A little more about me
First things first, my name in Czech is Lukáš Horák [ˈlukaːʃ horaːk], but I'm fine with Lukas (it's easier).
I'm a full-stack JavaScript developer with more than 6 years of experience working on websites and single page web apps. My go to programming language is JavaScript. When it comes to programming I enjoy the challenging stuff and always try to find the right solution for a problem.
Scroll down to see more about my history, or what I like to do in my free time!
A look back into my history
Wannabe graphic designer
I have to admit, when I was at my high school, I had a huge passion for design. I taught myself how to do bitmap graphics in Photoshop, then moved to vector graphics in Illustrator.
I've started designing whatever came to my mind, mostly silly background pictures for mine, or my friend's computers, it was a fun time. After designing dozens of background images, I've decided it was time to move on to something more challenging, so I've started toying with logos and logotypes, and print designs. Logos are quite interesting to work on. Taking a name and trying to come up with something smart that would represent the niche market of the brand and be memorable at the same time was pretty hard, but I loved it! I participated in couple of logo design tenders, but I was never successful. Well, tough luck, moving on...
After print designs, I've started toying with designing for web, creating user interfaces, and somewhere around that time I've decided that not only I want to design those UIs, but I want to make them come alive.
Sidenote: Some of my design work can be found on Behance, but beware most of it is more than 6 years old.
The development times
By the end of my high school, where I've already played with some HTML and CSS in my spare time (a little bit of jQuery as well, of course), I was still convinced I'd be studying visual design. But one day, an idea came to my mind: "Hmm, I do know how to design..." (at least I thought I did at that time) "How about I get better at something I'm not so good at? So if I learn how to code, I could take my designs, code them, and build websites and apps! How awesome!". So in a nutshell, this is what led me to applying to Czech Technical University to study information technologies, and I have to say that was one of the best decisions I made in my life.
While at the university, I've studied broad range of topics in computer science, from Assembler, through C, C++, operating systems, shell, computer graphics, pretty much anything you can imagine in a world of computer science. While I enjoyed most of the subjects, I was always somehow drawn to web development. So as the time went by, I've started digging deep into web development, started programming in JavaScript in my free time, did my fair portion of "Hello worlds" and to-do lists and I knew this was what I wanted to do professionally in the future. During my studies, I did couple of website projects and later on landed my first full-time job as a web developer for the biggest online media company in Czech Republic.
My coding hobbies
Smart home
Building smart home and building home automations is one of my favourite hobbies. Whatever I can automate, I go for it. I have a home system based on open source technologies. The main brain of the whole system at my home is Home Assistant, running on Intel NUC. I have automated all the lights at my home, coffee machine, electrical plugs, and other stuff, everything controllable by voice. I'll cover more on this topic in the blog.
Microcontrollers, circuits, soldering, hacking, and making
When I have the time, I like to get my soldering iron out and try to put some stuff together. I have to say that I'm a complete beginner in this, but nowadays, with internet full of tutorials, it's pretty easy to put stuff together. Except for lighting up some LEDs attached to breadboard, I did some IOT projects like PIR movement sensors, Temperature sensors, individually controllable LED strips and more. Most of those are based on ESP8266 or Wemos D1 microcontrollers, that enable me to connect those devices via wifi and add them to my home automation heaven! But more on that in the upcoming Blog.
When I go offline...
Boarding of any kind
I've been skiing since I was a little kid and later on I've switched to snowboarding, which I really dig. But lately I've tried a new sport, and I think the picture above gives a little hint about what sport it is. Yep, I've started kiteboarding and wow, I have to say I've never been so much into any sport like kiteboarding. The freedom on the water, with the wind puling you across the sea, it's simply amazing. If you're into kiteboarding, or snowboarding, drop me a line about some amazing places to visit! By the way if you're thinking about trying kiteboarding I have to recommend WetSkillz Kite School in Rhodes, Greece! Those guys are amazing!
Traveling and taking pics
Apart from sliding on different kinds of boards, my other passion is traveling. I'm not really into laying on a beach for couple of days doing nothing, I much prefer to either explore the nature, or connect the traveling with sport activities (like snowboarding or kiteboarding). I love the Austrian and Italian Alps, and my new favourite place is Rhodes, Greece. To see some of the most beautiful nature on earth, I'd suggest Iceland to anyone, it's beautiful out there. Anyway, ahead of me, there is a long list of places I'd like to visit.