Curious about tech.
Candid about life.

Outlook Down, Teams Disrupted: Microsoft's Friday the 13th Cloud Outage

A November 2026 Outlook and Microsoft 365 outage exposed shared cloud dependencies against a backdrop of Microsoft layoffs, soaring AI investment and rising profits.

NVIDIA in Damage Control, Jensen Huang Resigns: The Human Cost of Leadership and the Fragility of the AI Economy

Jensen Huang's NVIDIA departure tests the AI economy's founder dependence, governance and financing. Compassion matters, and so does accountability.

Broke at 35, 45 or 55: The Cost of a Broken Social Contract

Starting over financially should not be a permanent way of life. Housing insecurity, later-life hardship and Europe's protests demand more than budgeting advice.

Interviewed Online, Promoted in Person?

Remote interviews make hiring more accessible. But do Australian workplaces offer the same access to relationships, recognition and career progression?

The Cloud Keeps Breaking. So Why Are Tech Workers Still Being Laid Off?

From delivering Uber Eats during CrowdStrike to recurring cloud outages: why essential infrastructure work coexists with tech layoffs, tighter money and rising AI expectations.

PHP2Shell and the Case for a Simpler Web

PHP2Shell, new Node.js vulnerabilities and cloud failures make the case for simpler static publishing, independent recovery and better-funded maintenance.

Job Satisfaction When You Cannot Afford to Quit

For workers already feeling cooked, the money and confidence needed to walk away can be harder to find. AI and repeated job cuts are adding another reason to stay put.

The Deposit Is Only the Beginning: The Strata Trap Inside Australia's Housing Crisis

Buying an apartment doesn't end the affordability problem. Strata levies, defects and collective decisions can add financial risks just as inflation and an uncertain job market squeeze your ability to absorb them.

I Thought Splitting Facebook Messenger Was a UX Mistake in 2014. Was It?

From the forced Messenger split in 2014 to the 2020 LightSpeed rebuild and 2023 inbox tests: revisiting the difference between a better app and a better user experience.

From Gig Work to Token Work: The Uberification of White-Collar Labour

Australia took more than a decade to establish key platform-work protections. What the TWU's campaign can teach white-collar workers about AI, bargaining power and Professionals Australia.

How I Finally Built My Own Static Blog with Codex and Cloudflare Pages

From Google Cloud Storage and broken JavaScript to a Git-powered blog: how Codex helped me bring 17 LinkedIn articles home to stefs.site.

What a Career Actually Is – and Why It Rarely Looks Like a Ladder

A career is more than a sequence of promotions. Explore eight career paths and the capabilities, reputation and choices that connect them.

Archive

Bon Voyage, Employer-Owned Job Market: When Will the Market Start to Turn – If Ever?

Prompt: Will the job market ever recover from an Employer owned one?

Startup Accelerators - Are They Worth the Hype in Australia? The Real Pros and Cons of Startmate, Antler, TS, Latitude 37 and the New Founder Economy

Startup accelerators have become one of the most visible gateways into the startup world. For a first-time founder, they can look like a cheat code: capital (rarely equity free), mentors, investor introductions, pitch practice, a…

The Psychology of Productive Job Searching: Care Deeply, Detach Wisely

Job searching is one of the strangest psychological games adults are expected to play.

The ATS Trap: How HR Engineered Its Own Irrelevance and How to Fix It

What the Bolt story tells us, what the data confirms, and what IBM, Block, and Target add to the picture

How do Tech Companies Keep Relevant in the AI Age of LLMs, VR/AR and Future Tech?

Tech companies stay relevant by continuously re-earning their usefulness. The ones that survive do not just “use new tech”; they keep matching technology to real customer pain, market shifts, and business outcomes.

How I Landed a Job Without LinkedIn Premium or New Side Projects — After 1,000+ Cold Applications (Using ChatGPT as My AI Assistant)

This is kind of a follow up to my earlier job applicant tip articles: 2021: 12. Top Tips to Get Your Job Applications, Website & Resume Noticed [Tested on 100s of real-world jobs]

Archive

When Will Be The End of Jobs: Living in an Agentic World by ChatGPT 5.3 in April 2026

How will this AI renaissance play out? Fresh grads, mid tiers and even senior levels already feeling the heat as corporates layoff in the 100 000s since 2022.

