Hariri Abdullah

Building, breaking, learning, and sharing.
Because knowledge is power, and curiosity doesn't have an expiration date.

About

I'm Hariri Abdullah. I work on personal projects, write occasionally, and experiment with tools that interest me. This space is more of a personal corner than a portfolio.

Currently

Most of my time is spent exploring AI agents, automation systems, and finding ways to make computers do more of the boring work for me.

I enjoy building personal systems, refining workflows, and experimenting with ideas that sit somewhere between curiosity, laziness, and efficiency.

Journey
Motorcycle Mechanic

While still in school, I spent a lot of time fixing motorcycles. That was probably where my curiosity started. I enjoyed understanding how things worked, why they broke, and how to make them work again.

Computer Teacher

Eventually, that curiosity shifted toward computers. Teaching others taught me something important: if you can't explain something simply, you probably don't understand it well enough yourself.

Technical Support @ TM Streamyx

Working in broadband support exposed me to real-world troubleshooting. I learned that problems don't always come from where you expect, and sometimes the hardest part is figuring out what the actual problem is.

Technical Support @ HP Total Care

This was where I learned to troubleshoot systematically. Enterprise hardware support taught me patience, process, and the importance of understanding systems rather than just fixing symptoms.

Technical Analyst

My focus gradually shifted from solving individual problems to identifying patterns, analyzing systems, and understanding how small issues can affect larger environments.

Security & Compliance

This changed the way I think about technology entirely. It wasn't only about making systems work anymore. It became about understanding risk, resilience, trust, and failure.

Technical Analyst @ HP

Returning to a familiar role with a broader perspective gave me a different appreciation for technology, processes, and the people behind them.

Independent

Today, I spend most of my time building, writing, experimenting, and exploring.

Some days I'm working with AI agents and automation systems.

Some days I'm building personal tools, dashboards, or infrastructure.

Some days I'm simply learning something new because I'm curious.

Looking back, I don't think I've changed that much since my motorcycle mechanic days.

I'm still doing the same thing.

I'm just fixing different systems now.

Making a Living

People occasionally ask me what I actually do when it comes to making money.

The short answer is: I don't do freelance work, and I don't work a traditional 9-to-5 job.

Not because I'm against either of them. I just realized a long time ago that I enjoy building systems and working independently more than working within someone else's schedule.

My primary source of income comes from trading Forex and stocks.

You could say it's my ATM machine.

I spend a lot of time building systems, studying markets, testing ideas, refining processes, and automating as much as possible. For me, trading isn't about chasing excitement. It's about managing probabilities, controlling risk, and continuously improving decision-making.

The funny part is that many of the skills I've learned throughout my career still apply.

Troubleshooting.

Pattern recognition.

Risk assessment.

System optimization.

Understanding how things fail.

In many ways, trading is just another system to analyze.

And honestly, I probably spend more time building tools, dashboards, automation, and workflows around trading than I do placing trades themselves.

I don't claim to have everything figured out.

I'm simply trying to build systems that work, improve them over time, and hopefully make fewer mistakes tomorrow than I made yesterday.

Skills

I don't consider myself an expert in any particular area. I'm mostly just someone who's curious enough to keep exploring.

Operating Systems

Over the years, I've worked with different operating systems, from Ubuntu, Red Hat, and SuSE Linux to ChromeOS, which eventually became my daily driver. These days, most of my Linux environments live on VPSes and dedicated servers rather than on my desk.

Infrastructure

I've spent a lot of time building and maintaining infrastructure, including web servers, MySQL databases, IRC servers, Tor relays, and various self-hosted services. I enjoy the process of building systems that are reliable, efficient, and capable of running with minimal intervention.

Security & Compliance

My background in security and compliance shaped how I think about technology. I became interested not only in how systems work, but also in how they fail, how they can be abused, and how risks can be managed. This led me to explore areas such as OSINT, network security, compliance frameworks, and risk assessment.

Current Focus

Lately, most of my attention has shifted toward AI, local LLMs, automation, and AI agents. I'm particularly interested in building personal systems that can automate repetitive work, assist decision-making, and continuously improve over time.

I'm also a proud Google-dependent coder. I rely heavily on search engines, documentation, AI assistants, and the collective knowledge of the internet. I don't see that as a weakness. I see it as resource optimization.

Philosophy
Open Source First

If there's a good open source alternative, I'll use it. If I can self-host it, even better. And when the budget says no, free software usually says yes.

Nothing Underutilized

Hardware, software, servers, subscriptions, and resources should all earn their keep. I don't like paying for things I barely use, and I don't like owning hardware that sits idle.

Privacy Still Matters

I run a Tor relay, avoid unnecessary exposure to closed ecosystems, and keep my dependency on Windows to an absolute minimum whenever possible.

Learning Never Really Stops

I'm still exploring, still breaking things, still building things. Maybe I'm starting my ethical hacking journey later than most people, but I've never believed there's an expiration date on curiosity.

© Hariri Abdullah • Updated June 2026