Rick Carlino

Personal blog of Rick Carlino, senior software engineer at Qualia Labs, co-founder of Fox.Build Makerspace. Former co-founder of FarmBot.

A quick note about this site: I use this blog as a vehicle to make new professional contacts. Since you've taken the time to read this far, why not contact me via Calendly?

Hi! I'm Rick, a 36 year old software developer from the Chicago suburbs with 11 years of professional software development experience. This is my blog, which focuses mostly on Open Source technology.

I currently work at Qualia Labs, a real-estate technology startup that fixes everything that is wrong with home purchases.

I previously served as the co-founder and the lead software developer at FarmBot, the world's first Open Source farming machine. I helped build the initial software prototype for early versions and oversaw most day-to-day software activities at FarmBot.

Prior to that, I worked on projects for medical payment processing, textile manufacturers, hospitality management services, non-profits, the military, and a list of consulting clients that are too numerous to name. My public work is available on my GitHub page.

My interest in hardware and software also led me to start Fox.Build Makerspace in St. Charles, Illinois. It's a public workshop catering to the needs of artists, entrepreneurs, and engineers. If you are ever in the Chicago suburbs, feel free to stop by during one of our many events.

When I am not running the makerspace or building Open Source software, I enjoy ultra-distance marathon running and learning about the history of computing. I am an avid retrocomputing hobbyist. I am also obsessed with the Forth programming language.

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