Shane Nelson Web Development
- Became a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), and decided I’d avoid Microsoft technology, preferring to work in the Linux world.
- Upgraded my Diploma to an Applied Degree – Bachelor of Applied Information Systems Technology (BAIST). Learned about re-engineering corporations to improve efficiency, data algorithms, etc.
- Worked on the Environment Canada helpdesk as part of my co-op term.
- Had a couple kids. Left our downtown Calgary apartment and moved to Vancouver Island so we could grow food, etc.
- Was hired at Refractions Research after creating an ArcView 3 extension (.AVX) that provides access to data sets stored on a Web Map Server (WMS).
- Managed a small linux server farm.
- Responded to planned traffic increases by creating scripts to configure and sync data across 20+ additional servers.
- Used shell scripting to monitor server health and create reports as graphs.
- Had a difficult time finding good quality webhosting for my own projects so…
- Purchased a dedicated server and started selling virtual hosting.
- Grow the business to several hundred customers over several years.
- Discovered and fixed a memory leak in the MaxMind geoip apache plugin.
- Burned out on tech, moved to Cortes Island, became a farmer, raised pigs, cows, chickens, tried growing a garden in “soil” which was really more like gravel. Repaired fences regularly. Shoveled shit.
- Started a school – organized and chaired visioning meetings with parents, developed meeting philosophy and education philosophy. (This was a massive multi-year effort, so many meetings!)
- Simultaneously volunteered at the school.
- Registered our new school as a BC Non Profit Society for the school to operate under.
- Burned out on farming, moved back into tech. (still excited about education)
- Discovered a method to deal with my largest tech challenge – lack of focus due to the internet being right at my fingertips – started using the pomodoro technique.
- Finally started reengineering my own life, refreshing my programming theory, aiming to make the best programs possible.
- Discovered Kathy Sierra’s video “Making Badass Developers” and started putting into practice all she talks about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTxC9pl-WM
- Implementing methods to eliminate cognitive leaks while working. Standardized filesystem, created scripts to setup new projects, using notes for rarely used skills, quickly mastering one skill before going onto the next.
- Improving code quality by using comments, version control, unit testing.