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Robert Bala

Robert Bala

Generation X, long in IT — but most at home with what you can touch: doing things yourself, proven solutions, and knowledge earned in practice. Digital order on one side; soil, tools, the farm, and life closer to nature on the other. I build software that shows whether your wealth is real after inflation.

5 articles
Practical independence

Windy Farm is about learning to stand on our own feet — in the field, in the kitchen, and in how we think about money.

Projects

Software under the Windy Farm umbrella — practical independence, not hype.

  • WindyFarm PV Survey (Energy) — Measure panel orientation in the field — Align, sun path, honest kWh estimate. Join waitlist
  • WindyFarm Water Filters (Water / farm tools) — Stages, FIFO stock, shop lead time, housing QR — offline Free. Product · Guide
  • True Return (Financial) — See your real wealth after inflation. Waitlist opening soon.
  • Independence (Financial) — Know when you can stop working. Coming soon (imports your profile from True Return).
  • FinanceFlow (Financial) — Full personal finance for Mac power users. Coming later.
Hybrid lakehouse

Production decisions for manufacturing hybrid architectures — catalog, brownfield reality, then the silver bill.

  1. Part 1Iceberg Won. Your Catalog Choice Is Now the Real Architecture Decision
  2. Part 2Brownfield Lakehouse: When You Cannot Turn Off the Nightly Batch
  3. Part 3Why Nobody Tells You the Hard Part: CDC Lakes, Silver Layers, and the Azure Bridge
Author essays

Architecture and systems writing from the author portfolio.

On Windy Farm

Farm, energy, and kitchen writing on the main blog.

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