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.

Dark Mode For Excalidraw

June 5, 2020

Front-end
CSS
Excalidraw
How to give a dark twist to Excalidraw diagrams with CSS filters.

The Security of GitHub Actions

February 24, 2020

security
tooling
GitHub Actions are a great way to build powerful customised CI/CD workflows using the power of community-driven resources, but they can be tricky to get right in terms of security.

Password Reset for End-to-End Encrypted Applications

February 15, 2020

e2ee
security
cryptography
We forget passwords. Usually it's OK, because most websites implement a password reset feature. But how to do this in end-to-end encrypted applications that don't have access to the password in the first place ?
All articles

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:

Read more about my open source work.


About Me#

Grenoble, France, seen from the Bastille fort, looking south-west.

I live in Grenoble, in the French Alps, with my wife who is expecting our first child.

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:

We rode 1010km, 11697m of elevation, for 65+ hours, across Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

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#

47ng

founder

2018 - present

I've done freelance software development for various clients:

  • L'Acquéreur

    A French startup helping real-estate buyers and sellers meet.
    Meteor.js
    Styled-Components
    Web Design

  • Pulsar Audio

    Embedded UI for Digigram's Iqoya Talk, a mobile broadcast recording studio.
    C++
    Qt
    QML
    Embedded Linux
    UI Design

  • Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory

    I built a Next.js webapp for an economics experiment ran by my wife's team.
    Next.js
    TypeScript
    Jamstack
    a11y

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.

C++
Python
Ruby
Digital Signal Processing
Algorithm Design
Real-Time Audio

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.

C++
Analog Electronics
Synthesizer Design
Hardware Design

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:

The Further Side, an album by Nova Collective
The Further Side - Nova Collective
Igneous, an album by Polynation
Igneous - Polynation
Vector, an album by Haken
Vector - Haken
Kid Velo, an album by Rival Consoles
Kid Velo - Rival Consoles
Epicloud, an album by Devin Townsend Project
Epicloud - Devin Townsend Project
Ziltoid Live, an album by Devin Townsend Project
Ziltoid Live - Devin Townsend Project
TRILOGY, an album by Carpenter Brut
TRILOGY - Carpenter Brut
Much Against Everyone's Advice, an album by Soulwax
Much Against Everyone's Advice - Soulwax
Superunknown, an album by Soundgarden
Superunknown - Soundgarden
More Albums

This website is open source, and was made with Next.js and ChakraUI, two of my current favourite techs.