Tom Hudson

What an American might call a résumé

Who I am

I am a developer/programmer/hacker from Halifax, UK. I currently work for Halifax based company FrogTrade Ltd as Software Architect. I occasionally post snippets of code and relative wisdom to my blog.

What I like

I like to solve problems; mainly problems that involve computers, but a problem with an engine or a stapler can interest me just as much. I like to find the best solution to a problem, be it a chain of piped commands in a bash shell, a new stapler or a fully fledged web application.

What I can do

At the risk of sounding clichéd: anything I put my mind to. Of course, proving the Riemann hypothesis may be out of my grasp, but I'm by no means afraid to research and learn what I have to in order to solve a problem.

For more specific information about what I can do already: have a play with this jQuery powered information tree:

• Basic info
  • Location
    • Halifax, UK
  • Profession
    • Software Architect
  • Current employer
    • FrogTrade Ltd
  • Hobbies and interests
    • Programming
    • Fast cars
    • Electric guitars
    • Cheese and crackers
    • Games
    • Monospaced fonts
  • Favourite Tools
    • Vim
    • Awk
    • Sed
    • Ack
• Skills
  • PHP
    • PHP is my main passion. I've used it to make everything from shell scripts to blogging engines and frameworks. It gets a lot of bad press as a language, but I find it does what I need.
  • SQL
    • I've done some pretty crazy things with SQL. You probably don't want to know quite how crazy. MySQL and PostgresSQL are my favourites, but I'm happy to work with MSSQL and SQLite.
  • JavaScript
    • I love JavaScript. I admit the DOM isn't the nicest API in the world, but the language itself is lovely. I'm familiar with jQuery, but I wouldn't be stuck without it.
  • Operating systems
    • I spent quite some time supporting client systems, but servers are where my heart is. I'm more than capable of working with Windows servers, but I'd always rather be in a bash shell.
  • Version control
    • I've spent a lot (too much?) of time working with Subversion. I've probably seen as many tree conflicts as anyone.
  • Networking
    • Networks are lovely. I might be a programmer now, but tcpdump and nmap have got me out of many a sticky situation.
• Experience
  • FrogTrade Ltd, Halifax
    • Web Applications Developer
      • 2008 - 2010
      • I spent most of my time helping to iron the bugs out of FrogTrade's half-million line codebase, and adding much requested new features.
    • Software Architect
      • 2010 - Present
      • I would love to tell you exactly what I'm working on at the moment, but I'm not actually allowed to say (really!). I can tell you that I'm designing the architecture for a big web-based system of some description.
  • Primary Technology Ltd
    • Hosted Services Director
      • 2007 - 2008
      • I was mainly responsible for managing an Exchange based hosted email system for schools. I also developed a bespoke ticket management system.
    • Network Engineer
      • 2005 - 2006
      • Designing and maintaining Windows based networks in primary schools.
• Education
  • Bradford College
    • BTEC National Diploma
      • Electrical and electronic engineering, merit grade
  • Dixons CTC, Bradford
    • AVCE
      • ICT, merit grade
    • AS
      • Art (photography), grade C
    • GSCE
      • Maths, grade B
      • English, grade B
      • Science, grade AA
      • Electronics, grade A*
      • German, grade C

About this page

This page is fully XHTML 1.1 compliant. It is also cross-browser compatible and degrades nicley when viewed in a client that doesn't support JavaScript or CSS.

I made the jQuery "information tree" because there is often talk of developers putting too much information on their CVs. I couldn't decide quite how much information to provide, and thought the best answer was to let the reader decide for themselves.

© Tom Hudson 2010