Ari.lt: Free and open source world of Arija A.

Welcome to my website, visitor 1975495!

Before I start explaining who I am, if you're here on this page because of one of the users using ari-web services and you want to report abuse, please contact me using one of the contacts listed on this page (such as the ari@ari.lt email). You may also leave a comment on the guestbook.

My name is Arija A. also known as Ari Archer, but most commonly referred to as Ari. I am a 17 year old, neurodivergent, transgender, open source developer from Lithuania who does fun stuff in primarily Python (~9 years) and C (89, 99) (~5 years).

I've picked up programming at first in Python, writing various programs on my phone, and later on discovering a community where I could share my code. At the time I didn't have access to a computer, so I used to play around with basic JavaScript on my local library computers. At around 2019 I got access to a personal computer, which is where my main FOSS journey started - exploring more technologies and understanding them more in-depth, not being limited by a locked down phone.

I hated the limiting feeling of being on Microsoft Windows 10 very limiting, so soon after getting a personal computer I installed a free and open source Linux kernel distribution - and I've never went back to Windows ever since then. Democracy, freedom, shareability and customization ("hackability") are huge values for me.

Technology is a big part of my life, and I am way past the stage where I find just technology fascinating - I find various problems and their optimal solutions very interesting and I like to come up with my own - even if it's "reinventing the wheel" or "impractical" - I like to dig deep into it and understand how it works at its core, rather than relying on high-level features of an abstraction stack. I was always a person like this, not specifically in technology - I was always the nerdy science kid - but everywhere.

Even though I'd consider technology, problem solving, and computer programming a big part of my life, I also enjoy a couple of more things. Such as:

• Exploring various social issues (wars, injustice, freedom of people, abuse, discrimination, environmental problems, ...)
• Cooking - I really enjoy putting together a healthy, vegan dish, which's recipe I can share with others.
• And also blogging, as archiving things and thoughts has been a huge part of my life since forever.

But generally, I am pretty much open to try everything at least once if I have the time and energy to do so.

People often describe my personality as kind, accepting, open-minded, and nonjudgmental due to the way I interact with the world and people - I am always accepting of people no matter what they've gone through or are going through. They also see my logical side and describe me as intelligent, analytical, and creative because of how I tend to approach various logical problems. Though, this side of me can sometimes be overpowered by my emotional side if I lose control of my emotions.

• Name: Arija A. (Ari Archer)
• Pronouns: She/Her
• Age: 17 years old.
• Education: High school (ongoing).
• Country: Lithuania (Lietuva).
• Languages: Lithuanian (native, 17y), English (B2, 9y), German (basic, 4y - not taking it since age 16 (11th grade), rarely using it casually).
• Programming Experience: 9 years (9y in Python, 5y in C).
• Skills: Backend web development in Python using Flask, basic front-end development (HTML, JS, CSS, basic SCSS) and SEO (search engine optimization), software and library development in C and Python, Linux and intermediate Linux systems administration, technical documentation and specifications. I also possess mediocre skills in C++ and JavaScript, as well as the Git VCS. I believe that I have a grasp of security principles, databases, and basic containerization and virtualization.
• Learning: Better communication skills, self-improvement, working on mental health and emotional grounding.
• Personality: Recognised as kind, open-minded, intelligent, analytical, non-Judgmental, chill, anxious, generous, introverted, independent, caring, helpful, and supportive by people in my life.
• Contacts
  • Git forge: ari@git.ari.lt
  • GitHub: ar1ja
  • GitHub organization: ari-lt (org@ari.lt)
  • Git forge organization: ari.lt@git.ari.lt (org@ari.lt)
  • PyPi: ar1ja
  • XMPP/Jabber: ari@ari.lt
  • Bluesky (avoid unless needed): @ari.lt
  • E-Mail: ari@ari.lt (OpenPGP (RSA4096): 5594A925063F3E68885A8F42B6B1654EDCB0F20C (ECC: 20A6FBAC2E07A6256E5A435A841A60BFE0406195))
  • Gravatar: arijaa

"Talk is cheap. Show me the code."

       - Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux

Each project listed above represents a piece of my journey as a developer and open-source enthusiast. From building ari.lt and its blog with a fully custom static site generator powering my blog with thousands of monthly readers, to creating practical tools like Baz, a lightweight Bash plugin manager designed to speed up shell workflows, these projects reflect my passion for crafting software.

Many projects, such as Armour, a secure password management library, and Fa, a low-level programming language transpiling to assembly, challenged me to dive deep into security, cryptography, and compiler design. These experiences have sharpened my skills in system-level programming and software architecture, which have helped me to work on other projects, such as Vessel, including multiple parsers, runtime compilers, and stream handling.

I also enjoy experimenting with creative and educational tools, like my MNIST classifier built from scratch in C++ to demystify AI for my class at the time, or the playful SQL Space Invaders game that pushes the boundaries of what SQL can do. These projects keep my curiosity alive and help me explore new technologies, reflecting my "tell me I can't do it and I will" mindset.

I'm also a huge fan of automation. I constantly write scripts to do tedious, annoying work for me, that would otherwise take me a long time - that's why I use vim!

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions regarding any of my projects or check out ari.lt git organization or my own personal profile on git.ari.lt for the full collection of over 170 repositories!

Outside of projects, I also like prime numbers. My favourite number is 17533046421... (click to see the rest) which is a very large 2048-bit safe and sophie germain prime number, which has nearly half its bits flipped!

Interestingly it has loads of patterns... Here's a visualisation I did at like 1 am a few days ago:

Which appear in one of my old projects: p.ari.lt