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Arjen Wiersma

My name is Arjen. I am a Cyber Security Consultant for Scyon. I help organisations with their Application Security, Offensive Security and (Cyber) Business needs. Roles that I like to fulfill: (C)ISO, Security Engineer, Engineer Manager, Senior Developer (Java or Rust).

I have been in the software and security industry for almost 30 years and have worked in:

  • Internet providers (Chello / UPC, Tiscali - NL): Java
  • Startups (Personify - USA, eBuddy - NL): Java, Big Data
  • Healthcare and FinTech (Infomedics - NL): Java and dotNet - Managed the IT and Development teams
  • EduTech (NOVI - NL): Managed the development team building in Serverless, Javascript
  • Education (Hogeschool van Amsterdan / NOVI - NL): teaching software security and software engineering courses
  • Cyber Security (Independent): helping organisations with their security posture

I am a member of:

  • NLJUG: The dutch Java user group
  • VERSEN: The dutch association of software engineers
  • OWASP: The OWASP Netherlands chapter

In 2024 I completed my Masters’ Degree. My research topic was BiDE, a language and architecture for the creation of bidirectional diagrammatic editors. In essence a way to modify program text using diagrams and text at the same time, allowing stakeholders of different backgrounds to work on the same system at the same time. I worked on this thesis with Bastiaan Heeren (Open Universiteit) and Jurgen Vinju (Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica).

In my spare time I love to explore the cutting edge of software engineering, exploring new languages such as Rust, Clojure and Golang in combination with Large Language Models and their novel applications.

I toot on the fediverse as @credmp@fosstodon.org and on @arjenwiersma.nl on Blue Sky.

Find my longer form writings in the Writing Category.

The views on this site are my own.

Recent posts

  1. The things I read this week (24)

    Software Engineering

    In my feed the opening talk by DHH at Rails World 2024 popped up, most notably due his stance on the reduction of complexity in running an online business. He promotes running your own (virtual) hardware, reducing build pipelines and not using Platform as a Service providers (#nopaas). Watch it below.

  2. The things I read this week (23)

    Tech in general

    I learned that most of the layoffs in the US are not so much about AI taking jobs. Sure, there are bound to be a bunch of people that are no longer employed because their jobs was easily replaced by a system, but there is more then meets the eye. In “The hidden time bomb in the tax code that’s fueling mass tech layoffs” explores the tax rule that was changed under Trump-I, section 174, which basically no longer allows companies to write-off R&D effort in the current fiscal year.

  3. How vibe coding fails

    How Vibe Coding Fails

    Up to now
    The video I am commenting on below is part of a series called Vibe-coding in het onderwijs. So far, the series has been excellent! It shows teachers how they can create small tools for their class using AI such as ChatGPT and bolt.new. The projects featured had very little actual logic or complexity, and the use of AI was spot-on!

    Now, take a look at the following video. If you don’t know any Dutch, Tom is using bolt.new to create an AI chatbot that simulates a difficult HR conversation. How this relates to education isn’t relevant here; the point is that he wants to demonstrate the use of a model with a frontend.

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