About me
Also known as Mother in wireless and security communities (after the character Dan Aykroyd plays in the movie Sneakers), I started out breaking stuff at a very young age. Electronics, radio communications and aeronautics have always fascinated me, to the point of graduating with honors at Salford University in 1997 in Aeronautical Engineering, and then proceeding to build a career around wireless technologies, security and electronics. [Update] You can see my printed circuit board business card, complete with microcontroller and LEDs, here!
On technology
My most important contribution to the early WiFi scene has been StumbVerter, which is a tool that converts Netstumbler logs into MapPoint maps, showing access points as colored towers, and providing some extra features such as the Antenna Comparison Tool. This tool has been downloaded over 500.000 times so far, and still gets some 500 monthly downloads.
I was invited to participate in the writing of the book Wardriving: Drive, Detect, Defend, published by Syngress, and in which Chris Hurley (Roamer), Frank Thornton (Thorn) and Russ Rogers did a really great job. It was published August 1st, 2004.
Currently, I moderate the Netstumbler and BackTrack 4 forums, and participate in a number of forums and IRC channels related to wireless and security.
On entrepreneurship and startups
After leaving a position as head of electronics R&D at SouthWing, a Barcelona-based Bluetooth accessory manufacturer, I co-founded Whisher in early 2006. With the aim to create a world-wide shared WiFi cloud through a client application, we raised a seed round from Swisscom, and an A round with Benchmark Capital (later becoming Balderton Capital). Whisher was acquired by wifi.com, based in Seattle, on January 2009. After the transition to the new team, I currently work on a number of engineering & technology projects, while looking for the next big thing.
On firefighting
I have been involved with the fire service for over sixteen years now, with a four year pause during which I was a member of the Kinder Mountain Rescue Team in Cheshire, UK. My first stint was in an airport fire service in Essex, where I learned the ropes on fighting pressurized fuel line fires (using all kinds of fuels, including natural gas), SCBA work, and CFBT. When I returned to Spain, I joined my home town’s volunteer fire department, which is run by the township – in itself a rarity, as there are only three towns in the northeast that do this. We are currently OK on staff, but lack equipment and training for the new members, so we are fighting on different fronts to fix these shortcomings.
When did my interest in emergency services start? When I was just over a year old, and before saying ‘mama’, I learned to say ‘fireman’ when I saw a passing truck on a run.
On this blog
I started this blog to share my views about technology and life, my experiences starting up companies, and other random thoughts.
Enjoy!
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