About
I am a Site Reliability Engineer with over twenty-five years' commercial experience…
Articles by James
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When is "good enough" good enough?
When is "good enough" good enough?
When I'm not busy wrangling servers or cats or kids, I sing second bass in a mixed voice choir. We meet every Tuesday…
Activity
548 followers
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James Tait shared thisAlways great to spend a weekend with my people, and these are most definitely my people! I think often people hear the word "hacker" and think "these are bad people", but this bunch are some of the most honest, generous, thoughtful, caring and supportive people I've had the pleasure to spend time with. I'm further from my 10-year coin than I thought, but every year I meet up with old friends and make new ones, and every year is fun and educational. Bring on SteelCon 2027!
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James Tait shared thisThis is a big moment for crypto in Europe. Regulation matters. Compliance builds trust.James Tait shared thisI joined Bitpanda as an Engineering Manager in June, and it’s been a great ride so far. Two big reasons why: - The team is just great - everyone is really skilled, wants to move things and delivers high quality work - While other platforms like Binance have struggled to meet strict regulatory standards and have to move from the European market Bitpanda holds three MiCA licenses. This shows how things are taken seriously and customer protection is not just marketing-blabla. It is proven by auditors over and over again. #Bitpanda #Engineering #MiCA 💪
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James Tait reposted thisJames Tait reposted thisWe're looking for someone to come work in our lab in Buenos Aires on taking our electronic projects to the next level, apply here: https://lnkd.in/duShgnxd
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James Tait reposted thisJames Tait reposted this⚠️ Heads up for Kubernetes users relying on External Secrets Operator (ESO) — the project is currently on hold. No new releases. No patches. No updated container images. Why? The maintainer team is simply too small and burned out. Right now, there’s only one active maintainer left, and when he was on vacation, the project basically froze. The repo still accepts community PRs, but there’s: ❌ No official support ❌ No Slack ❌ No GitHub Discussions ❌ No new versions until at least five active maintainers step in If your company uses External Secrets in production, now is the time to act. 💡 It’s not just about funding — the real help is contributing time. Ask your company if they can allocate work hours for you (or your team) to help. ESO is one of the go-to tools for syncing secrets from AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or HashiCorp Vault into Kubernetes. Without more maintainers, it could drop into “maintenance mode” or even get archived. The message from maintainers is simple: Grow the team — or scale back expectations. 🔗 GitHub thread: https://lnkd.in/dFT5RXJx 🔗 Sign up to contribute: https://lnkd.in/dq8ubA7r At Stakater, we already maintain and support multiple open source projects — including Reloader (https://lnkd.in/e2s5Dtd) with over 9K+ GitHub stars and 24+ billion downloads — and unfortunately don’t have the capacity to commit to another major project at this time.
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James Tait reposted thisJames Tait reposted this🚀 We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer (#Golang) in #Bucharest 🇷🇴 Want to work on real-world systems that power embedded investing for millions across Europe? At Bitpanda, we’re building Investments-as-a-Service (IaaS)— a secure, scalable platform that lets fintechs and banks offer stocks, ETFs, metals, commodities, crypto and more through simple APIs. With over 15 customers and 20 million end users, the sky is the limit 🔥 We’re looking for someone who: 🔹 Writes clean, production-ready Golang code and knows how to structure, test, and scale real-world systems with it. 🔹 Is comfortable designing and querying both SQL and NoSQL databases, and you know when to use which. 🔹 has solid experience designing and working with REST, GraphQL, and gRPC, and an opinion on when each one shines. 🔹 Can be hands-on with Kafka or similar message brokers (Think RabbitMQ, SQS etc.), and you understand the value of event-driven architecture. If this sounds like you, please don't hesitate to contact me, Rares, Tudorel, Adrian, Henrik Seres, Alexandru or Vlad for more info 👋 📍 Learn more & apply here: https://lnkd.in/gEU29ktS #Bitpanda #Hiring #Golang #FintechJobs #InvestmentAsAService #EngineeringCareers #InclusiveTech #BucharestTechJobsSenior Software Engineer, Golang (Digtal Asset Infrastructure)Senior Software Engineer, Golang (Digtal Asset Infrastructure)
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James Tait reposted thisJames Tait reposted this🚀 London calling - Bitpanda is expanding in the UK! 🇬🇧 Big news - we’ve received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to expand our operations. As one of the world’s most respected regulators, the FCA sets the bar high - and Bitpanda meets its stringent standards, reinforcing our commitment to compliance, security, and trust. With this approval, UK investors now have access to the broadest range of cryptocurrencies on the market - over 500 assets - alongside powerful investment tools like Spotlight, Savings Plans, and Crypto Indices. Whether you're new to crypto or a seasoned investor, Bitpanda makes investing seamless, secure, and accessible. As Europe’s leading crypto platform, we’re excited to bring our innovative, regulated services to the UK and continue setting the standard for safe and compliant crypto investing.
