I’m a software engineer focused on backend Go development. Below is an overview of my public work on GitHub, showcasing everything from quick experiments to more substantial projects. Hopefully, it gives you a sense of who I am as a developer.

I’ve developed a series of VPN management tools, all named yVPN (short for "your VPN"). yVPN started as a way to make it easier for me to spin up VPN servers on Digital Ocean. For years, I’d manually set up OpenVPN on a Droplet, which was simple and cheap. But I realized my non-technical friends and family were stuck with commercial solutions. That’s when I decided to build yVPN—a tool that makes creating a personal VPN as easy as using a commercial service.

The first version was a Python app with a FastAPI backend and a Typer CLI client. It worked well but was still a Linux-only CLI tool—great for me, but not so much for non-technical users, so I abandoned it.

I then rewrote it in Go as a web app with server-side rendered elements and HTMX for interactivity. The Go version allowed users to easily spin up WireGuard exit nodes, configure clients, and share VPN access with friends and family. But again, I ended up shelving this version, more interested in tinkering than building a business.

Now, I’ve shifted the approach entirely. The current version is built as a Bubble Tea-based TUI, focused on a command-line experience I enjoy using. It’s not a web app or HTTP API—just a TUI that can spin up exit nodes anywhere with an SSH client. I’m using Tailscale to expose the nodes across all my devices seamlessly. This project is still evolving, and I see a lot of potential, including adding support for deploying more than just VPN exits and ideas for crowd-sourced project direction. This gets most of my bandwidth right now.

As a huge Neal Stephenson fan, I love the theme of alchemy in The Baroque Cycle. Inspired by this, I dove into the modern-day "alchemy" of building trading bots. Though I didn’t turn lead into gold, I learned a lot while creating Solid Eureka. Trading bots are a fun challenge, and I highly recommend trying it out.

I’ve always loved the tree command in Linux for its ability to visualize directory structures. This inspired me to build Tree Blog, a blogging system in Flask that uses a directory tree of markdown files. I also wrote my own markdown-to-HTML transpiler, though you’re better off using established tools for this!

Back in my undergrad days on the school's CTF team I was fascinated by cracking passwords. I worked with Hashcat and built a Java GUI wrapper. After completing it, I realized I’d built something nobody really wanted—myself included! A GUI wrapper for a terminal tool when I prefer terminal tools over GUIs!

• Built a Pushfight game board with Bubble Tea as a proof of concept.
• Created a tool for estimating toll costs.
• Developed a CTF challenge called Teatime.
• Wrote a webpage for my dad's podcast, tinkering with programmatically generating a page from a podcast RSS feed.
• Spent time practicing Rust using a book.
• Built a tool called Descent to explore old projects by recursively compiling README files into a single document.
• Developed a proof of concept for a device with 8-position switches that map to an LCD displaying ASCII/UTF-8 characters—code here.
• Created a game called Alien Invasion from Python Crash Course during an unfortunate leg injury.

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bnsmcx