about me

I'm Bennett Gillig, a Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Math triple major at UMass Amherst. I'm particularly interested in theory, systems, compilers, languages, etc. I really just like coding and I think metaprogramming is some of the coolest stuff you can do. Also, and I mean this in the least pretentious way possible, I think writing code is a method of self-expression, and I would like to think that the method in which I write code says something about me. All this to say that regex is cool, code golf is cool, code is cool.

I am also the #1 NixOS fan and at this rate I will be using it till the day I die. I develop on NixOS, I homelab on NixOS, honestly I'm like 2 steps away from gaming on NixOS too. I love when I know exactly which systemd services are running, exactly what I've written to /etc/, exactly what kernel modules I have installed and exactly what versions of python packages each of my programs use, all from a single directory that explicitly enumerates these. Am also a big fan of not having to use any docker containers literally ever, no snaps, no flatpaks, no nothing, since Nix takes care of package dependancy conflicts by literally not having them in the first place, with zero virtualization or overhead.

Basically I am just someone who is opinionated about software and systems. If you want to get to know me better please check out my GitHub or dev blog, take a look at some of the work I've done!

This page is in progress, I'll give it circles like everything else at some point soon