I’m Zubair, a Computer Science student specialising in Cyber security at The University of York. This is my attempt to turn scribbles and half-finished notes into something useful. What I’ve come to realise is that, learning to express what’s swirling around in my head, explaining it on the page - is as important for me as it might be for anyone reading. Sharing those experiences, both the wins and the face plants is one of the best ways to learn, because articulating a thought often reveals gaps I didn’t even know were there.
I sketched “The Content wheel” to show what you’ll find on this blog, a circle divided into five uneven slices. Each slice represents a broad category of posts but none of them are polished or final, just snapshots of my journey.
Projects & Experiments, represents the hands-on side of my work. These are the moments when I set up a test environment, ran into unexpected errors while configuring a lab, or discovered that a single misconfigured rule could break an entire network.
Technology Explainers, is where I try to demystify whatever I happen to be learning at the moment without assuming you already know every piece of jargon. I’ll cover the technology by showing not just how something functions, but how I struggled to understand it at first.
Industry Trends and Opinions, where I try to capture what’s happening beyond my own experiments. I’ll write about a new protocol announcement or a headline breach. By sharing the moment I first learned of a development, I unpack why it matters and what questions it raises for someone still learning the ropes.
Career and Growth, focuses on the soft skills and reflections that don’t fit neatly into coursework. I’ll share what happened when I stumbled through a system design question in an interview or how I balanced a looming assignment deadline with sending applications. These posts dig into the moments of rejection and small victories, because knowing how to handle both is as important as technical knowledge.
Random Musings, is a space for the little sparks of curiosity that pop up during my day. Maybe it’s a late night “aha” moment about why my testing pipeline failed, or the moment I wonder how a simple shift cipher actually conceals data until I try implementing one myself.
If you’re another student experimenting and learning or a fresh graduate, or someone who simply enjoys a candid, human perspective on tech, I hope these pages feel like a conversation rather than a lecture. I’ll write about mistakes as often as successes because those “uh-oh” moments often teach the clearest lessons, and explaining them helps me learn to express myself more effectively.
Thank you for stopping by. I have no idea where this path will lead, but I’m excited to share each step and I’d love to hear where your journey takes you, too.