Hello and thanks for stopping by!
First things first: my full name is Julio Manuel Merino Vidal but I usually go for its shorter form: Julio Merino. I was born in 1984 in Barcelona, Spain, where I spent all of my childhood and went through graduate studies. In 2009 I moved to Dublin, Ireland, for a couple of years; then to New York City in 2011; and finally to Redmond, WA in 2020. I am married and have two kids.
My alias across the web is jmmv, which stands for the initials of my full name. I started using this alias back in the very early 2000s when IRC was popular.
Highlights
Blog System/5
My newsletter on operating systems, build systems, programming languages, software engineering, and my own software projects. Specifics include my learnings from my time at Google, Microsoft, and Snowflake, and my work on projects such as FreeBSD, Linux, Rust, Bazel and EndBASIC.
EndBASIC
A retro-looking BASIC interpreter made for the web. Simplifies the coding experience for learning purposes by mimicking the computers of the 80s. Sports a DOS-like interface, built-in editor, graphics and GPIO support for immediate feedback, and cloud storage drivers for file sharing. Runs on your browser but also on your favorite desktop OS.
EndTRACKER
A collection of web services to supercharge your static websites. Offers privacy-respecting analytics, comments, page voting, and email subscriptions. Use the provided JavaScript client or build your own via the REST interface.
The real about
Contact
You can reach me via the most common methods:
Software developer
My primary job and hobby are both centered around software development. My expertise is in production backends, Unix-like operating systems, and build systems. I thoroughly enjoy writing Rust and designing easily testable systems, but I'm also fluent in C++, Go, Python, and shell scripting to name a few.
I have authored many Open Source projects and contributed to a few existing ones, including NetBSD, Gnome, and FreeBSD. Although I know Linux, I am a BSD "believer". These days, my free time goes mosty into a EndBASIC, a fun little project I want to use to teach programming to (my) kids.
Continue by reading my list of projects...
Engineer at work
I am a Software Engineer by profession. At work I am recognized for "seeing the forest and the trees", writing comprehensive designs, authoring clean code, developing extensive test suites, and steadily delivering results with attention to the finest detail. I enjoy working on infrastructure-level software and my "motto" is simple: production software can be beautiful; you just need to hold it to the same high standards as you would user-visible products.
I am currently employed by Snowflake as a Senior Software Engineer 2 who works in Developer Experience Productivity. I was previously employed by Microsoft as a Principal Software Engineer in Azure Storage, and by Google as a Software Engineer in Bazel and a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) in internal and cloud storage systems.
Am I available for hire and/or long-term freelance work? Maybe. Ask me. Sell me your project.
Continue by reading my resume or visiting my LinkedIn profile...
Writer as time permits
I enjoy writing essays on software development, ranging from personal experiences to opinion pieces (with varying degrees of "success"). My blog has been alive since 2004 and has moved around quite a bit, but this site is where I collect all originals.
Continue by looking at the archive...
