NAME
borovkov — Sergei Borovkov, systems engineer. I solve problems; the language is a detail.
SYNOPSIS
borovkov [--rust] [--c++] [--whatever-it-takes] problem ...
DESCRIPTION
Prefer a real shell? daoseeking.uk: the same CV as a Rust TUI (Ratatui), running in your browser as WebAssembly.
I'm a nerd who has been programming for over thirteen years and still does it for fun after hours. Most of that time went into software that runs close to the hardware: video players on fleets of Raspberry Pis, embedded Linux images, browser engines on ARM, desktop apps.
I like taking things apart to see how they work, then putting them back together a bit faster, simpler or more reliable than before. Off the clock I tinker: a self-hosted homelab on my desktop and a free ARM server (this page is served from it), and Rust side projects.
I care about the problem more than the tool. Rust is my favourite, C++ I know well, and I pick up whatever else the job needs.
I live in Tbilisi, Georgia, and have worked fully remote since 2015. UTC+4: full overlap with Europe, evenings for the US.
EXPERIENCE
- Screenly — Senior Systems Engineer (2015–present, 10+ years)
- I built the device layer of a commercial Raspberry Pi digital-signage fleet and owned it solo for most of a decade; now I'm the team's senior engineer.
- Video playback stack in C++/Qt and GStreamer across Pi 3/4/5 and x86, with hardware decoding via OpenMAX IL, V4L2 and VAAPI; fixed the qmlglsink sink upstream.
- Designed the playback state-machine architecture that replaced years of ad-hoc signal logic and its race conditions.
- Ported the web layer from Qt WebKit to WebEngine and migrated the player services from Python to Rust.
- Ubuntu Core images and snaps, device encryption, TPM-backed device identity, hardware watchdogs, and telemetry that survives SD-card wear and power loss; upstreamed snapd and craft-parts fixes.
- Screenly/cli: a small public Rust CLI, the first Rust I wrote.
- FEI Company (via Rtsoft) — Software Engineer (2013–2015)
- C++ software for electron microscopes (FEI is now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific).
- ROSA Linux — Software Engineer (2011–2013)
- KDE/Qt desktop development. Primary author of KLook, a Quick-Look-style file previewer that lives in the KDE organisation.