Hello! I'm Abdush Shakoor and I like to spend my evenings problem-solving, researching and building stuff for fun with a curiosity and passion for Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Digital Design and Technology.

I have been writing software professionally for more than 10 years. During my early days of my career, I was mostly focused on building websites and designing user interfaces. Later, I opted to specialize in backend development, security, distributed systems and service-oriented architecture using various technologies and programming languages (PHP, C#, JavaScript, Laravel, .NET Core, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server).

Right now, I'm working full-time as a Senior DevOps Engineer at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs as part of the IT Operations and Infrastructure team. The work is a blend of SRE, IT operations and deployments — sometimes, it's better to step outside your comfort zone.

Also, I'm the type of guy who dabbles a lot with Linux, playing CTFs, configuring databases and servers, deployments and loves to live inside a terminal with multiple split-windows in a single tmux session in different tabs.

Currently, I'm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A father to a wonderful daughter, a husband to a loving wife and I love keeping myself fit by engaging in toss-juggling, calisthenics and jump rope.

Career

My first role was at Key Information Technology. I worked as a full-stack developer and contributed to the development of the company's website and internal tools. I was there for about 3 years.

I later worked at Planet Green Solutions as a Backend Developer and eventually into a Senior Backend Developer and honestly, this is where I learnt the most. I wrote applications primarily in .NET Core, Laravel and ocassionally, Django. Got my hands dirty with Linux and DevOps and went down the rabbit-hole of tinkering with systems and infrastructure. I was here for about 6.5 years to be exact.

I did some internships before the commencement of my professional career, the last one working as a Summer Intern at Oracle Systems.

Check out my résumé to learn more about my work experiences and projects →

Writings

I have written over 200+ posts since 2017 and my most popular post so far is "Mastering PHPStorm: Essential Shortcuts and Tips for Faster Coding" and I write a lot of TIL-based posts which has gained a lot of popularity that allowed me to get myself enrolled in JetBrains's Content Creators Program.

Areas of Interest

My areas of interest include but not limited to:

  • Algorithms and Data Structures
  • Computer Architecture
  • Programming Languages and Compilers
  • Distributed Systems
  • Mathematics
  • Linux/UNIX Operating Systems
  • DevOps
  • Networking
  • Databases
  • Computer Security and Cryptography
  • Capture The Flag
  • Computer Graphics
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
  • Data Science and Engineering
  • User Interface and Experience

Recommended list of books

I recommend you to try and read these books:

About this site

This blog is powered by a custom-built static site generator written in Python, which had undergone many rewrites, spwaning of single god-classes and messy code. Yet, no bootstrap, no heavy UI frameworks or libraries are used as I found it quite unnecessary for a minimalist-type blog.

Where can you find me?

Oh, do you have an idea that you're stuck with? Need help with servers or deployments? Want to build an awesome system that implements strong security protocols and best practices? Mail me about it and I'll check up on you!

Or you can find me at these places: