jo'el: (n). Married to Nicky; one daughter since 10/2/02 (Ellinor), one son since 8/1/04 (Benjamin); living in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Self-confessed computer geek since 1982, Internet user since 1986, Unix user since 1991. Cheese-pop musician, photographer, gadget addict, generally fun bloke. See also evil scumlord.

Rent-A-Geek Corner

The latest edition of my CV can be downloaded here, together with information for recruiters.

I am available from 18TH MARCH 2010 for contract work throughout the UK (long term in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Humberside regions; short term (2-3 week periods) in London). Skills include MySQL 5, PHP 5 (OO methodology), AJAX, jQuery, Javascript, project management, perl, telecomms, database, web stuff, eCommerce, domain registry operations and general Linux sysadminery (principally Debian and Ubuntu). Click to get in touch

Note to potential employers: 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or you are an employment agent, please contact me for the latest version of my CV: the one up here may be a few months out of date and does not contain employer names or full contact details [last update: January 2009].

Current things I'm working on:

• Working up in Saltaire at a popular consumer electronics company on web interfaces to firmware. Something rather different to what I've been up to for the past few years!
• Doing 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.
• Archiving the BBC Micro Domesday Project - see here for some interesting info until I write up my own efforts.
• Earlier in 2009 I was working with a Software-as-a-Service cloud computing company called Gooroo in central Leeds on an online accounting system.
• Building a fairground organ of some sort. Although it's only one rank to start with I'm aiming to increase that to 4-rank, working on Wurlitzer designs and the John Smith Universal Organ, and pipes I can find on eBay.
• Building an underlit disco dance floor, ostensibly for Eurovision. This made its first appearance in 2008 and was improved for the 2009 Eurovision party.
• I write music, usually formula pop for myself and other people. I did some solo stuff and you can download some of it here. Music's a serious passion of mine, so much that I built a studio in the house, started collecting vintage synths, and began recording. Now we do all sorts of stuff in the Cheese Factory, our mastering facility in Wakefield.
• 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 and you can see the video of it here courtesy of Lee's mobile phone.
• Back to telecommunications I spent some time implementing a reseller portal for a LCR telco using BT's ebXML WLR2 and WLR3 implementations, interfacing with various telcos and soft-switches, and generally having a whale of a time with confusing telecommunications foo.
• Like a bad penny I still turn up working for the occasional new media agency around Leeds, mostly doing LAMP stuff, 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. End clients include several property development companies, a travel portal, and a sales dealer network. 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.
• From February 2002 to May 2008 we oversaw the development of the digital photo gallery site Fotopic.Net, where people can post their digital photos and movies online. The original version of the site was at photos.jml.net, eventually adding an album for impromptu pictures from my Nokia N70, 6600 and 7650 mobile phones (as featured on BBC News some time back). It's now owned by a company called Snappy Designs Ltd so can't really help with queries I'm afraid although we pop our heads round the door occasionally.
• As a result of Fotopic.net I ended up writing an interface to an Agfa d-Lab.2, for automatic workflow printing and despatch.
• The evil BBC Micro Project involves Econet, hard disks, VoIP, modems and a lot of Viewdata software. It needs describing properly, which will happen some day, really.
• I'm an occasional contributor to cinema history websites such as cinematreasures.org, and take lots of photos of derelict cinemas.
• I work all over the place, depending on my mood. You can find me in all sorts of cafés around the Wakefield and Leeds area, but I still have connectivity thanks to my GPRS and 3G shenanigans. I also started a list of work-friendly cafés and bars in the area, but it's subject to very sporadic updates.

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