Hi. I’m Watts Martin. I’m a web developer. Web development isn’t all I do—I also do design and UX work, as well as technical and creative writing—but “web developer” would be on my business cards. I usually work with PHP on the server side and jQuery on the front end, but I have experience with Python/Django, other Javascript libraries like Prototype and YUI, and shell scripting.
Experience
I started when the dotcom era did, at a long-gone telecom company called Intermedia where I became the webmaster for the company’s first intranet site. Back then, “webmaster” meant designer, developer and sysadmin. Since then I’ve worked for Netwolves Technologies, Linvatec, Illumant, and the Department of the Navy (by way of contracting for Illumant subcontracting to Secorix subcontracting to SAIC). More recently I’ve done work for a Fiji-based travel web site and for Nokia with their (now defunct) Point & Find group. (The “now defunct” part of that is why I’m not at Nokia anymore.) Along the way I’ve also been a technical writer with Global Locate (now part of Broadcom) and Cisco, as well as a data analyst for There, a virtual reality company like Second Life.
Unfortunately, much of the work I’ve done has been for intranets or commercial products. This often leaves me in the position of having to tell prospective clients and employers, look, I’m pretty good. Trust me.
So: look, I’m pretty good. Trust me. (Also, read my résumé.)
Some Bullet Points
I like web standards: valid HTML/XHTML, CSS, and Javascript that doesn’t make JSLint scream (much). Recently I’ve started doing the HTML5 thing, as seen on this very site.
I also like MVC: CakePHP at Illumant and for Fiji Island Escapes, symfony at Nokia. I started my own PHP “microframework,” Flagpole, inspired by the Ruby microframework Camping.
I’ve become a big fan of Python fairly recently, with particular love for Flask and Django. I’m starting do professional work with the former. I’ve been learning Node.js as well.
I know SQL and basic relational database design and normalization. I’ve mostly worked with MySQL but have some experience with PostgreSQL and a little experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. (And, yes, SQLite.)
If you’re into this sort of thing, I speak agile. We used a Jira plugin called “Greenhopper” for agile work at Nokia, and I’m familiar with the daily scrum and sprint process.
I’ve worked on some moderately large sites, most notably Nokia’s, which had multiple load-balanced servers and used PHP’s APC caching.
I’m a pretty fast learner and nearly always interested in learning new technologies.
Some Anti-Bullet Points
I have not worked on humungous sites and have not used memcached. Most of what I’ve read suggests it’s pretty easy to pick up, but I won’t come in as an expert.
I haven’t used “NoSQL” databases, although I’m interested in them—while I’ve had cause to use key-value stores, I haven’t so far been on a project where an SQL database was truly a hindrance. Key-value stores can be done with an SQL back end, though, like the Django JsonObjectField type I created.
I’m a Mac user and prefer to use Mac development tools, but I won’t be a zealot about it.
I don’t program in Flash/ActionScript, Java, .NET, or C#. (Recruiters: Java and Javascript, despite their names, are entirely unrelated to one another.)
I am not interested in relocating for contract positions in faraway places, so if you are one of the recruiters who keeps sending these to me, please stop.