San Francisco 2018: A Tech Pilgrimage to the Valley - Foresight.ai TechCrunch's 2018 Winner - a Notion of 2018! LLMs had just been invented in 2018

In 2018 after missing a work trip in 2015/6, I planned a personal but also business related trip to San Francisco that felt less like a holiday and more like a pilgrimage, and oh boy was I thankful in spades especially as…

Archive

2025 A Year In Reflection

2025 was not a year of shortcuts or instant wins. It was a year of showing up, repeatedly, even when progress felt slow, uncertain, or invisible from the outside.

Archive

Cloudflare Global HTTP 500/Human Auth outage DISABLES MILLIONS of websites including X/Twitter, ChatGPT, Claude, Seek, job sites, League, PayPal+more

"Cloudflare blames a software crash after sites like X and ChatGPT went down" https://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-outage-internet-down-x-open-ai-2025-11

Investigating Chrome Sleep/Resume Failures on My M3 MacBook Air

What I observed when WhatsApp and Facebook stopped loading after repeated macOS sleep/resume cycles, what a restart fixed, and what remains unconfirmed.

12. Top Tips to Get Your Job Applications, Website & Resume Noticed [Tested on 100s of real-world jobs]

I know how daunting and demotivating applying for new jobs can be like, especially if you're not currently in a job, are self-employed or just busy with other life matters and deciding to make the jump back into job life.

Archive

Most Affordable yet Performant Managed WordPress VPS Hosting from A$17/m - SSL, Auto-updates, Backups, Staging & 24/7 Support Covered 🌎

My 2020 comparison of managed WordPress hosting, covering backups, staging, performance, support and the costs of running reliable websites.

Archive

Coronavirus: There is no second chance - "14 days until we're Italy"​ - Dear Scomo, Please Close the Borders, City Lockouts & Mandatory WFH RIGHT NOW!

An archived March 2020 opinion piece calling for stronger Australian COVID-19 countermeasures, travel restrictions and working from home.

Archive

Sydney Tech Conferences, Meetups & Hackathons: 2020 Archive

A historical record of the Sydney tech community in 2020, including conferences, meetups and hackathons. Event dates and offers have passed.

Archive

$1 Founder Startcon (22-23 Nov) Tickets - 24h Only

An archived announcement of a short-lived founder ticket offer for the November 2019 StartCon conference.

Why Your Sleep Is Worth More Than Your Awake Hours + Money Combined

Not many prioritise sleep. It's often left last on our to-do lists, but it will leave us last too if we do that.

11 Tips to 10x Your Day With Creative Work Flow

What does it take to be productive and remain there? Basically 11 things:

The 4 Key Ingredients To A Successful Hire: Career Direction + Company Culture + Brand's Mission + Location

Career direction, company culture, a brand’s mission and location: my 2019 perspective on finding a role that fits, preparing a portfolio and navigating interviews.

How to Avoid Information Overload 🔥😪 Burnout Culture & Fine-tune Work Productivity 📊

A 2019 reflection on information overload, screen time and burnout, with practical ideas for protecting your attention and finding a healthier work-life balance.

What Makes A Great SEO Strategy? 🔍📈 (How to Rank Higher on Search Engines 🌎, the 5 Min Primer)

Basically: Publish great, frequent and new content targeting relevant search keywords that your competitors are also targeting. Ask yourself, would you want to be reading this on the train home from work?

Our Remote Work 🌎 Jobs Economy 👩🏼💻👨💻👩🏽💻 ◦ An Evolution of Automation Empowering Employee Performance ⚡️

I find co-working spaces, quiet cafes, libraries or a secluded office space whether at home or somewhere else to be most beneficial. I think the variation of environment is key to fuelling productivity and creativity levels to…

Self-hosting a Ghost Blog + Independent Landing Page + YOURLS (Custom link shortener) [i.e. Growing up from Medium :P]

My 2016 journey through VPS hosting, NGINX, Ghost and YOURLS, and the choices behind building a personal home on the web.

Archive

It was all smooth sailing, until it hit me (Day Two — Startup Weekend Sydney 2014)

Day two at Startup Weekend Sydney 2014: reflections on development, team collaboration, passionate ideas and finding a workable business model.