tom bh
Latest Posts
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Religious Studies On Software Engineering
15 September 2026 I graduated from Lampeter University, Wales in 2006, with a 2:1 in Religious Studies. Whilst I’ve earnt all my money since then from the seemingly unrelated world of software, my degree has been invaluable. One of the many academic definitions for religion is, “the state of being ultimately conce... -
Engineers Without Status
19 July 2026 In 9th Century China, a Zen monk steps forward to ask the master Linji, “What does the True Person Of No Status Look Like?” The master approached the monk, grabs him and barks, “Speak, speak!”. The monk hesitates. Linji, shoving him to the side, laments, “What a dried up piece of shit the True Pe... -
Modeless 34 key keyboard
10 April 2026
Archive of all posts →
About Me
Hello, I’m Thomas Buckley-Houston, but you can call me Tom. I am from Wales, but I’ve been
traveling the world full time since 2015.
I earn a living writing software, you can see the code I’ve written on Github. You can sponsor my open source work on Patreon and Github.
I have a love of meditation and a degree in Religious Studies. I wrote a book and used to regularly podcast about spiritual matters.
Email me on tom@tombh.co.uk. Follow me on Mastodon and Bluesky. Or watch me on Youtube and livestream on Twitch.
Tattoy
A text-based terminal compositor that amongst many other things, can render shaders and a second terminal in the background of your actual terminal. The source is on Github.
Browsh
A text-based browser for the modern web, it can render everything from CSS3 to WebAssembly apps. It's primarily for those that suffer slow and/or expensive Internet. It's been on the front page of Hacker News 4 times: May 2016, Jan 2018, July 2018 and May 2022. The source is on Github.
The Sponge Relay
When I started travelling in 2015, I took a sponge from my apartment. I then exchanged that sponge with the host of my next destination. I've repeated this seemingly odd ritual in almost every country I've since visited. See the latest archive of all the exchanges.
BBC Radio Bristol
From 2013 to 2015 I was a regular contributor to BBC Radio Bristol's Thought For The Day. They wanted me to be their Buddhist voice, but I'm not strictly a Buddhist, so we agreed that I'd be their "Buddhist Meditator and Psychotherapist". I posted the texts of each one, which you can read here.
Walking Wales
In the Autumn of 2014 I walked solo 270km from North Wales to my flat in Bristol. Somewhat of a pilgrimage I managed to document the adventure on video, which you can now watch on Youtube.
Peas: Platform as a Service
Possibly the most complex software I’ve ever written. This is a Heroku-inspired service that allows you to host and scale your own 12 Factor Apps. It got on the front page of Hacker News. And the source is on Github.
TEDx Talk
I gave a short talk at TEDx Bath about vulnerability. It used pictures of cats with their heads sticking through pieces of bread, people laughed.
wNOP — Compiz-enabled Linux
I was, for a while, actively involved in the Puppy Linux community during which time I developed a popular derivative called wNOP that automatically configured the OpenGL Window Manager, Compiz-Fusion, ‘out-of-the-box’. So I am told, tens of thousands of copies have been downloaded.