About Me

Hey! My name is Raphael. I am a freelance software developer based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. In my spare time, I like to sail my own boat, fly airplanes as a pilot, play the piano and work on software projects.

Projects

Once in a while, I materialize some of the ideas I have about software. I like to see when my ideas find traction in the real world. That can be Longyear, which was purchased in single digits on the App Store. It’s cool how there are people out there that are not shy to try my stuff and even pay a few coins for it.

Then there’s the Certificate Monitor. I counted almost 1.000 registered domains after being number 1 on Hacker News. In internet scale, these numbers are small. For me, it means a lot even if just one person gets enthusiastic about it.

Here’s a selection of what I’ve published over the years:

Free TLS Certificate Monitoring via RSS
A lightweight service that monitors TLS certificate expiration without requiring sign-ups. It uses RSS feeds to deliver notifications, keeping the process as simple as possible. You can read more about it here.
Longyear: An Apple Watch App
I created an app that helps improve your sense of orientation by gently tapping your wrist when you’re facing North. Over time, the idea is to develop an intuitive feel for navigation. You can check it out on the App Store here.
Transparency Log Monitoring for Go Modules
A tool to monitor changes in the Go module ecosystem using certificate transparency logs, keeping developers informed about their dependencies, sunset September 2025.
Free to use 3-D airspace
You can play around with my failed startup’s app, Confident, free of charge. If you want to know the full story, check out the accompanying blog post.
A simple game I once had an idea for a tiny game that I realized on a weekend. I called it Olibug. Click on the arrows to make them change their direction. If they find their wall, you win points. If they crash, you lose points.

Open Source

You can find my open-source work on my static code frontend.