jo'el: (n). Married to Nicky; one daughter, one son; living in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Self-confessed computer geek since 1982, Internet user since 1986, Unix user since 1991. Contract software developer, musician, photographer, part-time designer, amateur lampy & AV engineer, generally fun bloke. See also evil scumlord.

Need A Contract Developer? Hire Me!

Principal skills: PHP 5 (12+ years experience), MySQL (15+ years experience), Javascript (14+ years), AJAX, jQuery, project management, perl, telecomms, database, web stuff, eCommerce, general Linux sysadminery (principally Debian and Ubuntu). Lots of experience linking to Twitter, Facebook, Paypal, Datacash, Flickr, RSS, all that stuff. Click to get in touch

My CV can be downloaded here, together with information for recruiters. Please note I don't do fixed-price work, just daily/hourly rate on contract.

I am available from 28TH JANUARY 2012 for contract work throughout the UK (long term in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Humberside regions; short term (2 months max) worldwide).

Note to potential employers/agencies: If you're after me doing some work for you, or you are an employment agent, please contact me for the latest version of my CV: the one up here may be a few months out of date and does not contain employer names or full contact details.

Current things I'm working on:

• Work:

  I'm a bit of a media agency gun-for-hire: PHP, jQuery, MySQL, all that shiznat and have worked with huge projects for blue-chip clients: folks like Eurostar, Panasonic, Barratt, Dandara, Gossard (the wonderbra people), Fischer-Price, Damart Thermawear, Aquafresh (GlaxoSmithKline), Sage, BBC, Pace plc, pretty much every property developer on Jersey, etc.etc. I started writing software for the web back in 1994 and eventually ended up writing control-panel type stuff for SaaS/hosted services.

  I still turn up working for media agencies around Leeds and London, mostly doing LAMP stuff, HTML, bits of graphical and Flash work (although it's not my forté) fixing projects after previous staff have left or been poached, and writing a kick-ass CMS system based around object-oriented PHP 5 using __autoloader. Many of the OO modules show up in projects since, including a lot of high-profile sites for everyone from e-commerce vendors through to major broadcasters' programme support sites.

  I also do stuff for a very significant public service organisation down in Hendon, statistical analysis, simulating incidents, doing lots of rich-media e-learning type stuff but with a lot more fun bent than just plain e-learning, and also some statistical analysis work for the NHS.

• Photography:

  I do a lot of gig photography: local and national music, theatre, concerts, live events. Most of my stuff appears on photos.jml.net and in the past I've photographed acts as diverse as Metronomy, Paleday, Franz Ferdinand, Jimmy Somerville, Glasvegas, The Cribs, Mumford & Sons, Dolly Rockers, Scooch, East 17, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Gary Stewart, Fiona Bevan, Tight Fit, ABC, Dr Feelgood, Chew Lips, Tom Robinson, John Cooper Clarke, Mark E Smith & The Fall, Pet Shop Boys, Eureka Machines, Dr Blue, ZZ Eliminator, Heather Small, Mike Read, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, The Tracks, Gillian Christie, Penguin, Hjaltalin, Kal Lavelle, Runaround Kids, Rosie Doonan, The Spills, Dead Sea Strategy, The Passing Fancy, Urban Strings, Telegram Sam, Jonny The Firth, Antonio Lulic, Shrood, Piskie Sits, Emmy The Great, Darwin Deez, I Like Trains, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Shrag, Sissy And The Blisters, The Saturdays, Scouting For Girls, More Than You'll Ever Know, Soundgirl, The Mend, Untouched, Mark Morriss, Ryan Spendlove, Chris Helme, Freschard, The Wedding Present, Middleman, Steve Lamacq, Urban Cookie Collective, Delorean Drivers, Paul Morricone, Shrood, Laura & The Tears, Royal Showdown, Brown Hound James, Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles, Treecreeper, Allo Darlin, The Bambinos, Vessels, and lots more.

  I've done events including 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pride London events under an official press pass, and you'll find my work appearing in regional and national publications such as The Independent, The Times, Wakefield Express and NME as well as local fanzines and music mags.

  Lots of examples of my work on photos.jml.net and my Flickr page.

• Classic (Retro) Computing:

  I have an unhealthy interest in BBC Micros and other 8-bit Acorn computers; I own my own BBC Micro Domesday Project, one of only six (known) remaining working setups. The garage has also played home to working Econet setups, and I've toured a talk around the geek groups about new projects for the Beeb (including USB, flash, ethernet) called "Teaching Old Micros New Tricks" - you can find out lots more by clicking here.

• Music:

  I've always written music in many genres stretching from pop to indie to classical to showtunes. Much of my music ends up being performed by the group Obvious Pseudonym - you can download our mega non-hit Keith Chegwin For A Day here as featured on Have I Got News For You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks - and apparently was used as a theme tune for a programme about Mr Cheggers some time back as well. In May 2009 we finally performed on stage at The Hop in Wakefield (video of it here). We released our first EP in June 2010 called The Six Noises EP (click to buy on CD), and it's also available on Amazon and iTunes.

  Back in 2002 I did some solo stuff and you can download some of it here but it's really not very good.

  I also write incidental music for TV and film, and themes and jingles for adverts. I'd link to my showreel but I haven't got one. Never mind.

• Local History & Urbex:

  I'm an occasional contributor to cinema history websites such as cinematreasures.org, and take lots of photos of derelict cinemas.

Looking for older stuff? Click here for things I've been involved with in the past.