About

Work

I am currently a Web Developer at Iogen Ltd. Based in Pride Park, Derby. The majority of my time is spent making E-Commerce or database driven website. I love to design but unfortunately don’t really get much chance here and would rather design in the comfort of my own home with a coffee and a cigarrette and my music blairing out at 3am.

I’ve had the oppurtunity to work with some pretty cool clients and I’m sure there is plenty more in store for me here.

I love my job as there is plenty of Learning involved. Anything that teaches me something new is a thumbs up in my book.

Technical Ability

This is quite possibly the boring part you may want to skip.

PHP
I spend the majority of my time writing PHP(5). There is very little I can’t do with this language and a lot of my time at work is spent writing PHP.

Javascript / jQuery / Ajax
I’ve spent the past 2 years in love with anything javascript. Especially the jQuery library. I wouldn’t say I know everything about javascript but I reckon I’m at about 85%. I litterally learn something new every single day.

MySQL
A brilliant serverside database software. Works hand in hand with PHP and can produce some truely astonishing results.

ASP / MSSQL
As an “open source” kinda dude this is something totally new to me. I was asked at work to have a go at writing a (fairly big) form on an existing website. I’m not perticularly a fan of anything Microsoft so I had a moan and a groan but had to do it anyway.  I LOVED IT! Over the past month or so I’ve been reading the books and trying different snippets of code and have even started to rent my own microsoft web server just to keep learning ASP. It just goes to show. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Design
There is a saying that goes “developers can’t design and designers can’t develop”. I find myseld to be the exception to the rule. However…. I can only design when I’m in my own comfortable environment. It has to be in the middle of the night, I have to be alone, I have to have REALLY loud dubstep playing and I definately need to be high on caffeine. I don’t know why this is but I’m most inspired when these specifications are met.

Coming from a print background I can use a whole array of design packages, these include:

  • Photoshop 3(work) – cs4(home)
  • Illustrator 7 – cs4
  • Quark
  • Corel Draw
  • Gimp
  • InDesign
  • Paint

Other
I originally left school at the age of 16 to proceed in an accountancy apprenticeship. I completed an NVQ Level 3 (AAT) in accounts.
I have had my fair share of dark and dingy jobs. I’m not afraid of hard work.
I have a natural aptitude for anything computer related whether it be windows, unix or mac. I regularly use all 3.
Server Setup – I’ve setup web, mail and network servers in Windows 2003, Unix (Fedora Distro) and Mac.
I worked in a printers for 2 years so I’m pretty spot on where it comes to anything design/print.
Tea – I can make a mean cuppa!

Play

I spend a lot of my time researching and learning the latest online fads/technologies/trends.

For the past 13 months I’ve been in a relationship with a very special lady in my life. She keeps me in check and basically does everything she can to make me happy.

Over the past years I’ve travelled a lot to different countries/place in Europe, some of these are: Turkey (5 Times so far, going back this year for my 21st Birthday), Zante, Malia, Majorca, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Ireland, Cyprus.  The next place I want to visit is Amsterdam!

I LOVE my Playstation 3, so far I’ve spent 4 whole days of my life play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 since the beginning of 2010.

I perticularly enjoy spending Friday nights in the pub with all my friends having one too many drinks.