Wild Tech Garden

Daniel F. Dickinson

Realizing a passion for life and tech for the common good

A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater

Daniel F. Dickinson1 (he/them) has been using and exploring computer and electronic technologies for over four decades2 while continuing to learn and update his skills. ( see Daniel F. Dickinson’s resume). This has included recently obtaining his CompTIA A+ • ce Certification, cross-skilling on Microsoft’s Power Platform, re-learning Yocto (Linux), maintaining websites built using Hugo, getting up to speed with current OpenWrt, and working as the IT Manager / Integration Analyst at Ambient Activity. Daniel also maintained the Node.js package perfectionist-dfd on NPM and ensured his proficiency with modern Windows as well as various flavours of Linux (for desktop, server, and embedded systems).

This is all layered on top of Daniel’s Bachelor of Computing from the University of Guelph.

Computer code Daniel has written and other technical work is present in various open source and proprietary3 projects. He has also has many of his own repositories on GitHub under the username danielfdickinson as well as on Gitlab, also with the username danielfdickinson.

Daniel also enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. This included being a critical member of a team of volunteers that created and implemented a successful robotics programme for kids 8-12 (eight to twelve) called Bots and Bytes (offsite PDF) at the Midland Public Library. In the same vein, Daniel volunteers with the Gateway Centre for Learning in Midland, Ontario. Daniel has also been serving as a board member for the Midland Public Library since appointed for this term of (Town of Midland) council.

On a completely different note, Daniel occasionally volunteers at the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre for special events where he greets and processes admissions for guests. He hopes to be a Trail Ambassador at the Wye Marsh, but so has had too many other commitments to do so, to date. He believes it would be good for him, enjoyable, and be a service to the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre and its guests.

  1. Daniel uses his middle initial online because there are a surprising number of people named Daniel Dickinson to be found in online searches, including a historical figure and a character in a TV series. ↩︎

  2. Daniel’s interest in tech began in grade school with the Commodore 64 (for which he wrote a hidden TSR4 early in his high school career, not realizing the implications of what he was doing). This interest carried onto PC’s with DOS, then Windows 3.1, and continues with the current generation of desktop, mobile, and embedded (smart) devices and covers multiple operating systems. ↩︎

  3. Since the proprietary projects are not owned by Daniel, he can’t show them to you. ↩︎

  4. People will tell you that this is technically impossible. If you have the right documentation (Daniel had the Jim Butterfield books), use the chainable hook (wedge) for the keyboard, and (prevented on modern operating systems and hardware) use self-modifying and self-relocating code (and you don’t know or believe that it’s impossible) you can make magic happen. Of course the technique ends up meaning you have to use special tricks if you cannot avoid using the kernel routines (because part of the secret was that Daniel had to swap out the kernel ROM to access the RAM underneath). Daniel thinks there is even a printout of the code in a relative’s stack of boxes in the house where Daniel lives. ↩︎

Modifying install images

Modifying packages that are part of the install diskless boot (e.g. on install media), or the parameters that can be accepted by the boot process, is a little more involved than modifying individual packages, especially for netboot images.

July 9, 2022 by Daniel F Dickinson4 minutes

1Y 1Q into Return to Work

1Y 1Q into Return to Work

It's been a successful year and quarter for my return to work effort, and I like to believe I have had a positive impact at the company I work for ‒ Ambient Activity. While there have been challenges it's been exciting to refresh and renew the technology infrastructure and product technology platform at Ambient Activity, with more in the works.

May 14, 2025 by Daniel F Dickinson3 minutes

Deep Fried

Deep Fried

Things got even busier during the holiday season than I wrote in Busy, Busy, Busy; especially at work. We were quite fried, but we've survived.

January 13, 2025 by Daniel F Dickinson3 minutes

Busy, Busy, Busy

Daniel F. Dickinson has been keeping extremely busy with employment, other technical activities - not the mention the snow removal that is required in Midland - and his self-motivated volunteering hours.

December 12, 2024 by Daniel F Dickinson2 minutes

Deep in Windows Tech

In fact I am quite interested in what I am working on, and am happy to be learning new things. Unfortunately, not sleeping well and other frustrations, have marred my enjoyment of my current circumstances. Still, I will prevail.

August 9, 2024 by Daniel F Dickinson2 minutes

Loose Screws

While it once might have been said that I had a few screws loose, nowadays I am not only getting things done, I am thinking clearly and coherently (except when exhausted of course, but that is to be expected). I've also been too busy to spend too much time on politics or news and all the things that I cannot change.

June 2, 2024 by Daniel F Dickinson5 minutes

Song of natural freedom