Who's Alfie?

Personal Bio

I am a tingle of anticipation, an evolutionist, engineer, architect, researcher, software programmer, innovator, network administrator, diagram aficionado, logophile, junior horologist, watch collector, MMA fan, math lover, bird lover and a backgammon prodigy. I’ve probably forgotten a few more here but at least these are the ones that I could think of, at the time of writing this!

Alfie Portray

I love to see systems work in harmony at scale; just like how the universe works out its expansion plan. I admire simple ideas that demonstrate a potential for growth and keen to be a force for their development. I think there are many principles and disciplines from other domains of knowledge that can be borrowed and applied to computer system designs to help build more robust systems.

I am steeped in the science and art of development, delivery and operational execution of SaaS products. The business context of these SaaS products changed over time but the ones that stand out prominently are: OLTP, marketing, financial and cybersecurity services. I have been designing such solutions and building software systems professionally for more than 10 years now. Some of them succeeded and some didn’t, nonetheless, I always found lots of hints and takeaways in the progress of building such systems.

I have also worked with product development teams, individuals, stakeholders, marketing teams and customers to understand their varied views of a solution or a product. This has made me realise the significance of establishing a shared context for the communication of these parties. This includes finding and delineating an organisation, a medium, applied practices and agreements between teams and individuals of such group.

I have used and studied many other systems, both successes and failures. I believe there is a lot of benefit in learning from others and in appreciation of this opportunity I have dedicated this weblog to share my stories and experiences with all the community to be a small part of this culture of sharing.

My Favourite Topics

  • physics, quantum theory and entanglement
  • information theory
  • cybernetics
  • the riddle of security
  • linguistics, etymology and philology
  • ethics, anthropology and semiotics

I spend some of my leisure time contemplating design of design and relations between diverse fields of designs; if not that, then I’m probably getting myself busy with outdoor activities I like such as fishing or hiking, or staying in and listening to a good thriller, comedy podcast or an autobiography;