TL;DR (Attention Deficit Disorder Version)
Island in the Net is written and produced by me, Khürt Williams, since 2000. I work in application security architecture and I live in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, with my wife Bhavna. I am passionate about photography. Expect to find writing on cybersecurity, tropical aquariums, terrariums, hiking, craft breweries, and bird photography.
The Longer Version
Origin Story
In 1966, I was born in what was then the British Overseas Territory of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Back then, I was a British subject or a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC). That changed on 27 October 1979, when Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained independence from the United Kingdom, making me a citizen of the newly independent country.
My father, Cooper Williams, was a banker, and his career had us moving around quite a bit. During that time, I lived in a few other West Indian islands, including Saint Lucia and Barbados, where my baby brother was born, and Antigua & Barbuda, where I spent my early teenage years. We could easily travel and live between these island nations because they were all members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
My early childhood, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, was split between a rented home in New Montrose, Kingstown, St. Vincent, and the Barclays Bank house in Port Elizabeth, Bequia. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in La Pompe.
I don't remember the exact dates, but we lived in Castries, St. Lucia, for a few years before I turned 11. In the late '70s and early '80s, I spent my early teenage years in Antigua and Barbuda. In 1983, we moved back to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where I finished high school and completed my O-levels and A-levels at the St. Vincent Grammar School. We also lived on Saint Kitts and Nevis for a few months. Each island's unique West Indian culture shaped who I am today. I see myself as West Indian, without a strong allegiance to any one island, though I do have a soft spot for Antigua and Bequia. In 1986, my family emigrated from St. Vincent & the Grenadines to Flushing, Queens, so I could attend university. I became a U.S. citizen in 1992.
I love drinking craft ale and freshly brewed coffee. I buy fresh beans from a local organic fair trade retailer and brew at home every few days. I grind the beans myself and brew using either a French Press or Chemex pour over with an Able Kone filter. I don’t drink Starbucks.
There are two excellent craft ale breweries within 15-20 minutes in the local traffic of my home. Between Troon Brewing and Flounder Brewing, I am privileged to have some highly-rated New England style IPA, American Pale ales, and porters. Conclave Brewing is a little further out is Conclave Brewing, which makes super delicious, and The Referend Bier Blendery, which produces spontaneously fermented ales in the Belgian tradition. I don’t drink Budweiser, and I rarely buy retail.
I’m an information security professional, Apple geek, web developer, and avid photographer. This weblog is where I share my incoherent and random thoughts and rants about technology, photography, coffee, diabetes, and life. I started blogging regularly around October 2001, bouncing between platforms (Radio Userland, Blogger, Moveable Type, etc..) before settling on WordPress circa 2004. I taught myself to build Linux servers, compile Apache and OpenSSL web servers from source code, and install and configure MySQL. All because of my desire to make secure and high-performance WordPress websites. I taught myself PHP and JavaScript to complement my Perl website development work.
Family
I lost my father in 2019 to Lewy Body Dementia. Mom is retired and living in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She relishes the beautiful weather and the companionship of her friends and family.
In 1996, I married my college sweetheart. Together, we've raised two children to adulthood. My eldest, a Rutgers University graduate, lives at home, while my youngest, having completed her Master's degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is now married.
Career
Since beginning my career in 1994, my first few years were dedicated to multimedia research and development in low-bit rate video encoding at the David Sarnoff Research Center. I also engaged in intion and full-st systems integration web application development consulting in the ensuing years. As a consultant, I worked with various clients1 from 1998 to 2002. I developed web applications for various financial and pharmaceutical companies during this period, using technologies like Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, jQuery, C and C++.
In 2002, I pivoted towards application and systems security. My expertise expanded to include vulnerability management, penetration testing, log management, security awareness training, security architecture and design, identity and access management, governance risk, compliance, and internal advisory roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Since 2013, I have led my independent consultancy, Monkey Hill, LLC, specialising in security architecture. I've conducted security architecture assessments for notable clients1.
Computers and Programming Languages
My computing journey began with a Commodore VIC-20 in 1981, a birthday gift from my dad. It progressed through various platforms: Commodore 64 (1983), DOS PC (1986), Windows PC (1990), UNIX/SunOS/Solaris (1992), Linux (1994), and finally Apple Macintosh (2005). I spent countless hours mastering Commodore BASIC on my VIC-20 before moving on to the Commodore 64. My first DOS PC came at Drew University in 1986, followed by a Windows PC at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990. At the University of Michigan in 1992, I discovered UNIX, sparking an everlasting love. In 1994, I assembled my first Linux server using Slackware floppy disks. My Apple journey started with a Mac mini in 2005, seduced by its blend of a user-friendly GUI and a Unix OS foundation. This led to acquiring a MacBook, an iPod Touch, and an iMac. I discarded the MacBook after buying the iMac. I favoured a standard keyboard, mouse, more powerful CPUs and larger screen. The iPad's 2010 release was irresistible, followed by my first Phone in 2012 and an Apple TV. In 2022, I switched out my 2013 iMac for a Mac Studio and Studio Display.
