Alex Walker
I became conscious, in 1996 (I was not born then…) when I saw the web for the first time. I remember vividly thinking, ‘What. Is. That.’. Before then, I don’t really have full memories. That one is a whole story in my mind. Since then anything technology has fascinated me.
I reckon I was part of the last generation who typed computer games out from a magazine and had absolutely no idea why it didn’t work. Give an 8 year old a break. I blame those sticky keys of the BBC Micro.
If it’s relevant. I love cooking and I am slowly building up my repertoire of recipes here. Git is an excellent way to manage recipes it turns out.
I struggle to keep my Linked In up to date, but if you would like to connect with me you can do so here LinkedIn
Open source work I’m particularly proud of
- Greenfinch
- Greenfinch is a decentralised file storage application. Think Dropbox on the blockchain. It is built on the Neo blockchain. In 2022 Greenfinch won first place in the Neo Polaris Hackathon for “Best Middlware” project.
- Pickle It
- Pickle It was inspired by the classic issue of people creating files and documents and naming them v1, v2, v3 etc… or emailing near identical spreadsheets all named slightly differently. I wanted to build something that managed the naming conventions and handled the differences between versions for you. This project required to be able to take binary differences between files and be able to patch them together depending on what had changed and what needed updating.
- PDF-Editor
- This was for an engineering company that needed to use image recognition to work out whether some engineering drawings met the standards required by the industry. Instead of humans doing the checks the goal was to have machines do it. The issue was the PDFs were tricky to get an a neural network to be able to process so this application converts each page of a PDF to PNGs. Not only that once the images are in PNG format they can be edited to create a training data set so that the neural network could learn what a correct and incorrect image looked like. The company was then able to feed engineering drawings into a neural network and spot errors in the drawings. The model used Keras and python to train the algoritm and then Golang to produce an application the company could feed with PDFs
- WingIt
- Wingit was a PoC for sending and sharing files between any two users using end to end encryption. The goal was to create a Whatsapp level of user-knowledge-requirements and drag and drop so that a user can share with any contact a file and be sure that it will be encrypted, all the time not needing to know anything about what’s going on behind the scenes.
- Got-Qt
- Got-Qt is a starter application for using Qt/Qml with Go. There is a lot of code out there but there is also a lot of boiler plate required to get started. This is in this list because of the number of people who have star’d and forked it :)
Career History
Human Security 2020 - present
Senior Engineer
Human Security works to rid the world of bots masquerading as humans, committing fraud and disrupting business and technology. My role is as a senior engineer in Research and Development. The role involves designing new integrations into our clients’ infrastructure and designing new ways to financially cripple bot nets.
This means that my day to day work involves designing new architectures, writing code in multiple languages, crafting proof of concepts and demonstrations, liasing with sales and customer’s tech teams to support integrations, doing code reviews, keeping good tech discplines in place across the team, and managing developers.
Technologies used
- Go
- Python
- Lua
- AWS
- pSQL
- Redis
- Javascript/Typescript
- HTTP (REST)
- HTTP2 (gRPC)
- JSON/protobufs
- NGINX/Traefik
- Docker (microservices)
Blocksize Unlimited 2018 - 2023
Consultant (founder)
- Founded BlockSizeUnlimited. alex@blocksizeunlimited.com
- Consultancy offering tecnical aid to companies of all sizes
- Consulting CTO role
- Software developer/lead developer
- Contracted work
- Security consultant, helping businesses deal with a data breach
- Tech consultancy supporting blockchain applications
- Managing ICO fund raises
- KYC and anti money laundering requirements
- Designing and building prototypes for distributed applications
- Business consultancy and education around blockchain business models
- Working in an agile manner when your code is immutable
- Developing microservices and architecture for a range of businesses
- Consulting on tech builds for seed funded businesses
- Developing data analytical prototypes for companies that wish to gain insights from their data
Hook.ee 2016 - 2019
CTO/founder
- SAAS phishing platform to aid small businesses in testing their human security status
- A spear phishing platform for SMEs to test their employee resistance to spear phishing attacks
Decoded Ltd 2014 - 2017
Head of security
BAE Systems 2011 - 2014
software developer/analyst in government defence.
