The career, projects, reading and personal activity behind La Rebelión.
It all began with an Amstrad CPC 464 when I was eight
I'm Jose Santamaria, «Kernel» at La Rebelión. Today I'm CTO at a leading technology company, but it all started with me trying to crack the adventure game La Abadía del Crimen and discovering that the interesting part was on the other side of the machine.
How this blog is made: articles are drafted with AI assistance and signed by desk aliases (Falcon, Dune, Kernel and Byline), and every draft goes through a review and approval step before it is published. Labs and exercises are tested, and sources are always cited. The details are in the newsroom.
From the Amstrad to the boardroom
- 80s
BASIC, cassette tapes and a monitor doing duty as a TV
My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. I spent countless hours trying to crack La Abadía del Crimen until I decided to explore the other side of the machine: first BASIC, then COBOL, Pascal, dBase IV and a long list of others.
- 90s
A Pentium from a computer fair and a US Robotics modem
After computer classes, campus terminals and a neighbour's Amiga came a Pentium I, bought on offer at a computer fair. With it came the BBSs listed in the local paper, hacking e-zines… and soon after, the Internet.
- 2001
Systems and security administrator at a national newspaper
My first professional job. After that, IT manager at an Internet service provider, an international leisure group and an airline: architecture, communications and security.
- 2014
CTO and board member
Leading technology and sitting on the board of an international logistics group and a global automotive and insurance software company. 2019 Best Product Award with a 15% smaller budget.
- 2021
Scaling international teams
A global digital services company and an international technology consultancy: 200+ engineers across Europe and the Middle East, and entry into new markets.
- today
CTO at a leading technology company, and La Rebelión
In parallel, Todo-Linux, the blog I founded with two friends: three enthusiasts sharing Linux and free software. And this blog, which is now written with help from its own AI.
Right now
A panel that updates itself from home: what I do, what I publish, what I read and how far I go.
Now
CTO
A leading technology company
since March 2026
Languages
- Spanishnative
- EnglishC1
Certifications
15
From networking and security to ITIL and cloud.
Activities
- activities
- 94
- km
- 1,356
- m of climbing
- 25,253
Skills by area
- Leadership and strategy75
- Enterprise systems8
- Development7
- Cloud and architecture7
- Emerging technologies3
Latest things I published
Reading · 30 books on my list
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
Mark Richards, Neal Ford · 2020
Book summaries on homeMy own projects · 14
What I build
My own projects, almost all live and linked: from a flight radar to the tools that run this blog.
- FlightRadar LaRebelionReal-time flight tracking for family and friends.
- Terminal RaspberryA hardened Raspberry Pi turned into an administration console.
- AI RAG LarebelionThe AI hub with RAG that powers the blog and home.
- Travel PlatformBusiness travel management with AI, from booking to expense report.
- Email Encryptor SystemEnd-to-end encryption for confidential messages.
- + 9 projectsLa Rebelion Blog, BirthdayAI Bot, Peguerinos Sport, Badges Vcard Generator and more
Away from the keyboard: mountain, bike and swimming
94 activities logged on home. The latest was on 22 Oct.