About David Eldridge

I am David Eldridge. I enjoy helping people to use technology (especially web technology) better.

I’ve lived in Kansas since 1996, and here in Topeka since 2003. I was married to my best friend, Lisa, in 1999. And we have four children, whom we love very much.

I like to think. I like to read. I like to opine. And I have opinions on many things. Many of those are strong opinions. I don’t have an opinion on everything. My friends might disagree. But they are wrong! 😉

When I am not ‘at work’, I enjoy reading about economics, Western (occidental) history (ca. 1500s to present), and technology. I focus on that history that led from England and the Continent through the British-American colonies to our present empire … I mean republic.

I also enjoy designing webs, business cards, bumper stickers, and things. I like old movies (namely after sound, but before color).

Anyway, … Since I am the only one who will read this page, I should probably waste no more time on it.

You can find me elsewhere on the Web

My Résumé

Profile

I love the Web. I created my first site in 2003 for my employer. Soon after, I sought a degree at Washburn in web development. While at Washburn, Shawnee County’s IT director hired me to maintain their web properties after a brief internship. I also enjoy developing side projects. I have presented to the Topeka .NET User Group and the Kansas City Metro Area Government Webmasters on topics like better web development (with a focus on access/accessibility), Photoshop, and regular expressions. I also enjoy helping people to better use their computers: especially one-on-one.

Skills

Languages/Frameworks: PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (e.g. Angular, and jQuery), and Regular Expressions (and other tech, buzzwords, and jargon, e.g. HTML5, XHTML, CSS3, Sass, Less, a heavy sprinkling of bash)
Apps/Suites: Adobe CC (esp. Photoshop, Illustrator), MS Office (esp. Excel, Word, Outlook), etc.
Editors/IDEs: Sublime, IntelliJ IDEA, and Dreamweaver (a bit stale on the last one)
Favorite Tools: Transmit, Keyboard Maestro, Typinator, LaunchBar, Karabiner, CodeKit, Sequel Pro, etc.
Platforms/Operating Systems: OS X, iOS, Android, and plenty of experience w/Windows 95 – 7
Lesser Platform/OS Experience: Windows 8 and 10, Android, *nix shells, and Windows CLI

Experience

Front-end Developer, [Present Employer] • Topeka • November 2014 – Present

While working for [my present employer], I’ve worked to design and develop the present interface guidelines while building interfaces for applications like the new Amber Alert application for [an agency], enterprise-wide applications like [internal SSO solution], the upcoming [internal mail application], and other one-off applications. I’ve been using Git workflow while working on our Groovy/Grails applications. I have also helped to develop our strategy for the new [internally-used CMS tools] (to build sites for agencies, municipalities, and other organizations).

Developer-Analyst, City of Olathe • Olathe • June 2013 – October 2014

At the City of Olathe, along with our team, I developed and maintain our sites (e.g. olatheks.org, Parks and Rec, mahaffie.org, and our Intranet), and to a lesser extent internal applications, e.g. Moodle and Alfresco. I developed with Git and Vagrant. I used Drupal for most development. I was migrating older sites to responsive Drupal 7 sites. I was also involved in branding and other design. And I supported customers who use our systems.

Web Applications Developer, Kansas State Treasurer’s Office • Topeka • October 2011 – June 2013

At the Treasurer’s Office, I helped to create and maintain applications which facilitate and record financial transactions of all sizes. I used an internally-developed framework. I helped the webmaster with other sites, like kansasstatetreasurer.com and pooledmoneyinvestmentboard.com. I designed print work for marketing (e.g. newspaper, magazine, mailers, etc.).

Programmer I/Web Administrator, Shawnee County • Topeka • December 2006 – September 2011

At Shawnee County, I maintained the County, Sheriff, Health Agency, and internal sites. I also created and
maintained large and small Web applications, sub-sites, and more. Additionally, I created, designed and
realigned user interfaces, forms, business cards, presentations, documents, spreadsheets and more,
especially for posting on the Web. I ensured Section 508 compliance, search engine optimization, the use
of best practices, etc.

Education

The Web, Google, StackOverflow, tech blogs, O’Reilly, SitePoint, etc. • Web Design and Development, 2003 – present
Friends University • Wichita — BBA, 2009
Centriq Foss • Leawood and Topeka — JavaScript, Certificate, 2008; Visual Studio, Certificate, 2010