Hi, I'm Craig!

I am a full-time software developer, an amateur photographer, and a self-taught programmer.

📧 Contact me. Read more in each section below.

🎓 Computer Science - BAdvSci(Hons) @ The University of Auckland

I started my degree in 2020, and graduated at the end of 2023 with honours, receiving an A+ for my year-long solo research project.

👨‍💻 Self-taught programmer

If you're just interested in what this website is, please see anderserver.

If you're interested in what I've made, please see my projects, or a complete timeline.

When I was 13, I really wanted to make a video game. I didn't know how, so I never actually made it, but it forced me to start investigating the programmability of computers, rather than just their operation as a user. This has sparked a life-long fascination with making things, and making computers act how I think they should behave.

After a few years of dabbling in websites with HTML and CSS, I progressed to using the Construct 2 game engine, and subsequently Python, as part of my high schools digital technology programme. Thus began the golden years, where I would teach myself new things at home, apply them to in-class exercises and assignments, learn something in class, and apply it to my projects at home. It was a delicious cycle of continual growth and learning that yielded many fruits, as well as making me the developer I am today.

I also started trying my hand at the Unity3D game engine, which necessitated learning a new language: C#. It's probably no coincidence that my favourite languages are still CSS, Python, and C#. (If you're going to make me pick my favourite programming language, it'd have to be Python).

It was also at my high-school, this time in the electronics lab, where I was introduced to the wonderful world of embedded programming via PICAXE microcontrollers with their own BASIC language, as well as Arduino (and Arduino-compatible) microcontrollers that used C++ (or thereabouts).

Throughout university, I was given a more thorough understanding of many concepts, as well as a top-to-bottom knowledge of the entire computing stack, with several deep dives to particular slices (CPU's, assembly language, operating systems, object-oriented programming, human-computer interaction, computer networking).

I have since graduated with honours, and that just gives me more motivation to work on bigger and better things!

📷 Amateur photographer

I've been fascinated by cameras for nearly as long as I have had access to digital cameras. I made several attempts at "photography" with my Nintendo® 3DS, and my parent's Sony CyberShot digital camera before I finally purchased my own in late 2016 - a Nikon D3200. I've been an avid hobbyist ever since, with my best shots making it to my Instagram. A selection of my personal favourites is also available separately in my portfolio.

My love for photography stems from my own aesthetic needs, as well as my fascination with the technical equipment. I am always intrigued when deeply technical operations and machines are forced to interact with a consumer public, with all the tricks and techniques and abstractions which accompany such a combination.

To that end, I particularly enjoy having and using milestone photography gear, such as the first all-digital Nikon, the F-801, and the first eye-controlled autofocus viewfinder, the Canon EOS 5.