Curriculum Vitae

I have always been the kind of person that likes learning new things, and trying to understand how things work. I have a hungry and inquisitive mind. I also like putting what I know into practice, in a creative and innovative way. I have worked in a professional I.T. environment for over 23 years, and have also used and developed my skills while working within the voluntary sector and at home on various projects. So over many years I have embraced different ways of working, and got along well with all team members.

I have always worked with computers, in some way or another. I like the challenge of programming computers, as well as assembling hardware and making it “come alive”. I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm with others, explaining how the “magic” works, in a way that is accessible to people of various backgrounds.

For over 30 years I have been involved in planning the services at my local church each week and playing the organ.

Most of my professional working life was with The NSC Group who develop and deploy a range of accounting software to large businesses on platforms such as ICL and IBM mainframes as well as Unix and Microsoft servers. I was not directly involved in the accounting functionality of these suites, but worked as part of the team which handled the deployment to the various destination environments. There is a single source for the application level code which is then processed to produce code suitable for the chosen platform.

After that I moved to a different department within NSC called Legacy Software Downsizing. Initially we used our knowledge of different environments to migrate old applications and data created by other vendors onto more modern equipment. More recently, we developed a toolkit which could automatically create a whole Java application to replace a retired Cobol application without losing access to the valuable data.

I have taught a willing member of my local church to play a keyboard. Starting as a total beginner and quite shy, they are now able to play with confidence and lead the singing in public.

Working as a volunteer at Greater Manchester Community Chaplaincy, I have assembled and maintain a Linux server, providing VPN access for remote workers, and centralised secure storage of sensitive files. In my main role, I have assisted clients using online learning and other internet services, to help them in their transition after being released from prison. Many of our clients struggled or “opted out” of education due to problems early in their lives, so one-to-one help is often required to explain topics and build self-confidence.

At home, I enjoy tinkering with Arduino micro-controllers. Projects include a Virtual Pipe Organ using multiple MIDI keyboards and voice modules, home automation using a hybrid network of MQTT and X10 devices, and the automation of a model railway with speed controllers servos and proximity detectors connected to an I2C Bus.

• LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL aka MariaDB & PHP) plus knowledge of Yii & HumHub, Joomla, CakePHP and DokuWiki.
• HTML, CSS & JavaScript
• C/C++
• Java

This is a list of rare skills which may be invaluable in certain situations. Although I may be a little rusty, I'm sure I can “hit the ground running” and still be a valuable team member.

• COBOL is widely viewed as outdated, although more lines of code in active use today are written in COBOL than any other programming language (according to Wikipedia).
• Forth is a stack-based language which uses Reverse Polish Notation and is often used on micro-controllers.
• I have used Assembly Language for PC and Z80 chips, so I'm not afraid of working at a very low level when the need arises.

I like to learn new things and keep up with changes in technology and working practices. I can usually assimilate knowledge quite quickly if it is related to something else I already know and enjoy. I know a little about the following, but would welcome the opportunity to embrace learning and working in these areas as part of professional team.

• Agile & Scrum
• PWA (Progressive Web Applications)
• For software version control, I have used Subversion in the past, but would like to gain experience with Git.

• describe some of the projects @ nsc, lsd, microdevelopments

• sijtec website framework & data recovery

• nsc reading/writing mag tape - cobol & assembler
• learned cobol by reading other's code from printer

Java : NetBeans, Swing

Web Developer : HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, PWA, Joomla, Yii & HumHub, CakePHP, DokuWiki

Network Administration : TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, Firewall, OpenVPN, MQTT (Mosquitto), Bash

Arduino Microcontrollers : C/C++, X10 Home Automation, Model Railway, Virtual Pipe Organ

Hardware : Build & upgrade PC's

Can work alone, as a part of a team, or lead a team

Programming and electronics are my hobby and joy

Designing, testing, debugging

Data conversion