Heya! I’m Steven Baker. I am a nerd with far more interests than I have time for. On this website, you can find my thoughts, updates on what I’m doing, links to things I care about, and whatever else I care to share.
I am a Canadian (a Bluenoser, if you want to get particular about it) but I have lived in Sweden since 2015. We celebrated Canada Day 2015 by starting our life in Sweden. Technically we qualify for Swedish citizenship, and have since July of 2020, but haven’t yet gotten around to submitting the forms.
I should probably write more about my experience in Sweden. I ended up here accidentally, got deported twice (due to one of my employers being incompetent), and fell in love with the place and decided to stay. If you’re interested in moving to Sweden, I am happy to help and discuss it. It’s been great for me and my family, and it might also be great for you and yours.
In 2020, we bought a farm in a small village called Holmsjö, in the Anundsjö area of Örnsköldsviks kommun. I should probably write more about the farm, but the first question everyone asks when they find out I live in a tiny village in the woods is “What’s the internet like?” It’s great. Gigabit fibre to my house. On a bad day, I get 1150Mbps up, and 1080Mbps down.
Take a look at Älska Anundsjö for information on the area, including available house pricing. There are a lot of great houses at bargain prices in my area. The people are fantastic, the lifestyle is amazing, and there’s likely gigabit fibre to your door. For reference: the Swedish krona is about 10:1 of the US Dollar, and is typically 7:1 the Canadian dollar. You will be surprised how much house you can buy over here for less than what a modest new car costs. If you want to consider moving this way, I’d love to tell you about it and help!
One of the qualities of a proper Atlantic Canadian is that we make friends fast. If we know each other, we’re friends. And that means you’re welcome to visit. Ping me if you want to visit the Swedish woods.
I rarely live in the same place as my friends, so I do most of my socialising via video chat. We call this “Dram and Cam.” A Dram and Cam is where we pour a dram of whisky (or whatever beverage you like) and video chat. If you’d like to socialise, ping me and we’ll set up a time. Then you just have to pour a drink, and click the link!
I also often travel, usually for work-related things. When I travel, I like to sit in the pub with friends (new friends, and old!) preferably where there’s live music. We will probably drink, possibly eat, and discuss life and ideas. At some point, I’ll put my travel plans up here so we can better coordinate.
I have a lot of hobbies. My hobbies include playing music (poorly), leather working, wood working, home repair and renovation, in addition to the technical things that I’m interested in. Sometimes I do these things professionally, and am open to commissions and selling my work.
I am one half of Dos Amigans. Together with Graham Lee, we explore developing software on classic Amigas, and stream the results. Check dosamigans.tv for the schedule! You might be interested in this stream if you are a fan of the Amiga computer, retro computering, and software development for the Amiga.
I am also one half of [objc retain]; another stream, also together with Graham Lee. We explore developing using AppKit (also known as Cocoa) development on the Free Software platform GNUstep. You might be interested in this stream if you enjoy the Objective-C language, Free Software, the NeXTstep/Cocoa frameworks, or porting your macOS applications to other platforms.
I am a consultant in the software industry. I help teams understand how to deliver better software faster, often by adopting XP and Agile. I have extensive expertise in, and provide consulting and training on: software design and architecture, agile and XP, continuous integration and continuous delivery, free and open-source software licensing, test-driven and behaviour-driven development, and other things. I have over twenty years of experience in the software industry, and I’ve had a lot of successes (and failures!) within it, so chances are I can help your team.