About this site
Originally this site was purely for supplementing my résumé, but as more and more scripts were added it gradually morphed into something a great deal more useful. Now I use it as an online repository for the software I write, my music and other hobbies.
See the Web Portfolio section for some screenshots and discussion of older incarnations of this site. In its current form, I think I've ironed out most of the earlier problems in areas such as navigation, user-friendliness and overall look and feel. But, well, there's always room for improvement...
So what's with the logo?
Back in 2004 while I was in the process of moving apartments, someone drove off
with my moving van which I had spent all day packing tightly with all my possessions.
This included some 3D geometric polyhedral puzzles I had spent several months designing and
building. So in a homage of sorts, I modelled the logos for this site and
Form Tools on two of them.
See the Puzzles page
for some videos of the old designs and some new ones I'm working on.
Boring stuff about how this site works
Technologies Used
PHP, JS / AJAX, MySQL. The trifecta!
Software Used
Most of the site is custom-built, but I utilized a few existing programs here and there for the odd task. Let's see...
| Form Tools | Ah, Form Tools. Used for processing and storing the data from all forms on my site. |
| WordPress | Used on my homepage, letting me painlessly publish content. I use the iG:Syntax Hiliter plugin which uses GeSHI for syntax highlighting of code snippets within posts. By an odd coincidence, I wrote the original JavaScript and Perl libraries for GeSHI. Small world! |
| Script.aculo.us | Superb set of JavaScript libraries which I use all over the place, like with hiding & showing the site nav bar. Well worth checking out, despite the appalling documentation. |
| PHP and JS Validation | A pair of functions that I wrote about 5123987 years ago which are just as useful today. These are used to validate user input on various web forms. |
| JS Post-its | Used in my Data Generator, among other places. |
The Joy of HTML Templates
Every page on this site is generated through a simple templating system. You (or rather, I) can override the default styles by setting a single variable on each page. All my previous sites used templates to one degree or other, but never so thoroughly or consistently. The convenience really is unparalleled - I can create a new page in 30 seconds with whatever style I need. It actually makes me feel like a lazy sod for not implementing it before...
Some pages look better in one style or other - such as the games Scroggle and Memory.
A brief bio
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, I grew up in England and was dragged all around the country by the parentals - living in Coventry, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire (amongst other places).
In 1992 I moved to Prince George, British Columbia, and spent two years in the International Baccalaureate program, which gave me transferable credit for first year university courses in addition to grades 11 and 12. After spending a year at UNBC doing general courses (Math, English Literature), I moved to Victoria where I completed Bachelor degrees in music (composition and theory) and philosophy, and two years of a CSc degree at the University of Victoria. During my philosophy degree I developed an avid interest in web technologies and user interface design and decided to pursue that particular avenue as a career.
Since then, I moved to Vancouver and completed half of the Internet / Web Computing Software Development (ICSD) program at Langara College. I have worked for several companies in the role of programmer / developer using such languages as PHP, ColdFusion, JSP, JavaScript and Perl. Currently I work for CityXpress - an online event auction company for newspapers around the world - and work primarily with JavaScript, XSLT, XML and JSP.
These days, I continue to spend as much time as I can on my various passions: music, sculpture, web design and web programming. A considerable chunk of my time is spent developing and supporting my open source project, Form Tools. If something on the site catches your eye - a script, a design idea - feel free to drop me a line. I'll try and help out in whatever way I can! :-)
Résumé
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Click any of the images to the right to view my online résumé. You may also want to view my work experience list below for some of the companies I've had the pleasure of working with in the past. Some I worked with directly, others I worked for through intermediate sources. In addition to those listed below, my Form Tools script has been used on literally hundreds of websites including universities, credit unions, real estate companies, online magazines, NGOs and non-profits of all shapes and sizes.
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BC Athletics Society BC Film Black Tusk Realty Boston Pizza Cackleberries Entertainment, Inc. Cadbury-Schweppes CityXpress Corp. Clothworks of Vancouver Encore Web Studios GearJammer |
Goodwin Studios The Hartford Financial Group Interactivetools.com Jeremedia Nigel Parry OnTrackMedia Pacific Alpine Institute PGI Interactive Probono Law of BC |
Salvation Army Squamish Triathlon Squamish Titans Test of Metal United Palestinian Appeal, Inc. University of British Columbia University of Victoria Vancouver Natural History Society Vancouver Pro Musica |
Contact
Need to reach me? Just use the form below or send me something nice in the mail. :-) I try and respond to everyone I can, but please understand I'm awfully busy, so my response times can be pretty crumby. If your question is related to Form Tools, please post your question in the forums. (I'm serious! :-)
Vancouver, BC
Canada
V6N 1K6
