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Back to writing, no rush this time

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Back to writing, no rush this time

Hey, I'm Jatniel 👋

I live in Les Landes, in southwest France, and that's where I work from as a freelance developer, mostly PHP backend: Symfony, Laravel, PrestaShop, APIs, e-commerce, and custom web projects. That's my turf, where I've spent the most years and where I move best.

But since I've never really been one to sit still, I also work with JavaScript and TypeScript, and every once in a while I wander off into Python, Go, Rust, or C, sometimes because the project calls for it, sometimes just to experiment and keep the gears from rusting. Because the itch to tinker has never gone away.

And I've been at it for a while. I started at 14, on a computer I built myself, running both Windows 3.11 and Debian Linux. Yes, on the same machine. And right there, among autoexec.bat files, partitions that broke every other week, and printed manuals, the real adventure began. That was over 20 years ago.

That's also where my formal training came from: I finished a technical degree in systems administration, the kind of program where you learn a machine from the ground up: networks, servers, operating systems, all the things that happen before the application even runs. And ever since, three things have been pulling at me in parallel: programming (obviously), electronics (whenever I get the chance, I tinker), and the world of security audits, which I still think is one of the most fascinating corners of this whole craft.

Where I come from

I'm Basque on my father's side from Hondarribia and Canarian on my mother's side from Tenerife. Two cultures I love deeply, and two cultures I owe a lot of who I am to: the stubborn streak from the north, the easygoing pace from the south. I love the Basque Country, I love the Canary Islands, and both of them feel like home. In both places I've met incredible people. And today I live in France, where my amazing wife is from, one more culture added to the suitcase, and one more place that feels like home.

Like some Spanish families, mine has its own story of emigration. I've got relatives in France, Germany, the United States, the Caribbean, South America… scattered across half the world. Getting to know some of them, hearing how people live, work, and think in other places, that opened my mind in a way I can't really overstate. And honestly, it shows up in my code too: once you've gotten used to the idea that there's more than one right way to live, it gets a lot easier to accept that there's more than one right way to solve a problem.

So why a blog now?

I'd already tried once. Back in 2015 or 2016, when Apple released Swift, I started a guide-style blog about the new language. I had the drive, I had the content, I even had a handful of readers… what I didn't have was time. Between projects, clients, and life in general, the whole thing went on indefinite pause. So here I am, almost a decade later, giving it another shot. Better late than never, right?

What you'll find here

I want this blog to be an honest place, no hype, no fluff. The kind of blog that would have helped me when I was starting out. Expect:

  • Tech news I actually find relevant (and why)
  • Practical tips I've tested on real projects
  • Tutorials and guides on the tools I use daily
  • Stories from the trenches — the good, the bad, and the truly painful
  • Lessons I've picked up from people with way more scars than me — that stuff isn't taught anywhere, and it's pure gold

I'm not promising three posts a week. I'm promising to post when I've got something worth your time.

Where to find me:

And I'll close with two words that have stuck with me forever, from that Apple ad back in '97, with Steve Jobs' voice in the background:

Think different.

If you know it, you know. If you don't, hit play.

Welcome to the blog. Welcome to Bytes.

— Jatniel

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