Hi, I’m Samuel Ravenscroft.
I’ve been fascinated by technology for as long as I can remember. Long before I understood what computers actually did, I was the child plugging cables into anything that had a socket and taking things apart just to see how they worked.
What still captivates me today isn’t technology itself — it’s connection.
The idea that one thing can talk to another. A computer can communicate with a server on the other side of the world. An application can connect to another application through an API. A message can travel across networks, clouds, databases and services before eventually making something happen somewhere else. Even after all these years, there’s still something magical about pressing a button on a device and watching something happen somewhere completely different.
That’s what drew me into technology in the first place, and it’s what keeps me interested today.
My first computer arrived in the early 1990s, and before long I was teaching myself DOS batch files, building menus, experimenting with BASIC, and creating small database applications. That curiosity eventually turned into a career and, in 2007, into IT Blog.
The original version of the site launched on 9 February 2007. It became a place to document ideas, share solutions, and contribute back to the technology community that had taught me so much over the years. The site later went quiet for a while, but the original archive remains available, and IT Blog is once again becoming a home for new ideas, projects, lessons, experiments, and discoveries.
I believe technology is better when shared.
Some of what you’ll find here is deeply technical. Some of it is practical. Some of it is simply me documenting something interesting before I forget it. The topics are intentionally broad because my interests are broad.
You’ll find articles covering Windows, Linux, networking, Microsoft 365, databases, cloud platforms, security, Docker, Kubernetes, artificial intelligence, automation, home labs, and whatever other technologies happen to capture my attention. Occasionally you’ll also find topics that sit slightly outside traditional IT because curiosity rarely stays neatly inside category boundaries.
When I’m not exploring technology, you’ll usually find me enjoying some of the other things I love about life: cooking for friends and family, discovering new restaurants, enjoying a good Chardonnay or Shiraz, visiting the incredible wine farms around Cape Town, or spending time outdoors. Trail running has always been one of my favourite ways to clear my mind, although these days recovery from a stroke in 2024 means I take things a little slower and appreciate every kilometre a little more.
Originally born in Windhoek, Namibia, I’ve called Cape Town home since 1993. It’s a city that constantly inspires me — from the energy of its people to the sight of Table Mountain watching over it all.
Whether you’ve arrived here looking for a technical solution, researching a new idea, or simply following a rabbit hole of curiosity, welcome.
I hope you find something useful.
— Sam