I'm a web developer, living in Scotland. I work in the Oil & Gas sector and spend most of my day working on a HSE/Safety Compliance application for a major operator, using ASP.NET and Oracle.

So reads the short, sidebar friendly summary. As with most things in this life, however, there is a bit more to it than that.

Professionally

I've worked in the Oil & Gas sector as a web developer for nearly a decade. As well as being a developer I have "paid my dues" in the IT world as front-line helpdesk support, in first, second and third tiers. I have a wide IT skill set which encompasses desktops, servers, networks and virtual environments. There's probably not many areas of the IT world I haven't touched on in my career.

As a web developer I am passionate about using open standards-based practices to create open, usable, and accessible websites and applications. I am extremely well versed in the practical application of (X)HTML and CSS, with a very good understanding of the common (and not so common) deficiencies in web browses - and how to overcome them.

On the back-end I am versed in a number of languages and frameworks including PHP, Ruby, C#, CodeIgniter and Rails. At the moment I have a target to learn the basics of Clojure, Haskell, and ErLANG before the end of the year. I was an early adopter of ASP.NET MVC which I used day to day at my previous employer.

Personally

Beyond work I like to think I lead a pretty simple life. I enjoy spending time with my kids, I read (both online and off), I play some video games, and I watch a few TV shows and films. So far so boring...

I suppose I should expand on the above by stating upfront that I'm more than a bit of a geek. My reading list is a mixture of technical books and science fiction & fantasy novels. My favourite shows are generally scifi. I'm also hugely interested in gadgets and technology. At work I'm the "go-to" guy for info on the latest smartphone, games console, or other gadgetry.

Although I tend not to blog much I enjoy writing; I've always felt I have a couple of books in me... one day, when I feel the time is right, I'll start writing them and self-publish.