The Setup

Inspired by the site over at usethis.com, the following is a brief interview between me and, well, me.

Matthew Juffs
Web Developer, Techie

Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Matt, Husband to Anneka and Daddy to Lily (18 months) and Mia (15 weeks to go). By day I'm a Web Developer for IOCEA.com Ltd, the creators of Cshop and by night I develop my own sites and tinker with my servers.

I code primarily in ASP (Classic and .NET) with Microsoft SQL Server, but have been known to dabble in PHP and MySQL. Then I used a splashing of XHTML/CSS to bring it altogether and a sprinkling of Javascript if required.

My personal project, SlickCMS is nearing completion for a public release, over a year after embarking on it. I'm still contemplating going Open Source with it, or simply making it freely available.

When I'm not developing for work or my own kicks, I try to improve my measly XBOX 360 Gamer Score; Fallout 3 is proving to be engaging.

What hardware do you use?

At work, a Dell Optiplex 320 with 2GB RAM and an Intel Pentium D. It has lasted me nearly 3 years of development without any problems. It has 2 Sony 17" LCDs connected to it, with a Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 - an older gaming mouse I found to be perfect for me, a lefty.

At home, a Sony VAIO, again with 2GB RAM and an Intel Pentium (M). It runs Windows 7 fine and my only complaint is the loud fan.

I also run several servers in the loft, including a mini-itx Firewall and an AMD Athlon X2 with 6GB RAM as a Virtual Host.

And what software?

My work desktop and laptop run pretty much the same set of software, with the former using Vista and the latter Windows 7. Visual Studio 2008; Microsoft SQL Server 2008; Office 2007; Notepad++ and 7Zip amongst others.

Browser wise, it's Internet Explorer 8 at work, with Google Chrome at home. I prefer the minimalist approach of Chrome for browsing websites and the Web Developer toolbar of IE8 for development purposes.

The Firewall uses Smoothwall and the Virtual Host uses Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, with the VMs a mix of Server 2003/2008.

Lastly, I am a fan of Star Wars, so my Servers are named after planets: Bespin for the Host; Talus, Hoth and Corellia (amongst others) for the VMs and Tatooine for the NAS.

What would be your dream setup?

At work, a 30" Dell monitor, with the Sonys either side would work well - all powered by a Intel Xenon workstation.

Laptop wise, a bleeding-edge Lenovo, Sony or Dell would be good. Maybe a high-end netbook or lightweight laptop for browsing the Internet when not developing too.

My servers could do with an upgrade and consolidation - there's no need to run all 4 of them 24/7, when just the one with a bunch of Virtuals would suffice.

I used to roll with a desktop at home, for PC Gaming and occasional developing - but have since found a laptop to be ideal for sitting on the sofa whilst coding.

comments Posted: Tuesday 26th January 2010, 23:21pm
Categories: Articles, Computers and Technology, SlickCMS, Slickhouse, Web, Work
Tags: asp, microsoft

New Years resolutions 2010

As I did back in 2009, I'm creating 10 New Years resolutions that I'll hopefully stick to during 2010. The first 5 are a continuation of 2009's resolutions:

  1. Lose some weight - I'll set a target weight in the coming weeks and will blog about my progress throughout the coming months.
  2. Release SlickCMS - I'm finishing off a few features to complete Version 2, which will then be released to the public as an Open Source application. Version 3 is already in planning and 4 will be a port to .NET
  3. Build up plenty of savings - As the recession is coming to an end, our savings should reflect this.
  4. Complete an XBOX 360 game - My gamer points are poor for someone who has had an Xbox for nearly 3 years (2007-05). Completing a game should help this.
  5. Release a new web project - In addition to SlickCMS which will ideally be coded in .NET
  6. Tweet more - I've started to use twitter a lot more over the Christmas holidays, so will continue to during 2010, hopefully gaining many more followers.
  7. Design refresh for Slickhouse - The current design you see before you is nearing a year in age and could do with a refresh to coincide with the switch to SlickCMS (from WordPress).
  8. Blog more - The amount of posts I've written over the past year compares very badly to previous years. December 2009 only saw 2 posts for you to read. So for 2010 I'll make more time to blog and will write some meaningful articles as well as random thoughts.
  9. Take more holiday - During 2009 I barely took the 20+ days of holiday I'm entitled to off, so for 2010 I plan to utilise the full amount spread over the 365 days.
  10. Increase reader base - Slickhouse and my other sites receive fairly low traffic volumes. A combination of Tweeting more, blogging more and releasing SlickCMS/other projects should help to increase the number of people visiting and reading Slickhouse and its related sites. Perhaps I could even make some money from the time spent blogging/developing in my own time?

That should do it. Once 2010 comes to an end, I'll reflect on the New Years resolutions as per yesterday, hopefully stating that all 10 were stuck to. What have you got planned for 2010?

comments Posted: Friday 1st January 2010, 23:21pm
Categories: General, SlickCMS
Tags: new-years-resolutions