Hire Me!

While I am in the process of building this site, I am also always on the lookout for other opportunities. Let me tell you a little about myself, or to be Blunt, what I am and what I am not looking for.

About Me

I am a PHP Developer and consider myself to be an expert at PHP, MySQL, JavaScript (including AJAX), (X)HTML and CSS. I have been doing computer programming since some time in 1982. Yes, I'm OLD, but I'm not slow or feeble and I've had the time to understand the need for those things that most younger developers blow of as an unneeded waste of time, like proper testing and documentation. If you are looking for a portfolio then look over the scripts currently on this site. When a script, tool, or application was not created by myself it will state clearly who provided that tool.

What I'm Looking For

I'm looking for a position that will allow me to build Web Applications in PHP using JavaScript (AJAX), MySQL, (X)HTML and CSS where necessary. I'm looking for a position that will allow me to do my work from wherever I choose to do it. With the type of work that I do, I do not feel that I need to be physically present on the job to get the work done. I am looking for an employer that can trust me to get the work done and does not subscribe to the notion of "Trust, but Verify". Either you trust me or you don't. I'm looking for a position where my worth is understood and where I will be compensated appropriately for my knowledge.

I'm looking for Full Time, Part Time, Sub-Contracting, or just to build that one custom application.

I believe in being Blunt, and don't like to sugar coat things and I expect people to be blunt and honest with me.

Why PHP?

I choose to develope in PHP for many reasons. The most important of these is that PHP was developed primarily for the Web. The entire language is geared toward Web application development and there are many things that it can do easily. Rarely is there a need to install some additional module in order to perform a task. All other languages were developed toward the goal of computer applications and later had tools for the Web incorporated into them. The only exception to this would be ColdFusion, however, the syntax and tagging in this language is like no other making it more difficult to learn and remember.

The syntax of PHP is almost identical to that of JavaScript, making it easy to switch freely between the two.

PHP is an "un-typed" language (as is JavaScript). Many might consider this a flaw, but I feel it is one of the languages strengths, especially where it comes to PHP's array handling abilities. Why would I want to need to remember that I put "Name" in subscript "1" and "Address" in subscript "2" when I can simply name the subscripts "Name" and "Address"? Why would I want to have two different arrays to hold numerical and string data when I can simply put all the information in a single array?

What I'm Not Looking For

I'm not looking for a position where I will build Web Sites, coding (X)HTML and CSS most of the time. While I consider myself and master at (X)HTML and CSS, I'm really not interested in coding these on a regular bases. Building a simple Web site is nice for a diversion, but only that. I'm more interested in building the back-end tools that make those Web sites perform.

I'm not looking for a position where I will be implementing open source solutions. Frankly, they all suck. The code has been touched by 10,000 people, most of whom have no idea what clean code or adequate documentation looks like. I don't want to spend hours in frustration trying to implement a simple template on a Web site, or hunting for that bug that some open-source developer left because they did not sufficiently test their work. I dislike dealing with this type of "Speghetti Code". I'm not interested in implementing frameworks that will take me weeks to learn and understand properly, quite bluntly, I can likely build something myself faster without using that framework. This link is about Python Frameworks, however, the views put forward in the article are basically the same for frameworks for any language and some of them even apply to most open source applications. It sums up my view quite adequately. I'm not interested in racking my brain trying to figure out someone else's code because that person could not be bothered to take the time to provide adequate documentation.

I am not looking for a position where I will be required to work in ASP, ColdFusion, .NET, Java, or any other language. While I've had some experience with these, this is not where my strength is, and I freely admit that.

I'm not looking for a position anywhere that I will be mico-managed. I am tired of positions advertised that state "Must be able to work independently." and yet require you to be in the office from 9-5 so that the manager can watch your every move. I feel that employers who cannot trust their employees are themselves untrustworthy. Trust must be freely given, it is distrust that is earned.

Interested?

If you are interested in contacting me about a possible position, or you simply need someone to program that custom Web App that you're looking for, Contact Me, let me know what you are looking for. I will gladly provide any additional information that you may need.