About Me, Stephen Littleton.

My fascination with computers and electronics started at an early age. Before I was 5 years old, I was spelling my name on my father’s Apple computer which had the monochromatic green screen. When I was around 10 years old I had discovered gaming and had a large sample of games I would play that were acquired from software conventions. My father was a computer programmer and technician and at the time had a large variety of software including games that were loaded from floppy disks. At age 12 I was building computers, installing Linux, and mostly playing games such as “Doom” and “Quake” online and with friends and family over the 10BASE2 Daisy Chain Coaxial network. I was terminating ends and running cable by the age of 12. I would often call up friends and play games such as “Command and Conquer”, “Quake”, and “Lords of the Realm” over a 56k modem. I was also heavy into online chatrooms using service providers such as “Prodigy”, “Compuserve”, and even “AOL”. At age 14 I was building my own servers and placing them online to be viewed by the entire internet. At age 16 I was working at a local computer store where I was servicing and selling computers, software, and PC components. Subsequently, I was hired by my father to go on and become a computer builder, technician, network engineer, and I even did work as a tax preparer and tax courier where I was entrusted with large amounts of cash and checks. I’ve also had experience installing and maintaining large business networks where there were several cities networked together with VPN software before it was a well known service. I have worked with Windows advanced servers, NT servers, IBM AS400 and IBM RS6000 servers, Cisco Routers, and many more high end professional business type components. I have run many network cables, RJ-45, as well RG-59u cables, BNC, which hook up CCTV camera systems.

I then moved out on my own where I had a small list of clients where the work wasn’t so demanding and serviced several local businesses. I have designed websites and done a lot of contract work. I even spent a short amount of time working for a local hosting company. I tried to start my own business where I was lacking the required contacts for it to take off successfully. After failing at that and my current client list dwindling because people simply had either retired or had passed away, I decided to take some time off where I attended higher learning. This was not a proper fit as I had assumed I would just be taking technology courses. After discovering the amount of prerequisites required to simply attend a technology course I decided that was not the route for me. I kind of fluttered around and decided to try my hand at other jobs such as construction, outdoor jobs such as landscaping, debris removal and I actually enjoyed these jobs but the pay left much to be desired.

I’ve tried my hand at a wide variety of jobs before I found myself doing renovations. During this time, I have had experience with plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, painting, and many other important skills which actually come in very handy. My dream is to one day build my own house on a property that I own. Construction is actually very rewarding work. I am fit, happy, and active. These are things that sitting behind the computer can not provide. I have a good work ethic and am always on time or early for appointments. There really is no task that has been too large for me to accomplish.

I even do my own mechanic work when I can. I’ve replaced a lot of components, water pumps, alternators, brakes, electronics, and much more. I’ve also done some work as a mechanic for others where I correctly diagnosed problems such as a faulty MAP sensor, using the OBD-II reader, and even body work such as replacing damaged bumpers. I’ve recently repaired my AC system where I vacuumed the lines completely removing the old coolant and replaced it, correctly calculating the amount of oil and refrigerant.

I have experience with website frameworks such as node.js, elixir, jekyll, ruby, svelte, and many more up and coming frameworks. I have done all my website work myself and by hand. I have experience with blade servers, racks, with DNS, and everything needed to successfully deploy and host websites. I am familiar with markdown, yaml, toml, JSON, html, css, databases, SQL, and much more. I have experience with the GIT versioing software, automatic deploys, and services such as Vercel, Netlify, Amazon AWS, cloudflare, firebase, and much more. I am well versed in SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), and Google ads (placing ads). At the same time I am strengthening my web development skills I am also working construction where I have learned to balance the two disciplines out. It is not only rewarding it is very healthy as far as physically, mentally, and spiritually for me to learn new skills and to accomplish things I would have never dreamed I was capable of. There really is nothing I am incapable of doing that is within reason.

When I was younger I was tested with a very high IQ over 150. I was always a very active child and did not prefer to study. I would rather be out riding my bike, skateboard, or roller blading. Flash forward to my adult years and I live a very quiet life now. I’ve had my fair share of partying, hanging out, and having a good time. Now the quiet life is for me. I’ve done a lot in my life. I’ve traveled the world, I was originally born in South Africa where my father immigrated to America with my mother who was already a U.S. citizen. So right now I am focused on helping my family, specifically my elder mother who has very lucid dreams of moving to Florida to live out the rest of her retirement. I, myself, would also enjoy living in Florida by the beach. My plans are to help her settle in to where she would like to be then take up residence there and eventually purchase a slice of land where I can build my own home. It is a lot of work but I am ready for it.

I am even a musician. I have an album where I have created electronica and techno style music. I am working on my second album currently. I am using AI software, specifically Lemonade. This uses models that are hosted on Hugging Face, the popular AI LLM provider, but I still write all my articles without the assistance of AI. Eventually I might publish some AI assisted or even AI written articles but at this time I would like to keep my writings and work strictly by hand as I believe it would detract from a showcasing of my abilities due to AI being a tool rather than an author. I have no problem with AI or the software used, I just don’t want to put out generic material and have it attributed to myself at this time.

My responsibilities are plentiful at this time. I am tasked with taking care of animals, providing security, doing the shopping, cooking, repairs, and even trapping animals. We recently had a wild raccoon invasion where a large amount of raccoons busted their way into the house and I have so far trapped and released over 10 wild raccoons. This is on top of my web development, construction job, and other duties. I am no stranger to hard work. One day I hope for all this to be worth it and in the end I believe it will be. I have a strong skill set, a proper attitude, and have faced many challenges which really have given me a strong outlook on life.

I also dabble in cryptocurrencies and the technology they provide. I am interested in this upcoming system but there are a lot of nefarious pitfalls out there and I have experienced my fair share of scams. I’ve lost a few dollars here and there but that is all part of the learning experience. I enjoy stocks and investing and I read the news consistently. I enjoy films, being outdoors, camping, online gaming, learning about things, and traveling. I am also trying to become involved in the new upcoming quantum computing technology. I have studied various systems and enjoy watching that evolve.