While the iPhone is my primary portable device, the Mac Studio is indispensable for photo editing.
I have also engaged in Raspberry Pi projects, enjoying its status as the smallest and most affordable Linux server I've ever owned.
I started with Commodore BASIC in 1981, learned Pascal in 1986 during a Drew University computer science course, and taught myself awk/sed/bash in 1992 and Perl in 1997, followed by PHP in 2001 and JavaScript in 2002. I took Java and Objective C courses in 2001 and 2010 but didn't use either language. While I still write small scripts in bash, Perl and Python, I last wrote code professionally in 2013.
Science Fiction
I've always been passionate about science fiction, particularly cyberpunk, though I don't often discuss it on my blog. My site's name, Island in the Net, is inspired by Bruce Sterling's 1988 novel, "Islands in the Net." This story, filled with data pirates, mercenaries, nanotechnology, and post-millennial voodoo, envisions a future where the Internet can overthrow governments and shape history. I find its foresight remarkable.
Superhero comics and graphic novels were a big part of my life growing up. My younger brother and I amassed an extensive collection of Action Comics, DC, and Marvel Comics. I still treasure a small collection of DC graphic novels. My love for Japanese animation began in graduate school, leading me to attend my first FREE "not a con(vention) convention" in 1994, hosted by Animania, the Japanese Animation Film Society at the University of Michigan.
These days, I find myself drawn more to the immediacy of streaming television than reading novels.
Photography
My photography adventures started circa 1987 when I took a fine art photography course at Drew University. I bought my first 35mm film camera, a Pentax P3 with an SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/2 lens. I started "abusing" Kodachrome, Ilford HP5, and Tri-X Pan 35mm film. I developed my negatives and made prints in the campus darkroom. At that time, I sheepishly admit I shot anything and everything. I put the camera away during my graduate school years and didn't pick it up again until 1999, when Shaan was born. I bought a Sony DSC-S70 digital point-n-shoot camera in 2000 when I realised how much we spent developing and making prints of Shaan's early years. I didn't approach photography seriously until 2006 when I bought a Nikon D40 and kit lens. I had exhausted what was possible on my point-n-shoot digital camera. I strongly desired to learn the basics of exposure and composition. I stuck with Nikon, upgrading to new bodies every few years, until 2018, when I could no longer resist the lustful 1970s retro design of the Fuji X series cameras.
Just before the pandemic, I pulled out my Pentax, shot a 35mm Kodak Ektar 100 and Ilford HP5+ cartridge, and realised I missed some aspects of film photography. It mainly was nostalgia for my early childhood days provoked by the passing of my father. He and his older brother Clifford were avid photographers. During the pandemic, I bought a few 1970s-era Minolta cameras and lenses and started exposing new and old film stock. I initially sent the cartridges off for developing and scanning. Eventually, I bought a scanner to reduce cost. The film photography hobby is much more expensive than digital.
I photograph mostly street scenes, landscapes and wildlife, especially birds. I'm an avid photographer, and if the weather suits me, I spend my free time outside, increasing my knowledge of landscape and wildlife photography. I prefer natural light, but I'm comfortable shooting anything that interests me: documentary photography, long-exposure photography, architecture, and bird photography. I do almost all of my editing and exporting from my Mac. As far as gear goes, I use a few cameras and lenses:
- iPhone 11 Pro
- Fujifilm X-T3 digital ILC
- Minolta XD-11 35mm film SLR
- Nikon N2020
Most of my images are shot with the Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 R WR, Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR lenses and Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lenses or a small collection of 35mm manual focus lenses.
- MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2
- MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.7
- MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm f/2.8
- Asahi SMC Takumar 50mm f/1.4
- Asahi SMC Takumar 5mm f/2
Auto-immune diseases
In 2006, I was diagnosed with Type 1 (LADA) diabetes, a chronic health condition where the body is unable to produce insulin and properly glucose in the blood. I manage my blood glucose with an insulin pump and GCMS. I sometimes share articles on my diabetes technology.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that results in the permanent destruction of insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas. Type 1 is lethal unless treatment with exogenous insulin via injections replaces the missing hormone.