- Software developer
- Data science/analyst
- Web interface design
- Penetration testing, internet security and encryption techniques
- Security analysis and research
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Automating tasks
- General tasks involved processing large amounts of data coming from multiple sources, syncing the data up so that the final dataset was discreet. Data would arrive asyncronously therefore it was necessary to minimise manual interaction. The final data could then be queried for anomalies and this could then go through further processing. The tools to do this did not exist and so everything had to be designed and built for the task at hand.
2007-2011
Master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Nottingham focussing on desiging internal combusition engine simulations for my dissertation(s) whilst specialising module choices in aerodynamics.
Case Studies 2016 - present
- Internet security almost invariably relies on humans not making errors. On the one hand, this can be solved by automating as much of a task as possible but this can never be the sole solution. It is therefore necessary for employees to be educated in the ways in which cyber crime is committed.
- The other side of the coin is to have confidence in the underlying resources (data) that an organisation relies on. If a breach is to occur (and it is a good mind set to assume it will) how can you be sure that data is trustworthy and hasn’t been tampered with. Blockchain solutions, amongst others can be utilised to protect against data corruption.
- Supply chain financing is a beast like no other. Organisations in supply chains are not willing to give up who their clients are for fear of losing them. In some cases this means that some parts of a supply chain cannot gain credit notes against an order as the risk is to great. Blockchain can allow for supply chains to be verified without releasing information about other organisations in the chain. I consulted on a system to offer just this to an organisation that is currently using the solution in China.
- Micro financing, together with connectivity offer many incredible opportunities such as real time education in a one-2-many format that could not be realised without blockchain. The state transfer capability of a blockchain allows for transactions to be passed around but not completed until both parties are ready. This allows for a continual ‘discussion’ about the value of a transaction. In a sense, this is a negotiation that once a party agrees, they can not back out, however the other party can counter the negotiation at any time.
- Supply chain is often considered one of the most fraudulent economies around as it relies on multiple jurisdictions working together, that and the legacy systems of pen, paper and carbon copies. Blockchain allows for real time escrow to occur, between jurisdictions and in turn minimise the fraud and hold organisations accountable.
Hire me for
Software/App/Startup development
- I love a new project, I love working out the design and detail. If you’ve got an idea, or need something worked on, let me know!
Security, Software, Technology, Blockchain consulting.
- Are you worried about GDPR?
- Are you wondering if your tech team are making your business’ interests the priority
- Are you worried you are being sold down the river on yet another tech solution?
- Do you want to design a more secure work environment?
- Is security getting in the way of productivity?
- Do you need someone to setup you up with a seamless tech stack?
- Does blockchain seem like the answer but you can’t quite see how it fits in
- Do you need to improve your blockchain vocabulary purely for your business needs?
- Do you need software developed, from web apps, to cloud infrastructure configuraton to microservices
- Do you need a CTO but don’t want to hire one full time?
- Do you need data analytics and insights or proof of concepts built around what your data might be able to tell you? (insert buzzword AI/ML here)
Talks
I give talks on
- Blockchain for business
- Data and how your business can benefit from it
- Technology and innovation. The two go hand in hand, but how to get it right
- Building an internal tech innovation team
- Often culture can stifle innovation. I can guide you to building a team designed entirely to innovate
- Security in a modern GDPR world and how it all fits in with data analytics
Ask me about:
Programming
- Go, Python, R, Node(js), JS, HTML, CSS, Bash, Mongo, SQL, Docker, AWS, Solidity, QML, C
- Probably best to see my github or ask me directly for more detail
Teaching/Talks
- I’ve been teaching technical topics for 4 years now to anyone from the (ex)head of MI5 to the (ex)head of M&S. I assume no knowledge. If you want to understand the buzz words, or want to become a professional programmer.
Tech consultant
- Tech should not rule your business. It should be a facilitator.
- Every tech decision should be a business decision. Non technical companies, still need websites. That comes with technical decisions to make. I aim to setup companies so that tech makes your life easier, it does not give you a headache.
Blockchain
Education
Fast forward 2011, I graduated with a master’s in mechanical engineering. However a major part of that degree was solving problems using computers, Matlab specifically. Running simulations of engineering problems without having to actually build the thing? Now that seemed like the money shot to me.
- Embedded C Programming on arm devices
- Embedded sensor control