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Most systems are written using Java with extensive use of open source technologies to reduce costs, improve maintainability and provide long term solutions. The use of open source frees developers from restrictive practices that large vendors often impose (such as not being able to access source code for debugging) and promotes greater sharing of design solutions among developers leading to better software all round.
Experienced Java Web Developer
I provide application design and development on a wide variety of projects in an assortment of industry sectors (airline, automotive, charity, b2b directories, financial, military, services, telecommunications) on a contract basis.
I specialise in the creation of robust, scalable enterprise web applications for use either internally or public facing.
Most systems are written using Java with extensive use of open source technologies to reduce costs, improve maintainability and provide long term solutions. The use of open source frees developers from restrictive practices that large vendors often impose (such as not being able to access source code for debugging) and promotes greater sharing of design solutions among developers leading to better software all round.
The quagmire of legacy
I also provide consultancy and subsequent implementation to allow companies to migrate away from legacy systems to improved architectures based on solid design principles working with open source frameworks.
I define a legacy system as one that does not have a comprehensive automated test suite and is largely opaque to developers attempting to make changes.
There are many free and open source solutions available to allow companies to rapidly adopt modern development techniques and drag themselves out of the quagmire that often comes about due to poor architectural guidance over the lifetime of an application. Sometimes an application needs refactoring from within leading to a planned migration to a new structure, other times it is better to slowly pull features from the legacy system and put them into a next generation application that is better placed to implement them. Whatever approach is adopted, it is vital that a continuous attention to the architecture and implementation is maintained throughout to avoid a horrible hotch potch further down the line.
Stack Exchange Profile
Open Source Projects
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As part of my ongoing interest in the emerging cryptocurrency Bitcoin, I have made several contributions to the BitCoinJ project on Google Code. I see Bitcoin as an important development in theway that money is handled on the internet, and I am able to give technical advice to anyone wishing to use it as part of their payment process. This advice extends from general consultancy around how Bitcoin works to actual implementation on mobile devices (particularly Android) and as part of a Java based application. |
Agile Stack Blog
I also provide the Agile Stack blog which contains a wealth of useful information for developers and project managers wishing to use Agile methodologies such as Extreme Programming and Scrum.
Technical Skills Summary
Continuous Integration/Build: Maven, Ant, Hudson, Jenkins, Anthill, Cruise Control, Team City, Artifactory, Nexus
Database: Oracle (9i,10g,11g), PL/SQL, SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres
Version control: SVN, CVS, StarTeam, git, Mercurial
Agile/XP: Pair programming, automated testing, DRY, pragmatic approach, continuous integration.
IDE: Intellij IDEA (primary), Eclipse, NetBeans
Languages: Java (primary), JavaScript, C, C++, Visual Basic, Ruby on Rails, Clojure
Contact Details