In 2018, I was diagnosed with Graves thyroid disease, a type of hyperthyroidism and in 2019, with Grave's eye disease. Living with it was tough, leading to a thyroidectomy at the year's end. Despite this, Graves' disease spread to impact my eyes, necessitating orbital decompression surgery a year later. Between 2018 and the end of 2019 I had three eye surgeries.
Both Type 1 diabetes and Graves thyroid and Graves eye disease are auto-immune diseases.
History
I remember attending a presentation on open-source software by Richard Stallman. I remember getting my first computer, a Commodore VIC20. I remember learning Commodore (Microsoft) BASIC and writing my first video game. I remember when I upgraded to the Commodore 64 and floppy storage. I remember getting my first IBM-compatible DOS PC, an Epson with one floppy disk and a green CRT monitor. I remember buying and installing a 2400 baud modem to dial into the bulletin board system (BBS). I remember using WordPerfect to write all my term papers. I remember learning Pascal and writing my first text editor.
Kit and Kaboodle
Over the years, I’ve documented bits and pieces of my kits on this website, including my diabetes travel kit, my diabetes kit for photowalks, and iPhone camera kit. I even have some kits — my basic camera kit and coffee making kit — documented on an external site dedicated to “kits”.
Aaron Parecki recently updated his “life stack” page with the tools, apps, services and other things he uses to manage his work and life. I think the idea is worth “stealing”, and given my recent attempts to re-embrace the IndieWeb principle of “owning your data,” I’ve documented my collection of things, my “kit and caboodle”2 on this page.
I use a lot of apps and services. I will only add the products and services I use and recommend1. I will also link to any reviews I have written. I add things to this page if I recommend purchasing them.
Computing
My 2013 iMac has a 3.5GHz Intel “Core i7” with 32GB of RAM, a 27” HD 2560x1440 LED-backlit 16:9 widescreen IPS display, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M graphics processor with 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory. I have a lot of external storage, so I limited the internal solid-state storage (SSD) to 512GB. Peripheral ports include four USB 3.0 ports, dual Thunderbolt ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n compatible), and Bluetooth 4.0. The iMac came with an Apple Wireless Keyboard and a multi-touch “Magic Mouse,” but I also purchased a multi-touch “Magic Trackpad.”
I purchased the iMac primarily for use with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. It’s an excellent performer, especially when stitching panoramas from several 24MP images.
I have an 11-Inch (Wi-Fi Only) Apple iPad Pro with 256GB of memory. I use it primarily for reading (email, news, RSS feeds, books), note-taking and quick research during meetings, writing, presenting and shopping. It is my laptop replacement. I understand and acknowledge the limitation, and I do not expect to be as productive on the iPad Pro as I am on my iMac.
I use an Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple Magic Mouse.
iOS and macOS
The apps listed below have iOS and macOS versions that sync between my iPhone, iPad Pro and iMac.
- 1Password is the password manager I have used on iOS and macOS for years. It syncs with macOS and iOS. I also use 1Password to store credit card numbers, insurance account information, social security numbers, etc. I trust this software.
- Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Photoshop Lightroom are the apps I use to edit and catalogue my digital images. I use both the macOS and iOS versions of these apps.
- AirMail is a mail client with support for Markdown, multiple accounts, Unified Inbox, Exchange, iCloud, Gmail, IMAP, POP3, Google Apps, Yahoo!, AOL, Outlook.com, Live.com, etc. and supports attachments from Google Drive, Dropbox, CloudApp, Box, Onedrive, Droplr, and FTP.
- Wunderlist is an excellent to-do app with projects, labels, shared lists, and anything else.
- Byword is a minimalist Markdown text editor with subtle syntax highlighting. I use it with and without MarsEdit to create my blog post. Documents can be synced to iPad, iPhone, and macOS via Dropbox or iCloud. Byword can publish to Medium, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Evernote.
- Reeder is an RSS news reader that supports Feedbin, Feedly, Feed Wrangler, FeedHQ, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Inoreader, Minimal Reader, BazQux Reader, Fever, Readability and Instapaper. I use it with Feedbin and Instapaper to sync and track my news feeds.
- iCloud Calendar works for me. I no longer use Google Calendar.
- Apple Maps makes it simple to get directions and information about local points of interest, including restaurants. I no longer use Google Maps.
- AnyList is the best way to create and share grocery shopping lists with a family. When my kids or spouse make changes, they instantly appear on everyone’s iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- iCloud Drive syncs important files to my iPad, iPhone and iMac. I no longer use Dropbox or Google Drive for anything important.
