The Short Version
- I'm best known for releasing free cheat sheets on this site, writing about PHP security and complaining about PHP not being British enough.
- I've been building websites as a hobby since 1993 and professionally since 1998.
- I like skiing, snowboarding, squash, cycling and chess.
- I'm studying physics and maths with the Open University.
- I'm a big fan of web applications. You can find me on last.fm, Twitter, SmugMug (link coming), del.icio.us, Facebook, LinkedIn and Streaming Soundtracks, and many more.
The Long Version
I've been involved with web design, web development and online marketing since 1993, when I set up my very first hobby site. It was the first of many - I churned out dozens of small sites, mostly hosted on Angelfire and similar free hosts. They were largely appalling and if you were unfortunate enough to experience one of them I can only apologise and assure you that I've learned a lot since then!
On I went for a few years, writing HTML and playing with simple JavaScript effects, enjoying myself immensely. In 1998, a friend of the family asked me to so some work on a website in return for money - a thought that had not, to that point, occurred to me. Once I realised it was possible to make a living building websites, I was hooked. I did more and more work for friends and family, and worked for a while as a freelance web designer before deciding to make a career of doing what I enjoyed. If you want to know more about my work, have a look at my projects: personal and work.
These days I work almost entirely with PHP, though I've worked with ASP, ASP.NET and Cold Fusion in the past, and am learning Python. My recent projects have made use of several open source platforms, including Magento, Drupal and MODX.
I'm a huge fan of Open Source software, and have a couple of small Open Source projects of my own on GitHub. I also have several other sites, including Cheatography, Envoy and FeedbackFair.
I'm comfortable with server management, including setup and configuration of Linux, Apache, Nginx, PHP and MySQL. The more time I spend using the command line, the more useful I seem to find it.
When not in front of a screen, I enjoy snowboarding and skiing, but don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like. I also cycle regularly and play in a squash league. In September 2008 I started a physics degree with the Open University. I'm thinking about switching to maths. I hope to finish in 2014.
Please do feel free to email me!
Dave Elsewhere
About Added Bytes
The site runs on MODx, an excellent open-source PHP CMS. The site is HTML 5, using CSS for presentation, with JavaScript providing progressive enhancement.
The site has an elastic layout, meaning the site expands with your browser window within predefined limits - the idea is to make the most of available space, without allowing the site to expand so far that lines of text become unreadable.
9 Comments
Hey, the search button in you header doesn't work.
Yeah, I know I can search by clicking enter, but having that button like that, is kinda counter productive.
btw. awesome content, the cheatsheets are great...
hmm I think I will update them while I'm here, still got the one's from ilovejackdaniels :P
#1, SJL, 19 February 2010. Reply to this.
Nice layout - I like sites like yours. Simple and appealing.
Best regards
Replies: #6.
#2, tokad, Austria, 30 March 2010. Reply to this.
This is beautiful, clean, easy-to-understand website. You're good at this. Thank you.
#3, Bird, Japan, 18 April 2010. Reply to this.
This is one of the best web design sites ive found. Very good articles!
#4, Mark, 20 May 2010. Reply to this.
You seem to be the write person to answer this quesion. Is there a regex that I could use to extract the document size (paper size) of a DPF file?
Thanks
#5, Alex, Argentina, 30 June 2010. Reply to this.
#2 I agree. Just love the layout. Simple, clean, great fonts.
#6, Maggie Wilson, Canada, 17 May 2012. Reply to this.
Hi Dave,
I came across your site as I wanted to get Javascript cheat sheets, but notice that in your experience you have Drupal, Joomla and MODX. I have Drupal and Joomla both have advantages and disadvantages over each other but have not looked into MODX and would like to ask your opinion on the CMS and which CMS you favor and why. Thank you for providing such great resources BTW.
#7, Jacqueline Walsh, Ireland, 8 July 2012. Reply to this.
Jacqueline: That's a question without a quick answer! :)
I dislike Joomla - of all the CMSes I've used for clients, it's been slow and painful for development and required the most handholding of the client afterwards.
Drupal is great and does everything you could possibly want. But, it's got a rather unpleasant learning curve and isn't always intuitive. But if you want an ecommerce site with a capable CMS, it's a good choice. (Magento is great for ecommerce, but the CMS is extremely weak.)
MODX is wonderful. Easy to work with and develop for, a minimal support required for clients after a site's deployed. It's fast and has an excellent community. The e-commerce offerings so far haven't been good enough, I've felt, though I've not checked on progress here in the last few months. My first choice for any CMS-driven site that doesn't use ecommerce.
#8, DaveChild, United Kingdom, 9 July 2012. Reply to this.
Hello Dave.
Thanks for cheat sheet.
Programmer from Kazakhstan. :)
#9, Max, Kazakhstan, 26 November 2012. Reply to this.