Welcome to my Site

This is not really a site about me but more a playground for my ideas and to try them out.

I will however list a few of the projects I am currently working on or are a part of.

Firstly this site. It would seem inappropriate to use an off the shelf CMS after discussing all the projects below so this is of my own design as well.

Projects

15th Dover Scouts

The 15th Dover Scout Troop’s website is a project of mine. It is at its fourth major version and has been written almost entirely by me. It is essentially a custom Content Management System with added features such as news pages, blog style pages as well as photo galleries and forums. Read more

15th Dover Scouts CDN

To compliment the main site the 15th Dover also has its very own Content Delivery Network. Well, more accurately it uses Google’s but again customised to our needs. The purpose of a CDN is to distribute content to various physical locations around the world so that when a page is requested all the resources and images are served up quickly and efficiently taking the load off the main server. All of the stylesheets, the images which make up the headings and layout and all the images in the photo gallery are all served from the CDN.

OpenStreetMap

This is not one of my projects but I do participate in it and am a strong supporter and contributor of it. The project is a mapping one. The goal of the project is to create a free and open map of the world. The problem with other world or local maps is that they often have copyright or other licence restrictions on them. Anyone can contribute to the map and more importantly anyone can use the data in the map for any purpose they wish. My contributions are usually collected while on bike, recording track positions on my phone, surface quality and other features mostly mentally.

OpenScoutMap

A spin-off of mine from the OpenStreetMap. Since OSM doesn’t actually have much provision for Scouting I have created OpenScoutMap who’s goal it is to collect all geographical data related to Scouting. At the moment this data is essentially related to the location of Scout Huts and details of the groups which use them. Future plans however include mapping campsites, scout shops and even features such as climbing walls which may be useful to Scouts. The end goal is to became a useful resource to Scout Groups which can be used to find nearby camps and activities.

Android Development

Not a single project but I have collected many together under the heading Android Development. Again I am enthusiastic about the Android project even though it wasn’t originally one of mine. I follow the development and progress of the Android platform and ecosystem and I have created countless apps for android. These include several game tests and trials, a wallpaper app which pulls new wallpapers from a server and clients to other web services I’ve made.

A little about me

OK a little about me now, I’m a student from Dover living in Manchester and this is my website, anything else you want?