Oliver Calder

I am an open source software developer based in Minneapolis. I work on the snapd team at Canonical, the company which creates Ubuntu. I am also a recent graduate from Carleton College, where I studied mathematics and computer science.

You can reach me through various media.

Email: oliver at calder dot dev

Github: olivercalder

LinkedIn: olivercalder

Mastodon: @oac@fosstodon.org

I am an avid Linux user and a proponent of open-source software and first-principles problem solving. My language of choice is Rust, but most of my professional work is in Go. My academic background is primarily in C and Python, with an emphasis on systems programming. I have developed an interest in computability theory, and I enjoy trying to solve problems in unconventional ways, such as using Prolog, minimal assembly languages, and Turing machines.

I am very passionate about classical music, and I love going to performances at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, and various theatres around the Twin Cities. I am a clarinetist and pianist and an alumnus of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS). I'm always looking for more opportunities to make music, particularly chamber music and folk music, so feel free to reach out with any ideas.

I care strongly about reducing climate change and living as sustainably as possible (in the U.S., for now). I can often be spotted rolling around on my very large dutch bicycle, which is my primary means of transportation around the Twin Cities. I seek out dense, walkable, mixed-use communities supported by reliable public transportation, and I support local businesses whenever I can.

I believe in digital privacy and freedom from surveillance-capitalist corporations, and believe open source and open standards are essential to a better digital world for everyone. I'll probably be writing some blog posts/tutorials on the matter soon, but in the meantime, here are some of the tools and services I use to improve my own digital independence:

• DuckDuckGo: privacy-respecting search engine which doesn't sell your searches to advertizers or fill your results page with ads and AI-generated nonsense (and with better search results, in my experience).
• DuckDuckGo Email Protection: generate single-use email addresses which block trackers before forwarding emails onto your primary email address (which should be ProtonMail -- see below).
• Firefox: open source, privacy-respecting web browser which isn't doing all the horrible anti-consumer, tracking, and monopolistic practices that Chrome is being increasingly flagrant about.
• Privacy-focused browser extensions: uBlock Origin (ad blocker), DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, and Privacy Badger.
• Protonmail: privacy-respecting email (and files, calendar, and password manager) service hosted in Switzerland, which powers oliver@calder.dev, and provides great resources for switching from Gmail.
• Signal: open source and end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, and video calling application which I use on all my devices (all the nice message features of iMessage, without the not nice walled garden).
• Nextcloud: open source, fully-featured, and (optionally) self-hosted replacement for Google Drive, Photos, Calendar, Contacts, and more.
• Ubuntu: Linux has come a very long way in a few short years, and these days it's more visually consistent and far easier to install and update applications than either MacOS or Windows -- I happen to use Ubuntu at the moment, but Fedora is great too.
• Mastodon: open source and algorithm-free social media platform.
• BitWarden: everyone should be using a password manager and generating random passwords (e.g. S*CrtUj@@*&4SmQSbdrmUW&%^SVC^CSJ) for each account, and BitWarden is an open source one which is easy to use and runs on basically everything (including excellent browser and Android integration).

Research | PGP Public Key

Some papers I enjoyed writing