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Karol Piczak

So, eager to learn more about myself?

 

As you already know, my name is Karol Piczak. I'm 24 and counting, currently living in Warsaw, Poland. No pets, no wife so far. ;-)

 

For the time being I'm a student at the Warsaw School of Economics. I finished my undergraduate studies in 2009, and now I'm pursuing a MSc in Finance and Accounting. More about my professional career can be found on LinkedIn or GoldenLine (Polish).

 

IT background


My adventure with computers began somewhere in early 90's with MS-DOS based games (Xonix, Supaplex and the like) on 286, then 386 and 486. I still remember the good old times of doubling the RAM size to meet UFO: Enemy Unknown requirements (2 MB). Struggling with DOS when some problems occurred (insufficient memory, allocation between conventional/extended) was probably the time when IT tinkering gradually became my interest.

 

Over the years I took up a bit of web design, programming and general system/network administration. During high school times I participated in some programming contests (regionals) and general IT competitions (4th, 1st and 2nd place in respectively 1st, 2nd and 3rd Polish Computer Science Contest - Intersieć). I considered seriously going forward with CS studies, but in the end I landed in finance industry. From a broad perspective I'm confident it was a good choice - I still spend enough time around computers even without a regular day-to-day coder job, as IT and computers are my major hobby at the moment. In the (distant) future I would like to grasp more on general electronics and maybe embedded systems.

 

IT skills


I like to learn new things in various fields of computer knowledge, trying not to typecast myself into one niche. Certainly though, there are some areas where my expertise is more profound - I concentrate mostly on Linux and general networking stuff when it comes to administration, C++ & PHP for programming and a bit of other minor things (design, 2D graphics). Nevertheless, there's a plethora of technologies waiting yet to be discovered - as you can see on my extended SourceForge.net's skill listing:

 

IT area (most recent experience at top) Competency matrix / Dreyfus level
Operating systems
Linux
  • mostly Debian (servers) and Ubuntu (desktop)
  • a bit of Slackware (particularly Slax) and other breeds (CentOS/Mandrake) + LFS
 log(n) 5 Expert
Windows workstation family
  • Windows 7
  • Windows XP
  • Windows Me
  • Windows 98
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 3.1(1)
 log(n) 5 Expert
BSD/UNIX
  • FreeBSD
  • OpenBSD
  • NetBSD
  • OpenSolaris
 n2 2 Advanced beginner
Novell
  • OES
  • Netware 6.5
 2n 1 Novice (rudimentary knowledge)
MS-DOS n 4 Past proficient (skills get rusty a bit in here)
Windows server family
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows NT
 n2 2 Advanced beginner
Programming
Java 2n 1 Learning
R n 4 Competent
MATLAB n 4 Competent
Python n 4 Competent
Ruby (and Rails) n 4 Competent
JavaScript n 4 Competent
PHP
  • love pushing PHP's OOP to the limits
  • OK with Smarty, Kohana and CodeIgniter
  • learning symfony at the moment
 log(n) 5 Expert
C++
  • ANSI C
  • strong OOP C++
  • Frameworks:
    • Qt (good knowledge)
    • .NET (basic)
    • VCL (basic)
    • pure Win32 API (hope not to repeat it)
 log(n) 5 Expert
ActionScript & Flex
  • Flex 3 & 4
  • Framework: Mate
 2n 2 Advanced beginner (learning)
Shell scripting
  • sh/BASH
  • Shell = Linux :-)
 n 4 Proficient
Pawn
  • AKA Small
  • including AMX Mod X libraries
 log(n) 5 Expert
Pascal n 3 Competent (not currently using)
Perl n2 2 Advanced beginner (competent in the past, needs refreshing)
Visual Basic
  • more closely VBA
  • a bit of VB.NET
  • I tend to forget the syntax all the time ;-)
 2n 2 Advanced beginner (Basically OK ;-), but I don't like it)
Lua 2n 1 Novice (used once, don't want to learn right now)
Assembly 2n 1 Novice (want to learn more, no time)
C# 2n 1 Novice (on the list to learn)
Haskell 2n 1 Novice (on the list to learn)
F# 2n 1 Novice (on the list to learn)
ASP.NET 2n 1 Novice (no experience)
Algorithms & data structures
  • I learned my share when going for programming contests, quite enjoyable at the time, though exhausting
  • cheers to all Cormen's fans ;-)
 log(n) 5 Expert
Version control systems
  • used to be mostly SVN
  • CVS in the past
  • now basically Git/Mercurial only
 log(n) 4 Proficient
Software development
  • a mix of Agile/Scrum, RAD and TDD depending on a project
  • no matter what methodology, just GTD
 n 3 Competent
Testing
  • Still struggling to go TDD on a regular basis
  • rspec, phpUnit, Cucumber, Behat, a very small bit of Selenium
 n2 2 Advanced beginner
Build automation
  • (no continuous integration experience yet)
 n 2 Advanced beginner
Databases
MySQL n 4 Proficient
MonetDB n2 2 Advanced beginner
MongoDB n 3 Competent
InfiniDB n2 2 Advanced beginner
PostgreSQL n2 2 Advanced beginenr
MSSQL 2n 1 Novice (want to learn)
Oracle 2n 1 Novice (Ehm, still zero experience)?
Other
Web design
  • (X)HTML, CSS
  • avidly trying to stay with the standards, I probably not always manage
 log(n) 5 Expert
Security issues
  • always trying to compromise between security and convenience, I mostly err more on the safe side
    • that doesn't mean I'm not lazy at times
    • FYI: I don't use tinfoil hats
  • and seriously now - I like tinkering with firewalls, IDS and some vulnerability assessments (please, no hacking), but I still can't get a grasp on real cryptology
 log(n) 5 Expert (at times paranoid)
Networking
  • all-round small to medium scale issues
  • unfortunately I lack on big scale routing
  • thought about CCNA - looks like fun, shame I don't need it (+recertifications), but the books are quite good
 n 4 Proficient
Hardware
  • generally no problems (able to solve my problems alone)
  • I'm no geeky modder or overclocker - don't ask me about this
  • still clumsy with the soldering gun - in general much to work on in electronics (theory & practice)
 n 4 Proficient
2D raster graphics
  • mostly Photoshop CS3 (thanks to Adobe Student programme)
 n 4 Proficient
Video editing
  • NLE: Sony Vegas (not pro, the consumer edition)
 n2 3 Competent
Virtualization
  • Xen, KVM, OpenVZ for VPS
  • VirtualBox and VMWare for desktop
  • daily use:
    • Win XP guest on a Ubuntu VirtualBox host (desktop)
    • multiple virtual servers on a Debian host (also VBox)
    • Xen VPS (fortunately from the user side)
 n 4 Proficient
TeX/LaTeX n2 3 Competent (I manage when I have to)
2D vector graphics
  • Adobe Illustrator CS3
  • at times Corel DRAW X3
 n2 2 Advanced beginner (intermediate)
3D modelling
  • now using Blender
  • OK with modelling, little experience with HQ texturing, almost none with animation
  • a small episode with 3ds Max
 n2 2 Advanced beginner (still not sufficient)
Music (sound, no lighting)
  • trying to use REAPER to some purpose
  • now fiddling a bit with Native Instruments software
  • used (more true: thought about using) Synapse Orion in the past
  • all-round system use - Audacity
 n2 3 Competent (improving, though much to work on)
Embedded systems
  • 1 router revamped, 1 bricked
 n2 2 Advanced beginner (want to learn more here)
 

