About

UnderMyHat.org is an initiative of Abel Braaksma or Kandura and aims to be a technical blog of some level. It’s like any other blog with the exception that it doesn’t fire and forget the blogposts, instead, posts are continuously updated and are given time to mature. If you find a topic of interest, subscribe to the post to be notified of any updates.

Abel Braaksma & Kandura

Abel Braaksma is an independent consultant who currently lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Kandura is Abel but is also a bunny. Born in 1974, he has 18 years experience in information technology, ranging from hardware schema designer to systems architect and from it manager to due diligence consultant. Abel sees it as his duty to never stick too long with one technology or methodology unless it has proven its value; instead he’ll always be on the lookout for newer or better means to get to his goal. As a consequence of this principle,  he’s become both a specialist and a generalist.

It’s this history that gave him ample knowledge to a wide range of technologies like XSLT, StreamServe, Eiffel and DBC, but left him just as well acquainted with mainstream languages and methods like Java, C#.NET, PRINCE-2, Ruby, PHP, TDD, MVC etc.

From lifestyle to advice

The beauty of this lifestyle, it’s the way he likes to call it, is an open mind to existing and emerging systems. In a constantly changing world this mentality has become a necessity for survival. Being able to help companies by quickly adopting to their current situation has proven invaluable. No two companies are alike and good advice is hard to get. He won’t come with hollow techno babble, instead he’ll invest the necessary time to constitute a solid advice for your company. An advice that is reachable with the time and money and takes into account the skills of available personnel and existing legacy systems.

Contractor

Though Abel is currently the soul editor of this blog, he’s still occasionally available for contract work. He has worked with smaller and larger companies, from mid sized web shops to international banks and insurance firms. Contact him directly by mail, through this blog or through Twitter for a quote. He’ll always follow up!

Off-shore, near-shore outsourcing

Crisis everywhere means cutting costs. Off-shoring can help. This is a non-profit blog, commercial activities do not belong here, so let’s keep this short: Abel Braaksma has years of experience working with off-shore and near-shore teams and he knows the pitfalls and problems, as well as the benefits and return on investment you may have in a given situation. It’s not always good to outsource, make sure you get good advice. Need a second opinion? Not sure your current outsourcing team is your best bet? Contact Abel: directly by mail, through this blog or through Twitter for a quote. He’ll always follow up!

Nutshell

Nutshells are supposed to be small and tiny and you can’t make it across the Pacific with it. Abel likes his work and though he only (re)started blogging early August 2009, his investigations, findings or just ramblings will be here to stay, nutshelly so to speak. Enjoy!

Abel Braaksma
UnderMyHat.org
Wiardi Beckmanstraat 42
1063 TH  Amsterdam
The Netherlands

T: +31(0)6 1118 9369
F: +31(0)20 428 7575