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James Tait shared thisThis weekend I took the plunge and finally made my public speaking debut with a talk about Apache Kafka at OggCamp 2024 in Manchester. Live demos showing some of the unexpected behaviours we've come up against, explaining the reasons behind them, and how we overcame them. Presentation slides and demo code can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ej8FFnjK
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James Tait reposted thisJames Tait reposted thisI would have never expected the EU to seriously consider Orwellian surveillance for all its residents using secure chat apps, but here we are. This bill goes to vote TOMORROW, and could null the right to privacy: In the name of child safety, the EU would install backdoors for every formerly secure, end-to-end encrypted chat applications (like Signal, WhatsApp, and so on,) with the means for authorities to be able to listen in, anytime. The problem? It's three-fold: 1. By adding a backdoor to these currently secure apps: we all know that attackers will be able to also spy in, with far more ease. There is no backdoor that is a "secure backdoor because only the government has the keys." This is a fundamental truth with secure systems. (Expect attackers to sooner, rather than later, get those keys, and use them, without notifying you, just like the government won't. This is the fundamental reason no secure communications platform installs backdoors, even for the government.) 2. Mass surveillance will be possible, without probable cause. Today it's a suspicion on one thing. Tomorrow, the government can extend it to practice monitoring against another thing. They already have the tools to do all this, after all! 3. This bill would not even be effective protecting children, while stripping away privacy for all EU residents! This assessment comes from Germany’s Federal Child Protection Association, who detail their problems with the bill here: https://lnkd.in/eEDjFt6Z The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Poland are voting against this unacceptable violation of privacy rights. Other countries have not yet said they will: and so the bill could easily pass. If it does: it would be the end of messaging privacy, as we know it, in the EU. Which would be ironic, given how the EU has traditionally been one of the biggest protectors of individual privacy. The vote happens tomorrow. If you live in the EU and don't want Orwellian surveillance, you can contact your EU representatives and tell them what you think, and how you expect them to represent fundamental European values like the right to privacy. Find representatives here: https://lnkd.in/e7-Ss9FT Read more details here: https://lnkd.in/e8uEdtcp
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James Tait reacted on thisJames Tait reacted on thisSo lesson learned. Big big lesson. When buying used hardware, before you rely on that hardware for your whole network, either check or replace the drives. The drive that I installed my whole OPNsense configuration on went kaput, and as a result: Network = NO. Lucky me though, I salvaged the config.xml from the old drive. I will be back. With more knowledge.
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James Tait reacted on thisJames Tait reacted on thisOK so Zenarmor is now up and running on my router. This has revealed a very big issue. DNS over TLS is still not working. This post marks the start of a very very long troubleshooting process.
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James Tait reacted on thisJames Tait reacted on thisOK, my bad. So I replaced the fan in my router with a nice quiet Noctua fan. Didn’t even realise it was running the first time I installed it. Cut to now, CPU temp consistently above 90C. Not good. Checked CPU usage, about 30%. Very not good. Thermal paste is better than chalk, so the old paste has to go. Same with the fan. Good times.
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James Tait liked thisJames Tait liked thisWazuh rule engineering has a steep learning curve, but when you finally test a log and it triggers the correct alert, it’s so rewarding. On track to making my home a mini SOC.
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James Tait liked thisJames Tait liked thisNew SIEM system on the way. Got a dedicated machine this time so hopefully I can actually upgrade properly.
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James Tait reacted on thisJames Tait reacted on thisWe are establishing a company for PRFlow in Ireland 🎉 First step is to get into the registrar of company directors - this requires signing a document in front of a notary and getting another internationally recognized stamp on it from the Official Chamber of Notaries. Then sending it back to Ireland. So exciting stuff, right? Well, I agree, not really. 😅 Now we wait. 🤞 #startuppingisfun
Experience
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Volunteer staff
freenode
- 2 years 8 months
Science and Technology
As level 1 staff member, my role was mainly user support. This involved helping with administrative requests such as password resets, username and channel registrations, and general queries. I was also involved in the resolution of user disputes, moderation of undesirable behaviour, and acting as a catalyst for productive, collaborative discussions.
Courses
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ITIL v3 Foundation Certificate
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Projects
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Click Package Index
- Present
A searchable index of all the Click and Snap Packages available on the Ubuntu platform. Designed to be device-scale, serving all Ubuntu phones and cross-distro IoT devices, desktops and servers - if you've ever typed `snap find something` in a Linux terminal, you've interacted with this.
Bootstrapped the project from initial loose specifications. Designed and implemented the REST API, with initially Solr and later Elasticsearch on the back-end, and Python/Restish on the front-end…A searchable index of all the Click and Snap Packages available on the Ubuntu platform. Designed to be device-scale, serving all Ubuntu phones and cross-distro IoT devices, desktops and servers - if you've ever typed `snap find something` in a Linux terminal, you've interacted with this.
Bootstrapped the project from initial loose specifications. Designed and implemented the REST API, with initially Solr and later Elasticsearch on the back-end, and Python/Restish on the front-end. Maintained the technical documentation, liased with client teams and the community and responded to changing requirements, including the switch from being focused on serving users on a phone using a touch screen to serving users on a Linux desktop or server using a traditional command line interface.Other creators -
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Ubuntu One File Sync
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Ubuntu One was a file sync service, like DropBox, with value-added features. In addition to automatic synchronisation of files between computers, we also provided a music streaming service for users with audio files in their storage, photo galleries and contact synchronisation. We had clients for Ubuntu, Windows, Android and iOS. My responsibilities included:
- Tech lead on photo galleries feature, designing and implementing the REST API, and collaborating with graphic designers.
-…Ubuntu One was a file sync service, like DropBox, with value-added features. In addition to automatic synchronisation of files between computers, we also provided a music streaming service for users with audio files in their storage, photo galleries and contact synchronisation. We had clients for Ubuntu, Windows, Android and iOS. My responsibilities included:
- Tech lead on photo galleries feature, designing and implementing the REST API, and collaborating with graphic designers.
- Implementation of the Music Streaming API.
- Addressing scalability and performance concerns for the value-add features, including asynchronous metadata extraction from MP3, OGG and JPEG media.
- Integration and synchronisation with Facebook contacts.Other creators -
Organizations
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Free Software Foundation Europe
Fellow
- Present
Recommendations received
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