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 Active Parity.
- I've been building websites since 1993.
- 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, Flickr, 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 itself was, for a time, built in XHTML 1.1, and is now back to HTML 4 (for a million reasons), using CSS to specify fonts, layout - the aesthetics. Personally, I much prefer using CSS in web design than old-fashioned table-based design. The speed with which I finished the recent redesign helped hit home just how much a difference the seperation of style and content can make. It also made me realise that I need to improve my directory and url structure, add a pagination system for long articles, and how important it is to write XHTML with meaning in mind, not to fit your current design.
Using CSS this much in a site has, for me, been an eye-opener. I've learned a lot about accessibility (making this site accessible is an ongoing challenge), and about browser technologies. I've learned that I'm going to have to wait several years before I can do the things I'd like to do with this site, because Microsoft find it too grating to support standards properly (one day, I may put together an example page for Opera, Mozilla etc users, to see how this site could have looked).
At the heart of the site is bBlog (for now), an open source blogging system which has been heavily modified to manage the articles on here. Modifications include better URL rewriting, to allow the sections and articles to be properly navigable, article descriptions, search functionality, page titles, translation links and much much more. If any users of bBlog would like information on any of these or other modifications, feel free to get in touch.
To make life a touch easier, each page of the site is, believe it or not, printer friendly (note: It was when I wrote this ... not now. I need to fix the printer style sheet). A second style sheet is attached to each page, and will only be used when a page is printed. This style sheets hides the menus you see and the advertising. It changes the font to a better print font (serif fonts are better for print, sans-serif for the web, or so they say) and adds URLs of links after them so they are still at least useful, and adds decent margins. So don't be afraid to print anything out, ok?
In case you were wondering who the person behind the scenes is - I am Dave Child, a web developer from the south of the UK employed as the Head of Digital for 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. If you want to know more about my career, have a look at my portfolio page.
When I have a choice in the matter, I develop using PHP, but am quite happy with ASP and .NET, and have worked with most databases, including MySQL and SQL Server. I've been working with HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS and JavaScript since the early 1990s. I also like taking and editing photos, and I should think at some point I'll subject the WWW to a few of my attempts at graphic creation and editing.
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 (pictured right) 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.
AddedBytes.com is the online playground of 
When they do it, all that carefull study you have spent ages sweating blood and tears over learning, will be thrown out the window and rendered fairly useless.