mackatron.dev

VERSION 39 IN ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT

Jeff Mackatron.

Human. Digital tinkerer. Creator of Identities. Radio Frequency Inspector

I design (and sometimes build!) things, think about where technology meets identity, and keep an ear on the local repeaters. Mostly, I’m finding my way through this strange world – lately with a cup of tea nearby.

Facets

Work

Who says State employees can't have fun?

Stony Brook University

The first 40 hours (x20 years)

Currently, I am the Senior Identity Management Engineer in Stony Brook University’s Identity Management Area. Part of the University’s Information Security department, my team and I were responsible for the deployment of SailPoint Identity Security Cloud, our first modern Identity Governance solution. Today, we are its technical owners, taking advantage of a rare lull in projects to pretend to be skunkworks employees. For the first time in a long while, I can say that it’s exciting to go to work and build the plane as we ride it down the runway.

Prior to my transition (although it felt like a return home) to the Division of Information Technology, I spent several years as the Senior Director for Finance Policy, Compliance, and Internal/System Controls. In that role, I wore a dizzying number of hats - PCI Security Assessor, GLBA Red Flags program owner, PeopleSoft Student Financials functional owner. I was an equation sorcerer and an amateur PeopleCode developer - and I must have done something right, because some of the code I wrote is still running. Somewhere in there, I found time to oversee the University’s physical credentialing operation across three campuses and generally make a pest of myself across both Finance and IT.

Projects

Useful things, small experiments, and whatever is taking shape next.

Apparently, I can make things

For years, my projects have been scattered, relegated to backlogs and to-do lists that themselves became the 17th entry on another backlog. Today, I’m planting many of them in a garden and learning to tend them.

Some are work-related, some personal, and some are flights of fancy. The results might be code, prose, or something else entirely. Sometimes I plant a seed without knowing what it will become.

In Bloom

SailPoint ISC Config Watcher

Daily comparisons of SailPoint configuration turn a pile of JSON into a readable account of what changed. Less squinting, more knowing where to look.

Writeup coming soon

MetaDirectory

People leave, people return, and - at least at Stony Brook University - their old usernames shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. The MetaDirectory - an API-fronted database of every person granted an account in the last ~30 years - keeps the identity history needed to reconnect returning people with their original identities.

Writeup coming soon

Germinating

Palimpsest

Sometimes the sentence you deleted is part of the story. Palimpsest is an experiment in keeping the edits, pauses, and ghosts of words that got you to the final draft. Your drafts have a story to tell - don’t lose sight of it.

Follow the disappearing words →

Internet Identity Research

Handles, away messages, personal websites, .plan files…. How did we define ‘ourselves’ online before Social Media? I’ve been thinking about the names we choose and the places we make for ourselves online - eventually asking “What’s an identity?” and “Can the identity we choose become more meaningful than the one we’ve been given?” and “Why do we only have one identity?”

Who am I? →

Running Docker on an Atari

I love video games. And I love playing with tech. I need a new Docker installation at home, and the cost of disk and RAM is ridiculous these days. But, before everything went crazy, I dropped 32 gigs of RAM and a 500GB SSD into an Atari VCS. I don’t think it needs 32 gigs of RAM to play River Raid. Let’s hope DK doesn’t throw my containers at Mario….

Writeup coming soon

Writing

Notes, longer pieces, and room to follow a thought a little further.

When I was in High School, I fancied myself a poet. My analytical mind wasn’t a benefit here - I could mechanically recreate different styles of poetry that exactly matched the intended layout, but there was something missing. my feelings. I wasn’t able to put them into words - and without them, my words were hollow. So, I stopped.

Not completely - there were a few attempts, here and there - a collection of borderline biblical passages about work in The Book of Bursac, blogs which have disappeared with time (RIP my geocities homepage), etc. But I’ve been mostly silent.

Times are changing, though. The typewriter is calling.

mackatron.io is my first experiment. A typewriter that never was - but could have been. A storm, hours ago just a dot on the horizon, now bearing down. The most recent chapter is in the typewriter, where I left it - others move to the notebook. At least 25% art project and reason to learn about Astro.

I’m sure other prose will appear, as I figure out what I want to say - maybe there, maybe elsewhere - but always, eventually, here.

Palimpsest - my first writing-related project. Your writing tells a story - but the journey your writing took is just as important as the journey your characters take. Palimpsest is meant to show you what was, not just what is - reminding you of what could be.

Education - Inward and outward

Degrees, courses, presentations, research.

Learning, collected

I’m a lifetime learner, and a collector of degrees, certifications, certificates…. The ones I’m proud of will shortly have a home here. I’ll also talk about talks that I’ve given, research I’m currently involved in, etc.

Elsewhere

Other corners of the web.

Other corners of the web

  • mackatron.io : I think this is going to hold longer prose. Think of it more as a journal of ideas and stories than a “What did I do today?” type journal - although who knows how long that will stay true for.

  • mackatron.ai : As i become more and more interested in Artificial Intelligence, I’m trying out various commercial models - both LLM “Assistants” and models targeted at specific tasks. Some of this usage involves interesting little projects - some relating to AI, some from my personal or work backlog that a model has helped me bring closer to reality. Consider it a garden for my little projects. No ‘products’, no ‘release dates’ - just seeds that I’ve planted. Maybe they’ll grow into something - maybe they won’t - and maybe they’ll become something else entirely.