Our Skills

If our portfolio isn't enough to show you what we do, this page should put an end to all speculation. This is a seriously geeky list of most all the skill sets, platforms, languages, and software packages we're familiar with.

This list isn't for the faint of heart. Non-geeks may want to turn back now.

Core Web Development

It all starts with the basics, but even these technologies have changed over time: HTML changed fundamentally when CSS came along, and Ajax has turned the standard request-response model of Web interaction on its head. We've managed to stay on top of all these developments over the last 10 years.

  • HTML / XHTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Ajax
  • XML / XSL

Web Design and Interface Development

  • Extensive experience in developing Web graphics and a variety of software systems
  • Flash, both Web-embedded and standalone (for incorporation in CDs)
  • Shockwave and Director

Web Programming

What's important to note about programmng skill is that it can run the gamut from "I can print out a database table," to "I can write an massively-scalable application to support 2 million account holders." We can do (and have done) the latter.

Anyone can say, "I can program [insert a language here]." The question becomes, how well do you program it?

We're well-versed in advanced Web development and programming techniques such as:

  1. MVC vs. Model 1 programming
  2. Object-oriented design and development
  3. Code portability
  4. Web application security
  5. API design
  6. Templating and presentation
  7. Etc.

Specifically, we program well in the following environments:

  • PHP
  • ASP, both "classic" and .Net
  • Ruby / Ruby on Rails
  • ColdFusion
  • J2EE / JSP
  • Some Perl / CGI
    (we can do quite a bit without pulling a muscle, but it's not our platform of choice)
  • XSL/T
  • SOAP and XMLRPC
  • VBA and Microsoft Office automation

Database Platforms

Perhaps more important than knowledge about specific database plaforms, we have years of experience in relational database design and implementation.

The greatest database system in the world will be hard-pressed to provide value if it's designed poorly, and designing good databases requires years of experience and -- frankly -- years of making mistakes and learning from them.

That said, we have experience with the following database systems and servers:

  • MySQL
  • Microsoft SQL Server / MSDE
  • Microsoft Access
  • SQLite
  • Some Oracle
    (we've used it before and can work with it, but we won't claim to be experts)

Content Management

When it comes to content management, there are two factors to discuss when assessing skill:

  1. Comprehension of core concepts that are global to content management in general -- versioning, workflow, templating, permission models, automated image manipulation, data storage, etc.
  2. Skill and experience with specific content management systems

We've been building content management systems and studying it as a discipline for years. As for specific experience, we've worked with and can claim substantive experience with the following:

Add to this countless other platforms that we have installed and run for the odd project or two, and rest assured we've seen the gamut of systems, and experienced their various capabilities and quirks.

Search

Content management and search go hand-in-hand. We've worked with the following search systems:

  • Swish-E
  • Inktomi Enterprise Search
  • Microsoft Indexing Service
  • MySQL and SQL Server Full Text Indexing

Networking and Infrastructure

We don't do a lot of networking, but you can't program without knowing something about the systems on which your applications run.

  • Windows networking, including Windows domains, Internet Information Server (IIS), and Microsoft Exchange
  • Linux system administration
  • Apache administration, on both Linux and Windows