- Mint is how my wife and I keep track of our finances.
iOS Only
I have Type 1 diabetes and useFatSecret to help with carbohydrate counting and tracking my diet. This is valuable information for my endocrinologist and myself to review to make any necessary changes to my diabetes management.
I enjoy coffee. Over the years, I have learned various brewing techniques. I use the Press app for customisable brew timers and entering tasting and brewing notes.
macOS Only
I’ve used MarsEdit for what seems like ... forever.
Programming Tools
I used to do a lot of Web development in Perl, PHP and JavaScript on top of Linux, Apache and MySQL (and to a lesser extent PostgreSQL) stack. I have not coded professionally since 2013, but I mess around with PHP when making WordPress changes and creating small Perl 5 scripts for personal use. The macOS Terminal app (for local or remote access to a Linux VPC) with vim, a highly configurable text editor that I have used since the 1990s, is included as “vi” with macOS and is my IDE of choice. I don’t need anything else.
Photography
Fujifilm
After over ten years of shooting with Nikon DSLRs, I dumped all my lenses and switched to Fuji. My current camera kit is minimalist - the Fujifilm X-T3, Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR lens and XF27mmF2.8 R WR lens. I have two 64GB ProGrade Digital SDXC UHS-II V90 300R memory cards set up in a backup arrangement, with every photograph captured saved on both cards.
Minolta
I bought several 35mm film cameras during the COVID pandemic but kept only two: a Minolta XD-11 and an X-700. I own three Minolta lenses: MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2, MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.7, and MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm f/2.8. My favourite combination is the XD-11 and MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2. When adapted to my Fuji X-T3 and set to f/2.8, the MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.7 renders photographs with sweet bokeh.
Other Gear
I have my Manfrotto 496RC2 Ball Head with Quick Release and Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod Legs, which I bought years ago as a Nikon shooter. I swapped the Manfrotto plate for a Hejnar Photo conversion plate that provides an ArcaSwiss-style mount plate. I use a Manfrotto MTPIXI-WH PIXI Mini Tripod with a Glif iPhone mount for mobile photography. I use Gordy hand straps with all my cameras.
Audio/Video
In 2022, we removed cable TV and our TiVo Bolt but kept our Apple TV 4k. We stream all our shows and movies via the Apple TV, connected to a Sony XBR-55X850D Smart TV and Sony HT-CT780 soundbar. In 2020 I bought two HomePod minis, a Shiit Audio Modi 3+ DAC and Shiit Audio Magni Heresy headphone amp, a Schiit SYS switch, a Grado SR60, and an Audio Technica AT-LP60X turntable.
Supported
A list of links to organizations, institutions, artists, and other entities which I’m supporting (or have supported) with a mixture of my time, talent and/or finances.
- Kiva.org (Support)
- Diabetes Hands Foundation (Support)
- JDRF
- Princeton Macintosh Users' Group
- Montgomery Friends of Open Space
- IndieWeb.org (Support on Open Collective)
Social Media
I encourage you to send me your comments regarding Island in the Net. Please don't take it personally if I don’t respond to your email or do so only after an inordinate amount of time has passed. You can send me messages on any of the following platforms.
Social Media:
- @khurtwilliams on Twitter
- @khurtlwilliams on Instagram
- khurt on VSCO
- @khurtwilliams on Vero
- @khurtwilliams@photog.social or @khurtwilliams@indieweb.social on Mastodon
- @islandinthenet.com on BlueSky
You’re welcome to subscribe to or consume the site in any manner or on any platform you prefer, including [RSS].
[RSS]: https://islandinthenet.com/customized-rss-feeds/
Contact
The easiest way to send me a message is by using the form below.
I like how you take your own pictures for your feature images on your posts.
Hi John, some of the images are contributed to Unsplash and can be downlaoded from my Unsplash profile page.
I think the bigger issue is that it’s commonly known that Elseiver and others are essentially minting money and not adding as much value to the process for what they receive. They could afford to drastically cut their prices and still make more than comfortable margins while creating more competition and innovation in the space. Their business model is a complicated tangle that includes non-disclosure agreements to University subscribers preventing them from discussing their rates with their peers to prevent better competition. A quick web search on the topic should unearth loads of articles and even government testimonies about their (and other major publishers’) competitive and problematic business practices.
The tough part is working together to narrow down the shows that you watch (and share) together. It’s never as much fun when you watch one thing while your significant other is watching something else somewhere else.
These links only take you to your about page (at least on mobile).
Something went wrong with brid.gy. Nothing I can fix. Sometimes It just doesn't work. All 404's redirect to the About page.