// about
Who am I?
I’m Rich.
I’m a Sr. Principal Security Engineer at Oracle OCI, a father of two, split keyboard enthusiast, and someone who can’t leave a thing alone until I know how it works.
What I Do
My days are spent improving safety practices at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure — working with engineers on how they build and operate services securely. This involves digging into services, experimenting with Safety Engineering concepts and helping service teams tighten up their safety processes.
The Path Here
I started as a System Administrator with a focus on Network Engineering (that’s what my degree was in), but I kept gravitating toward the Security and Programming side of things. Eventually, I transitioned into a Linux Engineer role with a DevOps focus—think SRE meets DevSecOps.
Somewhere along the way, I got consumed by the world of Security. I wanted to understand hackers — their mindset, how they think. I threw myself into red teaming, CTFs, anything I could get my hands on to understand how things are supposed to work — and how to break them.
Beyond the Terminal
Car Hacking
That childhood question—“How does this work?"—never really left me. I bought a project car to work on, and it’s become one of my favorite forms of escapism. I’ve done everything from basic maintenance (rocker cover gaskets, anyone?) to more ambitious upgrades: retrofitting the most advanced infotainment system the car permits, implementing an Android system, adding cruise control, and even designing and 3D printing a custom pedestal for a rear dashcam mount using CAD.
Keyboards & PCBs
It started with an offsite in Cancun, Mexico, where my former boss introduced me to split keyboards. I already owned a split — tried it once and left it gathering dust — but the keyboard she showed me made me reconsider splits entirely.
Later, working with Lucas Contreras, I discovered the Corne keyboard (crkbd) and realised there was an entire world out there. That’s when I got properly obsessed.
My first split was a ZSA Moonlander—functional but bulky. Then my former boss showed me the ZSA Voyager, and it made the Moonlander’s flaws suddenly obvious. I built my first Corne in October 2025, then a Lily58. To date, I’ve built 8 keyboards, and I’m not stopping anytime soon.
This obsession with keyboards has led me deeper into engineer ergonomics—something I’d like to write a book about one day.
The Tools I Use
These days I work primarily in Go, though I’ve spent plenty of time with Python and Ruby. I’m exploring Rust when time permits, but Go has become my go-to language. I can’t wait for my children to want to learn programming—Python will be my teaching language of choice for them.
Beyond programming, I work with:
- Proxmox, QEMU for virtualization
- Terraform, Chef, Ansible for infrastructure provisioning
- Kubernetes and Docker for micro-services management
- API and CLI design architecture—interfaces matter
- 3D Printing on a Bambu P1S with various slicers and CAD with Fusion360
- PCB Design with Kicad
Why This Blog?
I write this blog to journal my experiences in security, building things and whatever else pulls my attention. Since university, I’ve been drawn to learning across domains. I consider myself a generalist — a bit picky about what I learn. I like to write, learn, study, and think about things deeply enough to have a real opinion on them.
This blog is where I put those thoughts down.
Get in Touch
Feel free to reach out via email or connect on GitHub. I’m always happy to chat about security, keyboards, or cars.