About this site
rubicon.je is a the professional online home of Rob Dudley (see below).
blog.rubicon.je (as you’ve probably worked out by now) is the blog sub site. For more Rubicon sites please visit www.rubicon.je or click the More link above.
As Rob’s interests are fairly wide ranging it is difficult to specify exactly what this site will contain from day to day. However it is intended that the focus be primarily on technology and software development with a definite online/web bias. For an idea of what this blog contains please see the categories listing which should give you a guide.
About the author
Hi, my name is Rob Dudley and I’m a software developer, currently living and working in Jersey. I’ve been using computers in one form or another since I was 8 and have a wide range of interest in the field of information technology. I’ve been developing software since 1994 … granted at this time I was programming my Texas Instruments TI-85 and the BBC Micro but it was sufficient to seed an interest in the skills behind programming to get me where I am today.
I didn’t follow a traditional “programmers” academic path choosing to study media rather than Computer Science (mostly because my maths has always been a little ropey and my previous run in with a formal IT course had ended in disaster – see below) however during the 2nd year of my degree I was pushed gently back into development as part of the Website design aspect of the course.
The shift from Designer to Developer was a) inevitable and b) gradual. Over the next 5 years I worked in a variety of development companies as their “designer” and picked up a lot of what was going on around me. I eventually abandoned the design aspect of my job altogether when I joined a local managed services provider as an assistant developer. This was the first time I’d worked on software that didn’t have to look “nice” and spent the next year learning Perl, improving my PHP, playing with C, cursing SQL and exploring Python. This was also the first time I’d been seriously involved in Linux as a platform and quickly fell in love.
I’ve recently made the move back to the world of web development, although this time I was their “developer”. This brought me into contact with Coldfusion for the first time since 1998, a shift that I’m still enjoying immensely.
Things you might not (want to) know
- The only qualification I’ve ever failed was my GCSE Information Systems course. I now understand that this was due to the difficulties in maintaining such as course during the massive IT upheaval of the mid 90′s… at the time I just assumed I had a crap teacher and would rather by programming than studying the IBM mainframe methodologies.
- I have a small but high quality collection of waterfalls … photographs actually but a collection none the less.
- I have programmed (or hacked about) in at least 30 languages but would only consider myself proficient in 3 – PHP, Coldfusion 8 and Python.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What’s a .je TLD?
.je domains are issued to websites maintained in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. - Why Rubicon?
ahh … it’s a secret