Hi! My name is Otto Rask. I’m from Finland and I am a …
Software person
I am a professional web-focused software developer, and my career started as a hobby in the early 2000s when I found out about PC game modding, and HTML and CSS.
When I’m not working, I’m working (heh) on my own projects or helping out with other folks' open source projects. My open source stuff is available over at GitHub.
I mainly work with PHP, sometimes Rust, sometimes something else. Continuous integration and continuous deployment, agility, devops methodologies, product thinking, and automation are things that are close to my heart as well. I also know my way around servers and cloud providers.
Recently I have been dipping my toes into management and leadership work in terms of technology, agility, and product management. This will continue.
Leftist political activist, urbanist
I'm a socialist, working towards a world where people get to experience true freedom, democracy, agency, and safety on a planet that has not been turned into a climate catastrophe hellscape.
Zooming out, we can probably all mostly agree that capitalism has been an accelerator for the rapid development of the human species as a whole in the past few centuries. But sadly, it has not been a positive force on this planet for decades, and a leap towards socialism—while dodging apocalypse and barbarism—is required for a just world that can be inhabited by humans and other species alike.
In addition to "big picture stuff", I do my best take part in local politics and urban planning interactions to help make my city a modern urban space where people actually want to live and work and express themselves. Local democracy, ample green spaces, third places, denser but sane construction, and safe traffic. I see personal passenger cars as a relic of the 1900s, and work towards a city where one doesn't see any need to personally own one.
Hobbyist music producer
On my free time I like to produce electronic music for my own pleasure. My style varies greatly, as does the quality. I hope you'll like it too.
PC gamer
I've been playing PC games since I was a little kid in the 90s. I still play PC games. I'm a really casual gamer these days, but I do know how to kick your ass (or parts of it) in Unreal Tournament if need be.
In addition to Unreal Tournament and its sequels I've really liked games such as Age of Empires 1 & 2, Command & Conquer, Diablo 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elite: Dangerous, World of Tanks, Hitman, Generation Zero, Cities: Skylines, some Final Fantasy games, various racing and rally games such as Gran Turismo (1, 2 and 3) and Dirt Rally 2.0, the Half-Life series, Battlefield series, and more.
Sometimes I've thought about making games, but nothing has come of it yet.
Once I made a game map for a game and won 500 bucks for it.
And more!
A husband, a father, a cargo biker, a mechanical keyboard fan, neurodivergent, and some people have even called me funny.
About this website
This website is my personal website, and historically this site has been an outlet for me to randomly write about things like tech, games, hobbies, and so on. These days I want to make it a more active place for my online activities.
The current website iteration is built from scratch with PHP and some libraries. This site used to run on WordPress (some of the first versions of this site gave me a foot to stuck in a door to land my first real developer job!), and for a few years it was powered by a static site generator called Zola.
The site design has also changed many times over the years. I've always designed my site on my own for better and for worse. I'm not the best web designer around, but I think I can honestly say that I do know a few things about making sites work and look nice.