About Me

Introduction

My name is Arul and I'm the creator and maintainer of this website.

I work as a principal software engineer at NASA. In my spare time, I maintain this website and update my blog.

History of ArulJohn.com

I started this website in Fall 2000 with the IP address tracking tool that helps you look up IP addresses.

I added the MAC address lookup utility and subsequently couple of dozen other utilities.

I also wrote several articles and blogged here.

You may look at my code section for code samples and my GitHub profile.

There is an API section which is free to use.

What Technologies Were Used For ArulJohn.com?

The current website is built using a combination of Python (for static page generation), PHP (dynamic webpages) and Rust 🦀 (for APIs).

My Background

I've programmed since 1988-1989 when I was in the 8th grade. We didn't have Computer Science in school at that time in India, so it was all self-learnt. I began with BASIC and moved on to C, Java, Perl, .NET and other languages and frameworks. Along the way, I picked a couple of Masters degrees in Computer Science.

Technologies

I work with these programming languages and frameworks at work and personal projects.

✅ Python: Python is an amazing language and I use it for most things these days. I teach Python to elementary school kids who are in my ACSL and USACO classes. I am writing a book on Python for elementary school kids, so stay tuned!

✅ Java: The first time I used Java was from the 1.0 days, and used it a lot academically. However, I was never much into Java into my professional career. For more than a decade, I did not use Java. For my current job, I have started using Java again.

✅ Node.JS I use NodeJS with Express and love it. It is simple and fast for my needs at work.

✅ Rust I have started using Rust at work and for a few of my personal projects. The API section of this website was built in Rust. It is a lovely language and the compiled binary is way faster than anything else, including that of Go's.

✅ PHP: PHP is underrated, but I love this language. I use it mostly for personal use or for clients who are on shared web hosting.

Technologies that I do not use anymore

✅ Ruby: Ruby is a beautiful language and I used it for several years. I started with Sinatra and stuck on to Rails. I do not use Ruby anymore.

✅ Go (Golang) Go is a super fast language and I used it for developing web services. Most of my Go webservices used SQLite or Postgres databases and can be up to 20 times faster than the Python equivalent. Since I moved on to Rust, I put a hold on Go.

🐪 Perl: I started my career with Perl and even named my daughter after its homonym (Pearl). Perl phased itself out upon the advent of Perl 6 (Raku or whatever they call it now). Sadly, Perl allowed itself to get kicked out of various companies and has a near-to-zero corporate presence.

Databases

I use Postgres, MongoDB, MySQL, SQLite on varying levels and depending on the situation and dataset sizes.

Aquarium Stuff

I maintain a couple of aquariums at home.

Contact Me

If you want to contact me, my email address is arulbOsutkNiqlzziyties@gNqmaizl.bkcom.