About the author

Hi, I'm Aaron Dyck, and I wrote Smart Transcode.

Who I am

I was born in Ontario and now live in New Brunswick. My career has been in telecommunications, and I have a strong background there, though it has little to do with this project. Outside work I am what I like to call a high level nerd: the kind of person who runs a home server, has opinions about file systems, and thinks an evening spent tuning a container setup is time well spent.

Why I built this

Two things. First, the tools that already do this job are complex: a server, worker nodes, plugins to find and configure, and flows to build before a single file is converted. I wanted to tick a folder and press Convert. Second, storage keeps getting more expensive, and a library full of oversized video and audio is a poor use of it. Smart Transcode is the tool I wanted: simple to set up, careful with the originals, and clear about what it saves.

Elsewhere

I write about the things I work on and the problems I run into.

• Technically Aaron: Docker, Linux, home networking and the home server, such as Docker Swarm with Guacamole and Tailscale, logging with containers and Rocky Linux how-tos.
• Adventures in VoIP: telephony. It began as notes while I was finding my way around the field and has grown with my expertise. Today it covers Avaya IP Office, session border controllers, call data and tools such as SMDR Lite.

Get in touch

Found a bug or have an idea? The support page explains how to tell me.