Articles [ rss ]

1. I Spend Most of My Time At Work Waiting for the AI, the CI and Code Reviews 06 Nov 2025
2. The Human Only Public License 16 Oct 2025
3. Never Ever Use Content Addressable Storage 07 Oct 2025
4. What is Good for AIs is Good for Humans 01 Jul 2025
5. GPT-4 Can Use Tools, Serve a REST API and Pilot Drones 22 Mar 2023
6. Better Javascript Promises 25 Apr 2014

Hello :)

My name is Frédéric van der Essen and this is my webpage. I'm a computer engineer based in Brussels, with a background in computer graphics, webtech and AI. I mainly build cloud APIs in the fintech industry. I have quite a few projects on Github. I also do some electronic music.

If you want to contact me for some reason, don't hesitate to send an email at fvdessen+w[at]gmail.com. Or you can follow me on Twitter, that works too !

Open source software I made

• XML-Escpos

  A python library to print xml documents with receipt printers

• Nope

  A lisp dialect with optional parenthesis. Made in rust as a joke, left unfinished

• Rizzly

  A Rust result type library for typescript, with static type inference

• Gpwg

  A cli password generator, made in Rust.

• Nepo

  A smart file opener for the cli, made in Rust.

Open source software I contributed to

• Blender 3D

  A long time ago my passion for computer graphics led me to do some code contribution to Blender, namely the compositing blending system and the different blending modes

Businesses I work with

• Rutete Eco Lodge

  An Eco Lodge in the heart of Rwanda. Rated best hotel of Rwanda according to booking.com. Investor and business advisor. Book a stay!

Commercial software I made

• Bloody Bunnies

  A multiplayer battle-platformer game for iOS and android, with real time networking and local AI. Made with Unity3d.

• Busted

  A speed racing game for iOS and android. Made with Unity3d.

• Odoo Point of Sale

  A web based point of sale software for shops and restaurants. Works offline, Connects to IOT devices, handles international accounting, ipad, industrial touchscreen. Definitely one of the most interesting project I worked on. Made the first version then lead the team

• Odoo Website Builder

  A Wysiwyg website editor in the style of Wix and Squarespace. Made the prototype and the first version.

• Odoo IoT Box

  A raspberry-pi based IOT Hub that acts as a driver and network relay to connect industrial hardware to an ERP system. Concept and implementation.

• Codabox

  Automates the transfer of fiscal and financial information between businesses in Belgium. Early employee, made a bit of everything front and back.

Blogs and websites I find interesting

• Hacker News

  IMHO the best place to discuss tech topics

• Simon Willison

  Python and AI

• Julian Schrittwieser

  AI, LLM etc

• Brandur

  API design, databases and system design

• Sean Goedecke

  Software engineering, with a focus on AI and large-company dynamics.

• The Leopard

  A blog on EU topics from a Brussels based Journalist

My favourite Youtube channels

• Le Grand Gaulois

  Traditional french cooking

• Mellow

  Cool bouldering sends

• Pask Makes

  Woodworking projects

• Hand Tool Rescue

  Restoration of old machinery

• Benjamin's Workshop

  Making a Supercar

• Florian Gadsby

  Pottery

• Sampson Boat Company

  Rebuilding a classic wooden sailing boat

• Valgear

  Review and testing of the weapons used in Ukraine

• Chronova Engineering

  Clock making

• HowNOT2

  Climbing equipment destructive testing

• Qingyunji

  Chinese countryside

• Underdog Electronic Music School

  Electronic music courses

• GIFGAS

  Freighthopping, urbex and adventures

• Simon Fordman

  Repairing rusty american pickup trucks

• 3Blue1Brown

  Mathematics

• 2swap

  Mathematics

• ProcessX

  Japanese manufacturing

• smalin

  Classical music visualisation

• Cylo's Garage

  Extreme precision

• Huygens Optics

  Optics

• Farine de Blé

  Car Tuning dans la France profonde

• 環境音チャンネル

  Sounds and melodies of Japanese pedestrian crossings

• Posy

  Photography and HiFi

• Devine Lu Linvega

  Experimental dark programming

• Moritz Klein

  Music electronics

• Azpaca

  Japanese toy car racing

• Calum

  Long video essays on niche historical topics

• Little Wang

  Life in contemporary China