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.

My first job after leaving college in 1984 was in the “I.T. Operations” department, charged with ensuring the mini computer and it's many terminals were always available. We were a small team of just three, but in less than a year I was promoted to head of the department. I had quickly learned details of how the computer worked, written some utility programs to monitor performance, and put new procedures in place to improve uptime and backup schedules.

After a few years, I was moved to the team which handled the deployment of the companies products 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. I gained lots of experience on different combinations of hardware and operating systems. During this period I would often travel to customers premises to install our software or diagnose faults.

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 system which could automatically create a whole Java application to replace a retired Cobol application without losing access to the valuable data.

In 2007 and after 23 years at NSC, I decided to move on to a different challenge and embrace newer technologies. I set up my own company called SIJTEC. The main aim was to help churches and other charities improve their “web presence” by providing a CMS that would enable staff to easily maintain an up-to-date web site. I developed the system myself in PHP, and could quickly respond to requests for extra features from my customers. Initially uptake was good, but after a number of years more free alternatives were becoming mainstream, eg Wordpress. As the customer base was decreasing, the company ceased trading at the end of 2014.

The next year, I joined Greater Manchester Community Chaplaincy as a volunteer. Here, I have assembled and maintain a Linux server, providing VPN access for remote workers, and centralised secure storage of sensitive files. I have also created a bespoke database to track client attendance, progress, interventions and outcomes, in order to produce graphs and tables for our reports to funders.

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.

I have taught a 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.

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.

I operate a VPS, providing a central location for hosting my private cloud storage, Subversion, VPN, and a LAMP server.

• Web Server: LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL aka MariaDB & PHP)
• Web Frameworks: Yii & HumHub, Joomla, CakePHP and DokuWiki.
• Web Technologies: 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)
• Mobile Application Development. I have used Android Studio for a small project, but would like more experience.
• For software version control, I have used Subversion in the past, but would like to gain experience with Git.
• Perl
• Python