About Me
Experience, Versatility, Expanding Horizons
Foreword
Every time I create a new revision of the site, I’m always dumped back on writing this page. Collating in my head, and paper what I’ve done since the last revision. It’s never easy, and I never cover all the bases completely. Therefore, if you need more information, shoot me a message over at the Contact area
At A Glance
I’m a creative web developer and web technologist, currently working full time for The Cloud Concept. I have a BSc in Computer Science and Physics, and an addiction to the Web, particularly social media and web interfaces.
My primary skills are in grabbing disparate and not so disparate web technologies and platforms, eying design work by designers (and sometimes myself) and bringing it all together into a website, or web application.
Skills
My skills are broad and well honed with daily use, but I’m always after adding new skills to my quiver.
Here’s what I use on any given day:
- Compliant, Standards-based XHTML, HTML - spanning 12 years experience since 1996
- PHP - 5 years experience
- CSS - 7 years experience
- MySQL - 5 years experience
- Apache Server - 5 years
- Javascript, especially frameworks like JQuery (my current darling) and Mootools, Prototype.
- AJAX, for dynamic interface development
- Converting PSD or AI files into standards based XHTML/CSS templates (PHPTemplate, Smarty, and plain), either designer supplied or my own - 7 years experience
- Drupal Content Managment Framework based site, website application development. Including but not limited to full CMS powered sites, Drupal powered Flash websites, services and applications - 2 years experience
- Software Evaluation, documentation - 3 years experience
- Direct client liason and negotiation - 3 years experience
- Multi-disciplinary team liason - 2 years experience
- Adobe Illustrator - 2 years experience
- Adobe Photoshop - 10 years experience
- Adobe Flash - 7 years experience
- Actionscript 1, 2 and 3. - varying length of experience
- 3D Studio Max - 2 years experience
- Maya - 18 months experience
- ZBrush - 6 months experience
About the Site
This site serves as a dumping point for my online life. RD runs on Wordpress 2.6, with some custom bits and pieces, and two themes of my own design.
The site runs on shared hosting provider Dreamhost, on an Apache vhost.
Current Personal Projects
I’m currently working on:
The Not So Quick Bio
I’ve always been heavily into computers and computer graphics since a young age. I started on my Atari ST years ago, and proceeded drawing on computer and paper up until recently.
Early in 1996, while still in High School, I became captivated by the world wide web, and in 1997 produced my first online website at Geocities.
As time progressed I became heavily interested in web development, making sites from conception to finish for friends and small businesses until I became a contractor during my Bachelors studies, where I began building dynamic, complex sites for larger companies and prominent individuals.
My skills have diversified since early 2000, branching into Flash, particularly interface design and game design, PHP, from backend development to frontend, all the way into 3D modeling and animation. As I explored these areas further in contract roles, I was forced by the deplorable nature of Adelaide’s tough web industry to collate skills into a broad package, at once being expected to be designer, developer, manager, marketer and client liason, giving me a rock solid foundation and unique ability to talk with, work with, and understand a diverse, multidisciplinary team without coming up hard against traditionalist boundaries of developer vs designer.
Highly creative and thoroughly enthusiastic about technology and science, I’ve always believed it takes both art and science to create a beautiful, elegant web, and I push this angle in all work I do.