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Projects

About Me

To put it simply, I just like to build stuff. Most of the time, I don't even care what it is. Whether it's building a website, a piece of furniture, a set of speakers, a home brew Linux PVR, a little auto-body work, or some random MacGyver-ish contraption in the garage, I just enjoy the process and pushing myself to do it better the next time. I think I came to this realization some time in college while studying both Art and Computer Science. I loved the Art classes, but fit in better with the computer geeks. My artwork rarely had any grandiose meaning. While others did things like pour Pepto-Bismol on the floor and expound on the meaning of it all (really!), I concentrated on technique. If I had one word to describe myself in my work life, it would be "technician."

I also love finding new ways to accomplish a task, but not for the novelty or just to be different. If the tried-and-true way works, that's great, but I at least question if it really does work. This is why I love technology. I'm always discovering some new way to get things done.

Building websites and web applications has been a great outlet to combine both artistic tendencies and a desire to build stuff that has a function other than looking good. I love the instant gratification that can happen. I can be coding away and beating my head against the wall trying to figure something out, then try one more thing, hit refresh on my browser and Eureka!


Specialties:
PHP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, JavaScript, JQuery, Web Graphic Design, Content Management Systems, Shell Scripting, Unix/Linux System Administration, Apache Administration, Web Server Architecture & Design, Web Security, Single Sign-On, Business Process Automation. And a little of... Adobe Flex, Oracle DB

Experience:

Limos.com
Web Developer (officially 'Technology Manager'), March 2009 — Present
Working on everything from UI to the Database and everything in between. I love the many hats you get to wear at small companies!

Freelance Web Consulting
October 2008 - Feb 2009

Coghead Inc
Sr Software Engineer, January 2008 — October 2008
I left iPass at the end of 2007 desiring to broaden my work experience and try something new. At Coghead I was the lead developer for the public website and the website's interaction with the Coghead 'SaaS' back-end platform. There I developed custom web applications, improved upon their Content Management System, architected new web server design, automated back-end processes for production deployments and synchronization with development environments. On the Coghead product side I worked directly in Flex to help improve the layout and design of the Coghead 'SaaS' application. I also helped design the look through several iterations of projects using detailed mock-ups and requirement documents.

Good Ground Media
Co-Owner, Web Developer, March 2007 – Present
Good Ground Media is a small side-business I've started with my cousin just for the fun of it. GGM is a Christian video-on-demand website reselling works by independent artists directly to churches. We started the business after my cousin (a writer and director) had several bad experiences with other such websites charging exorbitant fees. Here I created the whole site from the ground up. This included graphic design, server administration, database design & administration, business process automation, bookkeeping automation, and a completely custom shopping cart using AJAX.

iPass Inc
Sr. Web Developer / Webmaster, March 2000 — December 2007
I started at iPass right out of college in the Spring of 2000. My first role there was Software Deployment Engineer, assisting customers through their complex server installation procedures. I quickly out grew that position and moved over to the webmaster position within 9 months. I then worked my way up to Sr. Web Developer within 3 years. During my tenure at iPass, my duties included being the webmaster, developing custom internal and customer-facing web applications, web server administration, and back-end automation of many business processes.

Education:
University of California, Davis
BA, Fine Arts (Studio Art), Minor in Computer Science, 1999

Tools

Here are some of my tools of choice:


  Macbook Pro
I made the switch in late 2007, but I'm no Apple fanatic. I freely admit that it's crashed on me every bit as much as my last XP machine. However I want/need to test my work on both Windows and Mac, and only a Mac can run both. I love that it's built on Unix though and I can jump right to the command line.

  Firefox
My browser of choice. I use/test them all, but Firefox is my bread and butter. It has the greatest breadth of plugins available and is the most consistent across Mac and Windows. Here are my most-used plugins:

• Web Developer: I use this constantly! Especially the real-time CSS editor. It's saved countless hours.
• Firebug: Great for JavaScript debugging and more in-depth inspection.
• YSlow: Yahoo's performance testing extension to Firebug
• ColorZilla: Super handy color picking utility
• Greasemonkey: This one is not so handy for development, but so cool for tweaking sites I use but don't like! (can you say Facebook?)

Oh PHP, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...


JavaScript Library "write less, do more"
Have you seen the latest speed tests for jQuery 1.3? Faaaaaast!
http://docs.jquery.com/Release:jQuery_1.3#Performance

  VI (text editor)
Good old vi. My constant companion. I dig programs like Coda, but I'm just too cheap to pony up for it when a shell window on the server with vi gets the job done so efficiently. I also use TextWrangler quite a bit. I've used Eclipse and tried out other IDEs but so far nothing beats the speed and simplicity of vi. (OK, lots of the vi commands are not so simple, but they are powerful!)

  Fireworks
This is my only (semi) expensive program. It's a great swiss army knife to create images for the web. I've tried all the free ones, wanting so badly to like them (again I'm a cheapskate) but I keep coming back to Fireworks.

  Tidy
HTML Validation

  Evernote
Great for remembering everything and staying organized. Can't wait until the Android version is out.

  Dropbox
Most convenient file sharing *ever*

  Dimdim
Free web conferencing. It works great on Mac too.

  Quicksilver
I'm definitely not a power user here and just use it as an app launcher.

  VMWare Fusion
Fusion or Parallels? 6 to one, half a dozen to the other.

  SuperGenPass
Very handy way to create unique passwords for sites. I love bookmarklets! What an ingenious way to add new functionality to your browser.

  Android G1
I love my android phone! I have not developed yet specifically for Android, but have been playing with the SDK.