Hi there. Since you’re here, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Michael “Mike” Di Nicola. I’m a developer/DevOps engineer living in the Greater Toronto Area.
I’ve always been passionate about idea of automation and trying to solve problems to make everyday life a little easier. Even when something doesn’t really need to be automated, sometimes it’s still fun to try, just because I can.
Growing up, I wanted to a computer programmer, even before knowing really what that meant. I wanted to be part of creating the software I used or the video games I played.
I remember reading Jurassic Park for the first time, and learning that they used a specialized operating system to control the park (at this time, I only really knew about Windows). In the novel, it was supposedly created by one person, or at least that’s how I remember it. For some reason, I found this to be very cool and motivational. Later that year, I created my very first website. It was a Dragon Ball Z fan site written in plain HTML and hosted on GeoCities. Unfortunately, I lost access to it over the years.
I graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Throughout my university career I started to get a real sense of how diverse and broad the development field actually is. I enjoy web development, so I thought that would be the field I would go into. At the time though, I had no idea about DevOps or how I would come to love it.
My professional career started out in testing with the intention to try and switch over to development at some point. As time went on, my roles shifted and transformed into what we now call DevOps, which seemed like an ideal fit for me and I love it to this day. It is a perfect blend of the things I am passionate about, including problem solving, automation, and creating tools and processes to help others with their daily tasks.
In my free time outside of the developer world, I enjoy reading, mostly science-fiction or fantasy novels. I also enjoy playing video games, relaxing and watching movies or TV shows, or spending time with friends and family.
All in all, as a young me would put it, I am living my dream of being a “computer programmer”.