making these kinds of allegations. Don't all successful companies copy and steal? Nothing is really original nowadays, and hasn't been for hundreds of years. Shoulders of giants and all.

If each LTE terminal has a publicly routable IP, unless it's statefully firewalled, any random Internet user who can figure out my IP can run up my data bill, or packet me and inflict a Denial of Service. I remember long ago, some mobile operators in the U.S. were assigning public (non-firewalled) public IPv4 IPs to mobile devices... Attackers were literally scanning Sprint's mobile IP ranges for open port 22 and logging in over SSH as root/aspen to hack jailbroken iPhones!

[1] https://kvdb.io/docs/scripting

But yeah, they could have improved on diffing the data or even leveraging the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. Seems lazy.

I've been working on a similar project, although not optimized specifically for JSON, but rather a generic key-value store with a focus on server-side scripting: https://kvdb.io

It seems like a lot of these storage as a service offerings have been popping up over the past few years because there's something about Mongo/Dynamo/etc. that could be simplified even further. I don't quite know what it is, but it feels like developer ergonomics (i.e., API) and ease of deployment (i.e., nothing to manage) are the big ones.

> NOTE: Due to a temporary restriction in CMD.EXE, it is not possible to use the DIR command on a UNC pathname, as in DIR \ \BIGSERVE\ANYNAME. This will be fixed in a future release. The DosFindFirst API call will accept UNC pathnames.

I always wondered about this... apparently the restriction carried over to the Windows port and was never fixed... maybe they didn't want to bloat cmd.exe with needing to "NET USE" UNC paths behind the scenes? Who knows!

Private Business Network (brought to you by the makers of the PIA VPN service) is building a next-generation cyber security solution for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN (On/Off), but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun for the right candidate: cross-platform apps, user management, SSO, billing, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Our infrastructure is managed with Packer, Terraform, and Docker and we use both AWS and bare metal hosting providers. We're strong believers in a "less is more" philosophy and still use Makefiles and shell scripts with a sprinkle of Python in our build process.

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)
    * Familiarity with Curve25519, ECDH, secret sharing, WireGuard, osquery, MDM, etc. are a huge plus!

Please email jobs@privatebusiness.network with "Private Business Network Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking!

Private Business Network (brought to you by the makers of the PIA VPN service) is building a next-generation cyber security solution for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN (On/Off), but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun for the right candidate: cross-platform apps, user management, SSO, billing, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Our infrastructure is managed with Packer, Terraform, and Docker and we use both AWS and bare metal hosting providers. We're strong believers in a "less is more" philosophy and still use Makefiles and shell scripts with a sprinkle of Python in our build process.

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)
    * Familiarity with Curve25519, ECDH, secret sharing, WireGuard, osquery, MDM, etc. are a huge plus!

Please email jobs@privatebusiness.network with "Private Business Network Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking!

Private Business Network (brought to you by the makers of the PIA VPN service) is building a next-generation cyber security solution for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN (On/Off), but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun for the right candidate: cross-platform apps, user management, SSO, billing, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Our infrastructure is managed with Packer, Terraform, and Docker and we use both AWS and bare metal hosting providers. We're strong believers in a "less is more" philosophy and still use Makefiles and shell scripts with a sprinkle of Python in our build process.

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)
    * Familiarity with Curve25519, ECDH, secret sharing, WireGuard, osquery, MDM, etc. are a huge plus!

Please email jobs@privatebusiness.network with "Private Business Network Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking!

BusinessVPN is building a next-generation cybersecurity solution for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN (On/Off), but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun for the right candidate: cross-platform apps, user management, SSO, billing, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Our infrastructure is managed with Packer, Terraform, and Docker and we use both AWS and bare metal hosting providers. We're strong believers in a "less is more" philosophy and still use Makefiles and shell scripts with a sprinkle of Python in our build process.

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)
    * Familiarity with Curve25519, ECDH, secret sharing, WireGuard, osquery, MDM, etc. are a huge plus!

Please email jobs@businessvpn.com with "BusinessVPN Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking!

