iSteve.ca — Steve, in Canada
I build web systems that hold up.
Web developer and information systems administrator. PHP, Go, JavaScript, Docker — shipped small, kept running, boring in the best way. I also cook, seriously.
Selected work
A few things worth showing. Real projects replace these entries — the layout won't change.
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2024—
Business platform in production
Multi-tenant business directory and admin console — data import pipeline, role-based auth, sessions, CSV/Excel reporting. Plain PHP and MariaDB behind FrankenPHP in Docker.
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2020—
Internal tools day job
Systems administration for a working organization: user and permission management, monitoring, backups, and the small scripts that keep an office honest. If it runs unattended, I wrote it to survive me going on vacation.
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ongoing
Container-first everything practice
Local dev and deployment via Docker Compose: app, database, cache, TLS. One command up, one command down, nothing installed on the host that matters. Reproducible by default.
How I work
Tools chosen for boring reliability, not novelty. The interesting part is what gets built with them.
PHP
Where I'm most at home. Modern PHP 8+, namespaced modules, Composer, real auth with sessions and RBAC. Frameworks when they earn it, plain PHP when they don't.
Go
For the things PHP shouldn't do: small services, workers, single-binary tools that deploy anywhere and never wake me up.
JavaScript
Progressive enhancement first. HTMX for most of it, vanilla JS for the rest. The page should work before the framework arrives.
Docker
Every project ships as a compose stack — app, database, cache. Dev matches prod, and "works on my machine" stops being a sentence.
SQL & data
MariaDB, SQLite, careful schemas, honest indexes. Import pipelines that validate before they write and report what they did.
Ops & admin
Information systems administration: users, permissions, backups, monitoring, and documentation that the next person can actually use.
AI
LLMs and coding agents as working tools: review, scaffolding, docs, and unattended batch work. Used where they earn it — same boring-reliability bar as everything else here.
Repair & networking
Hardware and OS troubleshooting, wired and Wi-Fi networks, small-office setups that don't fall over. Diagnose before replacing, document what was done, and label the cables.
Beyond the keyboard
Cooking is the other craft. Same discipline: prep everything first, heat is a tool, taste as you go, clean as you go. Stir-fry's are his love language.
“Mise en place is just version control for dinner.”
Say hello
Best by email. I read everything.
- Emailhello@isteve.ca
- LocationCanada (UTC−5)
- AvailabilityOpen to interesting projects
Swap in the real address and any links (GitHub, LinkedIn) when they're ready — the row structure holds.