Neal's CV

Curriculum Vitae

Name:	Neal Fordham	Date of Birth:	5/9/69
Marital Status:	Single	Nationality:	British
Email Address:	neal@xibalba.demon.co.uk

Summary

I am a freelance Web Developer and IT consultant with a keen interest in providing a friendly, personal service over a diverse range of fields whilst maintaining a good standard of inter-client confidentiality.
I also have considerable experience in system administration with proven flexibility on a wide variety of platforms.
I have built, upgraded and maintained several generations of PC hardware and have evaluated and diagnosed many versions of software.
Over the last four years, along with some friends, I set up and maintained a LAN in one of our flats involving some Windows machines and a Linux server with automatic dialout for email and news.
In the last 7 months I have designed and built websites for some very disparate clients.
My current lines of pursuit include ODBC, CSS/dhtml, xml and Java.

Employment History

August 1999-Present - Web Development

Over the last 7 months, I have been working from home, pursuing my interests in providing independent website development and IT support in a freelance capacity. I have had two major projects so far:

Voxar - specialising in 3D medical imaging software, Voxar contracted me to furnish them with a site that would both raise the online profile of their product and provide a forum for their equipment resellers, as well as sell their spinoff products.
Advocates for Animals - Advocates are a charitable organisation dedicated to animal welfare. I was able to build a site which not only serves to increase awareness of the issues and provide information, but also gives users the ability to lend their support to the various campaigns via petitions, donations, and merchandising. I was also able to provide technical support for the staff.

In addition to these projects, I continue to provide support and consultation (both in person and by telephone) for friends and colleagues, including site development, hardware/software troubleshooting, networking, and home computing solutions.

April 1998-April 1999 - Clear Cut Ltd - Clear Cut specialised in corporate website design and hosting. During my year there, I was primarily responsible for webserver setup/configuration/maintenance, log analysis for clients, email admin (both for clients and for the other members of the team) and general site development. My other duties included software evaluation/installation/troubleshooting, LAN admin and physical networking, firewalling, FTP, internal telephone networking, Internet dialup admin, online shopping and video streaming/panoramas. This included support for and maintainance of various machines running Unix (Redhat and Debian linux), Win95/98, Macintosh and WinNT4 Server (which we used for testing websites, file serving and the office intranet). I was also required to perform remote administration upon our Irix 4 (later Solaris 5) Webserver in Leeds. The software I supported included: Browsers - MSIE, Netscape, Opera, Lynx; Web- and file-servers - Apache, Samba, Sendmail, Exim; Graphics - Paintshop pro, Adobe Pagemaker, Photoshop; Wordprocessing - MSWord, Emacs, Vi.
1997-1998 - NetCon-X - Whilst participating in Internet/Networking training, I became useful in a support capacity for my colleagues
1996 - Producer and Director of 'Break-A-Leg' Theatre Group - Fringe production of Ena Lamont Stuart's 'Men Should Weep' with Edinburgh teenagers
1995/96 - Assistant Editor of Napier University Student Newspaper - reviews, team coordination, layout/DTP and journalism, also computer admin and maintenance
1995 - SCOTVEC course in I.T. - Initially working towards improving 'visibility' of my computer skills, became almost single-handedly responsible for updating and standardising of Microcom Training's machines.
1993/94 - Undergraduate practical demonstration for Edinburgh University Physiology Dept (Respiratory Medicine), Teviot Place under Dr Andrew Davies
1992/93 - University Staff - Kitchen Assistant, Delivery Worker and Cleaner at Teviot and Chambers Street Unions
1989-1991 - Part-time bar work both as member of Teviot Union committee, and during shorter University holidays
1990/91 (summer) - Ride operator at 'Gulliver's Kingdom' family theme park in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire
1989 (summer) - Assembly line manufacture of scientific instruments for Chessel (Eurotherm) in Worthing, Sussex

Education:

October 1988 - June 1992	University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
	BSc (Hons) Class 2.2 Biological Sciences (Physiology)
September 1986 - July 1988	St Mary's RC High School, Chesterfield, Derbyshire
	3 GCE A-levels - Chemistry (C), Physics (C) and Biology (A)
September 1981 - July 1986	Chatsmore RC High School, Worthing, West Sussex
	9 GCE O-levels, including English and Mathematics

Further Training

October 1997 - February 1998	NetCon-X, Edinburgh - This led to a work placement at Clear Cut
	Web design, Internet architecture and terminology, Java scripting, Computer networking
March 1995 - August 1995	Microcom Training, Edinburgh (now defunct)
	9 SCOTVEC National Certificate Modules in I.T.
October 1994 - July 1995	Drummond Community High School, Edinburgh
	Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP)
	BSL (British Sign Language)	Stage 1

Outside Interests:

I play the guitar and the piano and was co-founder of an amateur band which lasted for four years. There is a new project in the pipeline. I have had artwork displayed in several small exhibitions in Edinburgh and have had short stories published in local fanzines. I am always involved with computers, and my current special interests are 3-D animation, music, and games. I enjoy walking and cycling and I like to swim whenever I get the chance. I like to read science fiction and fantasy and have also been researching into local history - especially around the area in which I live. I also have a keen interest in philosophy of science, with particular focus on Dinosaurs, evolution, high-energy physics and the history of the natural sciences. I have recently become involved in DJ'ing at a Cheesy Listening Club on alternate Thursdays.

References available on request

Neal

Last modified: Tue Mar 7 16:45:42 BST 2000