Technical Skills

I have a wide range of skills from bar tending to research and from customer service to programming.
The section below details my technical competencies and computer skills.

Operating Systems

I have used Windows and Linux based systems.

Windows

I have experience using several versions of windows as a desktop operating system as a home computer or an office workstation.

Linux

I have used several flavours of Linux for various tasks but have primarily used the Debian based Ubuntu operating system as both a server and workstation because of its refreshing & sleek graphical interface design, simplified administration process and community support.
In addition to this I have used Fedora within my Astrophysics career for research.

Productivity

Microsoft Office
Open Office
Open Office was developed by Sun and provides and Open Source productivity suite. sun has recently been acquired by Oracle and is now being sidelined.
Libre Office
Libre Office is a recent spawn of Open Office and is practically identical at present.
Google Apps

Cloud Services

Servers

Alfresco

Programming

• C
• C++
• Python
• Java

Web Development

I primarily develop and deploy websites using free and open source software as they provide the most cost effective solution but also because there are significant security benefits.
I primarily utilise notepad++ or gedit (simple text editors), a web browser and a local web-server when building websites and web applications. There are distinct benefits of using sophisticated software like SharePoint developer but they don’t beat the simplicity and ease of notepad.
When developing websites it can often be best to utilise existing software for or as part of your site or application. For example the WordPress platform is an out of the box solution which is tried and tested but can be quickly and easily customisable to meet different needs but provides the core features for a dynamic blogging site virtually instantly

Websites and Blogs

I have experiences adapting the WordPress platform to create

Web Applications

Visitor Enhancement

When a user wants to view a larger image why do they need to go to a separate page or for it to replace their . Client side frameworks exist using JavaScript to make your site seem much more usable.
Ok simple answer: We turn THIS into THIS
This doesn’t work if you block JavaScript (Sorry), but ALL major modern browsers support it.

Social Media

Increasingly more and more people are using social media to interact and spend their time
Think: When did you last check Facebook?
Social Networks include: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, FourSquare.
By creating a page or account with a social network you can communicate to people without them needing to login to your website it simply appears in their news feed.
These tools provide an extra (free) way to interact with your target audience.
Aughton Village Hall users Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus as well as FourSquare to share updates and connect with its audience as well as allowing sharing using these sites too.

User Analysis

Monitoring the users of a site is crucial. By using analytical tools you can gain information about visitors to your site, for example there apparent geographic location, browser and operating system as well as their behaviour on your site for example you can see the overall pattern of the sites they look at and this can identify pages where they are not retained.
I primarily use Google Analytics as its a simple and easy solution to deploy but also use other sever statistics packages such as AWStats and Analog.