I have been using PHP and MySQL since the *.phtml days and am continually improving my skills by keeping up with language developments, new software, and new techniques. I prefer to work on Unix flavored machines because of their awesome flexibility, security, and stability. Although I do not call myself a Unix administrator, I can get around a unix machine very well to handle most maintenance chores. I have also developed for Windows using ASP, and can do that if necessary, but I don't keep up with Windows the way I do with Unix.

I'm good at taking a design idea and making it work in clean code. I hand code almost everything. I do use Dreamweaver, but most of the time I am working in code view, and use design view to check progress.

I have experience with the design and implementation of whole systems, database planning, and the careful upgrading of older database designs that need some modernizing.

I like to create easy to use online applications which allow for owner upkeep of database and all site content. I aim to put as much control as possible in the hands of the website owner.

Creative innovation is my strong point. If you have a tricky problem you need to solve for your website, I can almost always figure out a solid, easy to use solution, quickly. These days, there are a lot of open source programs available, many which "almost" do what you want them to do. I like to take these programs and combine, alter, and customize to meet the needs of a particular project. This saves an enormous amount of time in development.

The shell was robbed from Eric Meyer's excellent CSS tutorial on fixed backgrounds. The rollovers are a variant of Meyer's transparent buttons. I did not like the fact that his solution was not compatible with IE. I'm using gifs with every other pixel transparent to pull off the transparency. It's a little jaggy, but it works.

Demonstration of Masking in Flash

Another way to use Masks in Flash

A work in progress

I administrate the Unix server this site is hosted on -->