online · Hobart, Tasmania

whoami

TassieGamerHD

systems administrator · gamer · Tasmania

Systems administrator by trade, gamer by default. I keep infrastructure quiet and dependable during the day, then spend the evening on the PlayStation or watching the JackJumpers run the floor. This page is part introduction, part lab notebook for the things I like to automate.

tassiegamerhd@homelab: ~

$ cat profile.json

{
  "role":     "Systems Administration / IT",
  "location": "Hobart, Tasmania, AU",
  "platform": "PlayStation",
  "teams":    ["JackJumpers", "Spurs", "Carlton"],
  "current":  "Poke vs. Barry"
}

About

I work in IT and systems administration, which mostly means I make sure the things people depend on keep running without anyone having to think about them. Backups that actually restore, machines that patch themselves, services that come back on their own after a power blip - the unglamorous reliability that only gets noticed when it is missing.

That same instinct follows me home, where a small rack of hardware and a set of always-on agents handle the household automation. If a task happens more than twice, I would rather script it once than do it a third time. Lately the most interesting part of that habit has been figuring out where a phone-first assistant like Poke fits next to Barry, the cloud agent I built and already run.

What I do

Systems & infrastructure

Keeping servers, networks, and services healthy. Monitoring, backups, and the quiet maintenance that prevents 2am phone calls.

Automation first

Scripts and schedules over manual clicks. Anything repeatable gets handed to a machine so the time goes somewhere better.

Home lab in Tasmania

A modest setup running scheduled jobs alongside Barry, a cloud agent I built - my testbed for ideas before they touch anything real.

Off the clock

GamingFollowing four teams across three sports

PlayStation

Main platform

Where most of the off-hours go. Single-player when there is time to sink in, online when there is not.

Basketball · NBL

Tasmania JackJumpers

Home team in every sense. Loud nights at the arena and the kind of underdog energy that is hard not to love.

Basketball · NBA

San Antonio Spurs

Old-school discipline and a system that keeps reloading. Easy to respect a team that does the boring things well.

AFL

Carlton Blues

The navy blue allegiance. Equal parts hope and heartbreak, renewed every single season.

Why I'm into Poke

As someone who automates for a living, a good assistant is judged on one thing: does it remove work or add it? Poke earns its place because it is mobile-first. I have plenty of tools that demand a terminal and full attention. What I did not have was something that handled the small stuff straight from my pocket - and that gap is exactly where it fits.

trigger

It lives where I already am

The whole point of Poke is that it works from my phone over messaging. No console, no SSH session, no app to open - I describe what I want in plain language from wherever I happen to be standing.

schedule

Automations that run themselves

Reminders, follow-ups, and small recurring jobs handed off once and left to run. The mobile-first angle means I can set them up on the walk to the car instead of waiting until I am back at a keyboard.

delegate

Offloading the busywork

The fiddly, low-stakes tasks that pile up - chasing a thread, drafting a quick message, nudging me at the right moment - go to Poke so my attention stays on the work that actually needs me.

Poke vs. Barry

Barry is the cloud agent I built and run myself - bespoke, tuned to my workflows, and entirely under my control. Poke is the new arrival. So I do what any sysadmin would: I run them side by side and let the work decide. This is the ongoing benchmark.

metric

Pokecloud

Barrycustom cloud

Where it lives

Cloud, reached over messaging from my phone

Cloud, a custom agent I built and host myself

How I reach it

A text, from anywhere with signal

My own interface, wired into the tools I already use

Best at

Quick, mobile, in-the-moment automation

Bespoke workflows tuned exactly how I want them

Setup cost

Open a chat and ask

I built and maintain it - more control, more upkeep

Personality

Eager and quick on the draw

Opinionated, customised, and very much my creation

verdict: not a contest so much as a roster. Barry runs the bespoke, hand-built workflows; Poke takes everything that needs to happen quickly from my phone.