Service offering

Do you require a custom web-design, programming or IT consultancy?

We are a source of experienced advice and inventive ideas from technical, design and business perspectives. Here to advise on IT project considerations, policy and procedure, hardware and software systems specification, requirements capture, design, implementation and maintenance, formal documentation, marketing and much more.

We can help with complex decisions, by writing a report for you, providing and evaluating alternatives. Information is provided in relevant style from full technical detail to simple, non-technical summary with explanation.

I can plan & manage your project, carrying out work myself or managing a team, or I can fulfil one specific role within your existing team. I consider it my duty to always act impartially and solely in the interest of your project. I favour a low-risk, long-term approach, balancing this against minimising costs in the short term.

Below is a list of many of the services I offer, including methods and technologies that I use.

Human interaction

  • IT consultation
  • Staff training
  • Technical support
  • Personal and group tuition
  • Business processes/systems analysis

Web development

  • Simple or complex web designs
  • Design of branding
  • Image sourcing and editing
  • Accessibility, Web standards
  • Progressive enhancement, Graceful degradation
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Keyword research, Crawlability, Content creation, Link building, Analytics
  • Browser & platform compatibility testing
  • Page load speed and caching optimisation
  • HTML emails
  • Dynamically generated content - server scripting
  • Database programming
  • Web browser scripting
  • E-commerce
  • Payment gateways
  • Custom content management system
  • User interface design
  • Web application architecting
  • Integration with or between multiple existing code bases or web services
  • Port a website to a different host environment
  • Create a development site for testing changes and evaluating ideas
  • Create mirror sites with load-balancing
  • Backup and retrieval of website including files, database and configuration

Web development languages and tools

  • Web design in XHTML, CSS and Javascript/jQuery
  • Web server configuration - Apache, .htaccess, Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services)
  • Sitemaps, Robots exclusion standard
  • Javascript frameworks eg jQuery, Prototype, script.aculo.us, MooTools
  • PHP frameworks eg Yii, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Zend
  • Browser scripting DHTML (Dynamic HTML), DOM (Dynamic Object Model)
  • Flash ActionScript programming
  • HaXe multiplatform language - targeting Javascript, Flash, PHP, C++, NekoVM
  • Server scripting in PHP and other languages eg Perl, JSP, ASP, ColdFusion, C/C++
  • Database programming: PDO, mySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server
  • Web CMS / forum / wiki packages eg Joomla!, Drupal, Wordpress, PHP-Nuke, TangoCMS, X-Cart, phpBB, Wikimedia, Coppermine
  • Map APIs: Google, Virtual Earth
  • AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And eXtensible markup language)
  • JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
  • Optimisation tools: SmartOptimizer, YSlow, Page Speed
  • Google: Webmaster tools, Analytics, Adwords, Adsense
  • Shell scripting eg cron, ftp upload integration with text editor
  • Interested to gain experience in: XUL, MXML & XAML

Development, general

  • Project Management
  • Documentation of design, code and user manuals
  • Automated source code documentation with Doxygen
  • Version control eg Git, Subversion, snapshot/hard link backups
  • Requirements specification, analysis and design
  • Functional and Object-oriented programming
  • Design patterns
  • Interfacing between APIs, abstraction layers
  • Quality assurance - systematic testing and debugging
  • Human-computer interaction - user interface design
  • Database design, normalisation and management
  • Conversion of data between formats
  • Graphical design, sourcing, creation and editing
  • Scanning, printing, photograph restoration
  • Sound design, sourcing, creation and editing

Software development

  • Software development in C and C++
  • Cross platform development
  • 2D/3D graphics/animation - OpenGL, DirectX, GDI, svgalib, SDL, FreeType, GTK+
  • User interface API - Win32, MFC, Qt, Motif, Xlib
  • Networking - sockets, any documented protocol
  • File processing & generation - any documented format
  • Interested in gaining more experience in: Java, C#, .NET framework

Internet

  • Domain names
  • Website hosting with email, databases and cPanel
  • Nameserver configuration
  • Server administration: SSH, Plesk, cPanel
  • Database administration: SQL, phpMyAdmin, own database tools
  • E-mail server: POP3, IMAP, SMTP, webmail, mailing lists, integration
  • Internet Relay Chat server, bots

Computers

  • IT management
  • Hardware specification, supply and install
  • Servicing and upgrades
  • Operating system and software install, configuration and updates
  • System optimisations
  • Malware security and removal (Protection from viruses and spyware)
  • Intranet server build, install and administration eg RAID, Samba (Windows Domain controller and shares), NFS, E-mail, VPN, Scalix

Networking

  • Category 5 wired network installations
  • Telephony wiring / structured cabling
  • Wireless router configuration eg DHCP, DNS, port-forwarding
  • Custom router firmwares eg DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT
  • Network security eg iptables, SSL, chroot, secure passwords, MAC address filtering
  • Network attached storage devices eg UnRAID
  • VPN access (Virtual Private Networking)
  • VOIP Analog telephone adaptor setup eg Linksys PAP2
  • Administration of Linux servers, Windows Server, Active Directory, IIS, SQL Server

More information is available on the Servicing & sales page.