About Dave and Added Bytes

The Short Version

• I'm Dave Child.
• I'm best known for releasing free cheat sheets on this site.
• I'm the Head of Digital at GSBA (formerly Active Parity).
• I've been building websites since 1993.
• People started paying me to build websites in 1998.
• I like skiing, snowboarding, squash and chess.
• I'm doing a physics degree with the Open University.
• I like it when people email me.
• 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

ILoveJackDaniels is was a net handle, or 'nick'. As it happens, it's it was my nick, and is what I have been known as since around February 2001. At least, it was near then. It was one of those moments when, after a few months of trying to think of a nick I could use online that I'd remember and that was reasonably unique, a moment of inspiration caught and beat me. My drink of choice is was Jack Daniels.

In September of 2003, I finally got around to registering this domain name ILoveJackDaniels.com and putting together this site. In 2008, the Jack Daniel's trademark team decided that the domain was "confusing" and "asked" me to stop using it. I moved the site to AddedBytes.com on 30th June 2008, where it remains to this day. The current design is the 7th so far.

The site runs on the MODx system, an excellent open-source PHP CMS. It used to run on bBlog, until bBlog's development ground to a halt and the project was declared inactive.

The site is HTML 5, using CSS for presentation, with JavaScript providing progressive enhancement. It's 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 text becomes unreadable. The site used to have a lovely printer style sheet, meaning you could print an article and it would be automatically formatted appropriately. I hope to reinstate that soon.

Enough about the site, though. I am Dave Child, a web developer from the south of the UK employed as the Head of Digital for GSBA (formerly Active Parity). I've been involved with web design and online marketing since 1993 or so, 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.

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 join a company, primarily for the company, the stability and the opportunity to learn from others. If you want to know more about my career from that point, have a look at my portfolio page.

When not at work, I am a moderator at In December 2006, I stepped down (not enough time to really do the role justice) as a moderator at Cre8asite Forums. Since joining there I have spent my time picking the brains of usability, accessibility, marketing, design, development and graphic experts, and feel like I have learned a huge amount through the forums. In summer 2007, I decided to start a fitness blog to chronicle my progress as I attempt to counter years of desk jockeying. I also run a site called TooYoo, a small but very friendly community site for the members of various consumer review resources, as well as a small Sudoku site and CrosswordCheats, a site built for Mrs Dave on a whim.

When not working, I try and spend as much time as I can outside away from computers. I've been with Mrs Dave since April 2000, and we got married on 22nd April 2006. I enjoy snowboarding and skiing, but don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like and would consider myself an enthusiastic if incompetent amateur photographer. I also play in a squash league, and have taken a shine to disc golf. In September 2008 I started a physics degree with the Open University.

I hope you enjoy the site and find it useful. Please do feel free to email me if you have any problems, suggestions or comments. If you like what you find here or find it useful, you can always say thanks by buying me something from my wish list.