In September of 2019 I decided it was time for me to have some technical experience. I was becoming increasingly interested in studying engineering, but had absolutely no idea what it really meant to do anything professional, hands-on, or related to the world of technology. I needed exposure and direction, so I put together a resumé and reached out to people I knew in Singapore. Three months later I was lucky to be taken in by some wonderful people at Cloudflare. Three months and two days later and I was lucky to have started on this website.

Located in an impressive skyscraper in Singapore's Central Business District, as well as in 195 other cities around the world, Cloudflare is a company that aspires to create a better internet. Their software services improve the security and performance of clients websites' and other web-based resources. Their teams do lots of work, but also find time to improve the knowledge of 19-year-olds that don't know the first thing about much: especially computers, programming, or the internet of things.

Given the bit of preliminary research I did before arriving, I feel like I have learned more in a few weeks here than I have in four months of university. I am looking forward to the duration of my time here, and for the sake of posterity, what follows are the day to day experiences and major learning points that I record. Links will direct you to notes I have compiled on various topics.

Day 1 Takeaways

• Software engineers are logical beings. This extends to their philosophy surrounding "professional attire".

• This is how the internet works. 

• Engineering = creativity + technical ability

• A raspberry pi is not edible. However, it is capable of being programmed into a small web server. 

Day 2 Takeaways

• Linux

• porkbun.com and domains

• Not starboard, but port(s)

• The importance of sudo

• <title> HTML </title> and PHP

Day 3 Takeaways

• You must unzip bludit-3-10-0

• Super-powered sudo strikes again

• Proxy likes me better today, but even tech companies have tech issues

Day 4 Takeaways

• Feeling secure is important... queue SSL

• Syntax is just as crucial in computer language as in human language; No one likes errors in punctuation.

• All things happen in due time, just have patience with your pi and your personal hotspot

Day 5 Takeaways

• HTML is cool, and anyone can learn it

• Cloudflare is also really cool, and the workplace is fun!

Day 6 Takeaways

• Teamwork, knowledge sharing, and communication is increasingly important as a company grows

• How many (ni)C(k)NAMES would you have to resolve if you were included in a DNS?

• VPNs are so much more than a way to watch The Office in Singapore

• Save your blog post drafts before walking out of range with your iPhone that hotspots your web server... 

• GeeksforGeeks.

Day 7 Takeaways

• Software vs Hardware 

• Parsing = breaking something into meaningful parts

• Cloudflare Workers "Service as a function" is pretty applicable to life in general. Given an opportunity, the extent to which you take advantage is on you.

Day 8 Takeways

• Electricity

• Italians make good cappuccinos, but they also make really cool Beginner Kits: Arduino

• 0b 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100001 !

Day 9 Takeaways

• What grade is better than a C+? C++

• Still trying to learn exactly how the internet works, but Magic Transit (brought to you by Cloudflare!) makes it work even better

Day 10 Takeaways

• How to properly breadboard & use your Prototype Shields 

• It isn't actually -26°C in Singapore, but I made a temperature sensor circuit!

• Hopefully this is coming

Day 11 Takeaways

• Caching, servers, and making content "always" accessible, even when offline

• Powering a tiny little fan with Arduino

Day 12 Takeaways

• You can still be a successful genius and not know much calculus

• OLEDs and other displays

Day 13 Takeaways 

• How electronics communicate 

• Encryption 101

• A tiny taste of Modulation

• Computers can't feel or make coffee or be creative, but they also can't solve the unsolvable because they can't handle infinite loops

Day 14 Takeaways

• The evolution of Cloudflare... putting hardware and software services in the cloud

• VNC Viewer is really cool

• Pi cannot connect to an enterprise network, but can connect to wifi at home

Day 15 Takeaways

• LED vs LCD screens and the orientation of colored spheres

• Success running motdujour.py finally!

Day 16 Takeaways

• The draw of python as a high-level, dynamic, and object-oriented language

• My first Turtle Program

• A good text for people wishing to Think Like a Computer Scientist ft Python3

Day 17 Takeaways

• Public Speaking is an art

• crontab has your back for scheduling tasks to run automatically on your pi 

• Always copy & paste or utilize existing code... DON'T waste your time writing something that already exists

Day 18

• Editing cron configuration on the pi (MAILTO "") to fix error

• APIs are how different software applications communicate to make user's lives easier

• Sim Lim Tower is "a geek's Sephora" according to Nerio. We walked in looking for a small LCD screen and walked out nearly $200 later. He might be right.

Day 19

• How a handover works between company's... Cloudflare ensures the internet is safe around the clock!

• What is in store for Cloudflare in 2020? Sales and Engineering (the two sides of the company) come together in peace for the annual kickoff

• The Always Online feature offered with Cloudflare, and what exactly does it mean to have someone crawling on your site?

• 70% of the internet = porn, gambling, and Netflix

• The BBC & micro:bit