Other hobbies and interests


As you already know a lot about my IT related hobbies, a short note here concerning my other interests so that you don't think I'm a total geek (I bet you do either way).

  • Economics (finance), law and a bit of mathematics
    • This is quite straightforward. I'm passionate about finance, this is my job, my studies and a big part of my life. Hard not to like it (otherwise there would be something wrong with my career path, I suppose). My strongest point is all around financial markets, though I think I have a decent base in general economics too (apart from macroeconomics, which I just can't grasp in a way I would like to).
    • I enjoy sailing into the waters of law related problems (not always connected with finance), mostly out of sheer curiosity, but in the end I'm no lawyer.
    • The same goes about maths - by "a bit" I mean more than bare minimum for economics (maybe towards quant in the future, who knows?), but way less than for an engineer. Though, when I look at mathoverlow.net, I think my math education ended at primary school level.
  • Learning foreign languages
    • I've spent a lot of time on this, and I always liked it. ASP, Java and the like can pass, real world languages won't (talking about the big ones, right?).
    • More about my skills in this area at the bottom of this page. At the moment I'm in the defensive - trying not to forget what I've already learnt.
    • Someday, I would like to grasp enough Mandarin to read a newspaper, but for the time being it's too big a time investment to spare.
  • Books
    • Well, I like books in general. Reading, collecting - looking at my shelf it's probably the other way round. Now it's the boring (for a passer-by) professional stuff that mostly gets into my hands, in the past of course more technical. For fun I like reading fantasy, a bit of sci-fi and technothrillers.
    • More thorough information can be found in my goodreads profile.
  • Music
    • Passive side: first of all - instrumental and electronic music. Plus a big portion of soundtracks. I won't say no to some good pop or 80's either.
    • There's not much sense in wrting too much here, just check out my Last.fm profile for detailed stats.
    • Active side: I used to play keyboard/piano in primary school. Let's be honest, not always passionate about it. Long ago, lack of formal training, so there's a lot to catch up, but once again - in small doses - it can be quite enjoyable. I'm occasionally fiddling with Reaper/NI KORE with no audible effects so far. Hopefully this will change.
  • Sport
    • When it comes to team-oriented recreation, volleyball is the game. Active and passive.
    • Individually: recreational running at medium distances and skiing (a bit clumsy mix of carving and classic technique, no snowboard).
  • Dancing
    • I had a very pleasant episode with ballroom dancing (amateur, purely for fun) and elementary salsa. Not dancing any longer, maybe sometime in the future.
  • Photography
    • Unfortunately, it's more of a theoretic hobby. I really like to fathom the ins and outs of photography, but I lack the time and motivation for some decent scenery shooting. At least I will have something to do when I retire. ;-)

Languages


To the point, you can try communicating with me in those languages. Probably with different results.

Language Level Comments
PL Polish Native based on past experience, I suggest you try this option first
EN English C2, CPE there's a good chance we will be able to understand each other
FR French C1
 there's still a chance (assuming you're not French ;-))
DE German C1/B2 we can talk about economics, the more trivial the subject, the harder it gets :-)
ES Spanish B2/B1 if you like me and have a lot of time & patience, why not?
RU Russian A2 if you're not a hot Russian girl, then we will probably have problems understanding each other
IT Italian A1 1 term only, OK with reading, but don't expect anything but "buongiorno" from my side