Hi, I'm François Best
I am a developer, an open source lover and a writer from France.
This is my digital garden, where I write about the things I'm working on and share what I've learned.
I build web apps for startups, businesses and public institutions as a freelance web developer and designer. Let's discuss your needs and see how I can help.
Note: my earliest availability is September 2022.
Contact meFeatured Articles#
Representing SHA-256 Hashes As Avatars
18 April 2021
The Security of GitHub Actions
24 February 2020
Password Reset for End-to-End Encrypted Applications
15 February 2020
Projects#
I usually go for the web platform when building out projects, for myself and my clients. My weapons of choice are React, TypeScript, Node.js and Next.js.
Here are some of the major personal projects I've worked on:
- Chiffre.io - End-to-end encrypted privacy-first analytics.
- Foggy - Figma design to live og:image in one click 🚀 Shipped
- Repoverview - Overview of GitHub repositories and cross-repo operations, currently building in the open WIP
- Stravels.io - Share your travels WIP
- Arduino MIDI Library - MIDI for Arduino
Read more about my open source work.
About Me#
I live in Grenoble, in the French Alps, with my wife and our son.
My hobbies vary a lot based on my current interests, but playing music (piano/synths & guitar) is always a constant. I'm currently learning woodworking to build toys for my son, and take sunrise hikes to enjoy the surrounding mountains.
I also love cycling, both for transportation and tourism. With my friends, I've toured across 7 countries on my bike, along the French Atlantic coast, in the Alps and in the Balkans:
This is a screenshot of a progressive web app I made for us to track our journeys, it's called Stravels and allowed us to stitch together our Strava activities onto a map.
Career#
I'm doing freelance software development for startups, businesses and public institutions:
- Bootstrapping the MVP of a compensation market analysis app for a young international startup.Next.jsGraphQLChakra-UIRechartsPlanetScalePrismaTypeScriptFull-Stack
- Reporting dashboard & analytics for a micro-nutrition IoT device.ReactExpressReduxChakra-UIVisXFull-Stack
- A French startup helping real-estate buyers and sellers meet.Meteor.jsStyled-ComponentsWeb Design
- Embedded UI for Digigram's Iqoya Talk, a mobile broadcast recording studio.C++QtQMLEmbedded LinuxUI Design
- I built a Next.js webapp for an economics experiment ran by my wife's team.Next.jsTypeScriptJamstacka11y
You have a project you want to take further ?
Send me an email, I'd love to discuss your needs and see how I can help.Slate Digital
2011 - 2018
I wore many hats when working at Slate Digital, from C++ programming for real-time pro audio applications to DSP algorithm design and tooling in Python and Ruby.
Arturia
2010
I helped design the MiniBrute analog synthesizer when I was an intern at Arturia. It was my first professional experience and a lot of fun.
I had the privilege of working with a great team led by Yves Usson, from whom I had learned analog synthesis before joining Arturia.
Music#
I like listening to progressive metal, fusion jazz and synthwave when working: syncopated beats, meter changes and arpeggios do wonders for web development. 🤘
My favourite albums of the moment:
This website is open source, and was made with Next.js and ChakraUI, two of my current favourite techs.
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