BusinessVPN is building a next-generation cybersecurity solution for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN (On/Off), but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun for the right candidate: cross-platform apps, user management, SSO, billing, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Our infrastructure is managed with Packer, Terraform, and Docker and we use both AWS and traditional hosting providers. We're strong believers in a "less is more" philosophy and still use Makefiles and shell scripts with a sprinkle of Python in our build process.

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)
    * Familiarity with Curve25519, ECDH, secret sharing, WireGuard, osquery, MDM, etc. are a huge plus!

Please email jobs@businessvpn.com with "BusinessVPN Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking!

BusinessVPN is building the next-generation secure network for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN, but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun and varied: cross-platform considerations, user management, SSO, payment API, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Requirements:

    * Cross-platform (native or hybrid) app development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
    * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
    * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
    * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)

Please email jobs@businessvpn.com with "BusinessVPN Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking and Happy New Year!

BusinessVPN is building the next-generation secure network for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN, but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients, as well as an Elixir engineer to work on our Phoenix web app and control plane API. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun and varied: cross-platform considerations, user management, SSO, payment API, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Requirements (Go):

  * Cross-platform Go development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
  * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
  * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
  * Experience containerizing applications using Docker (e.g., Kubernetes concepts desired!)

  * Proficiency with Elixir, Phoenix, and Ecto frameworks
  * Experience running an Elixir application in production
  * Solid HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills
  * Experience with Distillery, Erlang/OTP concepts, and AWS a huge plus!

Please email jobs@businessvpn.com with "BusinessVPN Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for looking and best of luck!

BusinessVPN is building the next-generation secure network for SMBs that want the ease-of-use of a consumer VPN, but need centralized management, powerful web filtering, and end-to-end encrypted audit logging.

We are growing the team and adding an Elixir engineer to work on our Phoenix web app and control plane API, and a Golang engineer to work on our custom VPN framework for the server and cross-platform clients. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new B2B SaaS offering and to directly influence the product. The work is challenging, but fun and varied: cross-platform considerations, user management, SSO, payment API, end-to-end secrets/key management, device management, application delivery, to name a few!

Requirements (Elixir):

  * Proficiency with Elixir, Phoenix, and Ecto frameworks
  * Experience running an Elixir application in production
  * Solid HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills
  * Experience with Distillery, Erlang/OTP concepts, and AWS a huge plus!

  * Cross-platform Go development experience (macOS, Windows, Linux)
  * Familiar with network protocol design, C10K problem, and Go garbage collector highly desired
  * Secure systems design experience is a nice to have (cryptography, AWS KMS, Secrets Manager, etc.)
  * Experience containerizing applications using Docker

Please email jobs@businessvpn.com with "BusinessVPN Application" in the subject line and include your current resume, links to shipping apps or code you are most proud of. Thanks for your interest!

"Build it and they will come"

I spent a couple of days in Songdo and this was my experience, quite eery walking around at night, with nearly no cars. I almost started to miss the crowds of Seoul. Hopefully in a few years it will have a sense of community, something that can't be built with the typical ppalli-ppalli fashion. Smart cities everywhere seem to be plagued by this.

Please add GitHub, Trello, etc. integrations that developers and tech types commonly use.

You know what would be cool? !service bang search options like Duck Duck Go has for jumping to specific search results.

A few issues I found:

* I created my first memory and I couldn't find it again. I then created a second one and only then did they both show up in the search results.

* You should warn the user if there is another app using the Option-Space shortcut

* Command-W doesn't work with the Settings window open

The app icon reminds me of the old Motif color scheme from back in the day.

Nice work!

For the average consumer who wants a VPN, it's risky to only use a hardware device (transparent VPN) since there is no protection against IP leaks caused by the OS or something else messing with the routing tables. Maybe as a network-based last layer of defense, but not primary. I'm sure you've encountered Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections deprioritizing and causing routes to flip without the user's knowledge. How do you deal with this?

For businesses who want to a secure PnP solution to connect multiple sites together with a transport protected by hardware keys, sounds like a great solution. No need to shell out for bulky hardware VPN gear.