👋 Hi, I'm Mike!
I'm a husband, I'm a father, and I'm Catholic. I'm an Ubuntu Linux user, and I'm a staff software engineer at Strava. I've been at Strava more than five years and I continue to love working on an app I'm passionate about while solving interesting problems along the way!
Over the course of my career, I've worked for a variety of tech companies (Pariveda, SpotX, and Zen Planner), and I even taught high school math for a couple years as part of the Denver Teacher Residency. I have experience working on performance, scalability, feature development, systems architecture, and developer experience in a wide range of technologies including Linux, Ruby, PHP, Scala, Java, SQL, Redis, Kafka, Javascript, and Android. I enjoy solving diverse technical challenges, from fine-tuning database queries to improving user experience or architecting new systems that can handle our growing user base.
In my free time, I enjoy working on DIY tech projects, from 3D printing and electronics to home networking and Linux laptops. I write about these projects here on my blog, along with software development tutorials and technology reviews, to share what I learn along the way in hopes that others find it interesting and useful too!
Recent Blog Posts
Laptop Review: Nimo N153 R5 6600H
21 Apr 2025 · ReviewsIf you’ve read some of my past blog posts (like My $500 Developer Laptop or The Best Computer You can Buy for $100), you might already know I enjoy finding good technology on a budget. So when Nimo reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing one of their laptop models, I was really excited! Nimo sells laptops primarily online, and takes pride in offering lower prices than many mainstream brands. I was especially interested to try their N153 laptop with a Ryzen 5 processor to see how it compares to the Intel processors I’m used to.
I Fought the IRS for Over $12K – and WON!
13 Apr 2025 · ProjectsThis is a story about how I overpaid my 2021 taxes due to an error in TurboTax and spent nearly three years trying to recover more than $12,000 from the IRS! I began writing this back in 2022, in the midst of frustration with TurboTax and the IRS, but waited to finish writing and publish it until I knew the ending. And I’m happy to say that although I had nearly given up hope, I successfully recovered my $12K tax refund, with interest, in 2025! I want to share the story not only because I think it’s fascinating, but because I also hope it helps anyone else who finds themself in a similar situation.
Apps
