West Palm Beach Web Designer & Developer Tired of Freelance

I am originally from New York where I worked all of my career, both in New York City or just outside. But I gave up my salary of $83,000 and moved with my wife and 2 year old son down to Florida last October to accept a fulltime position, at a salary of $48,500, as the Web & Multimedia Manager for the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach Country (In Boca Raton, on Glades Road). I wanted to be closer to family and my motivation was quality of life vs salary.

I left after 6 months and have been doing freelance and consulting work since April of this year, but I have to admit that Freelance is not my preferred career path and I prefer working in-house with a company and being part of a larger team and sharing ideas and furthering company goals.

My primary "web"  skills involve being an expert at handcoding of HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and am an expert with such applications as Photoshop, Indesign, Dreamweaver... Basically the core tools of a Web Designer and Developer. I work and am comfortable on either a windows or Mac platform and use both heavily on a daily basis.

I have over 10 years of web site development, design, and project management including:

• Can adapt to multiple site languages or environments; PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, etc. 
• Hand Coding of HTML, CSS, PHP, etc.
• Search Engine Optimization and utilizing such applications as Google Analytics to reach site goals.
• Web browser compatabilties as it relates to design and user experience including Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, Firefox for PC and Mac, Safari, and Chrome.
• CSS site design and layouts / structures built around CSS exclusively. 
• Indesign, Photoshop, GIMP, and other image editing software. 
• Mid-Range skills with PHP coding/building and programming (don't consider myself a hard core "Programmer" and not looking to be hired as such).
• Experienced with both Mac OSX and PC hardware & software. 
• Flash animation and design.
• Audio / Video editing and composition and creating DVD's, presentations, or other multimedia applications.
• Training others and good communication skills.
• Quickly Adapting to company software, workflow, and environments as it relates to site building and maintenance.
• Website Project management from early flow chart stages, to graphical mock ups, to building and testing, deploying live, and maintenance.
  

Regards,
Eric Knight Holbrook
ekholbrook@gmail.com

-------------------------- Resume -----------------------------

Eric Knight Holbrook - Wellington, FL 33414
email: ekholbrook@gmail.com
Web Site (Portfolio) www.ericsimage.com

04/09 to Present - Freelance, primarily working remotely for 85 Broads in similar capacity to when I was living in New York and worked onsite (see company & job description below)

10/08 to 04/09 - Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County - Web & Multimedia Manager: Develop, design, and maintain company website (www.jewishboca.org), implement and brainstorm new ideas within marketing department. Using Indesign and Photoshop, work extensively with print designs (posters, invitations, etc) and ultimately convert to HTML based emails and web pages. Responsible to work with all the various divisions (careers, campaign, marketing, womens, executive, etc) of the company and listen & advise and to and try to implement and fulfill all their internet/email/web site based needs. Responsible for various video related projects, including editing of 2009 campaign video to be presened in both DVD and internet formats.

08/03 to 10/08 - 85 Broads (New York) - Senior Web Developer & Designer: Developing, designing, writing, and/or building both illustrations & web applications for websites, including developing logos, photo-retouching, writing programs in PHP (such as message boards, "blogs", dynamic art galleries, surveys). Manage, maintain and develop new applications and layouts for website in HTML, PHP, Flash and sites or pages built entirely around CSS based structures or layouts such as the current 85broads.com. Full knowledge of CSS implementation and hand coding of websites. Working knowledge of Ruby on Rails from a design and layout perspective. Debugging of websites between Mac (firefox, safari) and PC (IE 6 & 7, firefox, safari) and make sites work smoothly on all platforms.

02/03 to 05/03 - Action Computer (New York) - Systems Programmer & Onsite Training - Independent contractor to help configure Windows NT based restaurant management software and hardware. Multi-day training for restaurant employees of equipment.

1/01 to 01/03 - Freelance Web & Graphic Design - . Various web and graphic design projects including book and package covers, logos and company websites

05/00 to 11/01 - Neuberger Berman (New York) - Web Designer / Graphic Specialist, Information Services Dept.: Design and management of Public Website, responsible for converting documentation from Marketing and other departments into HTML. Creation, layout, uploading and staging of graphics and web related content for live and staged sites (http://www.nb.com). 5 day training course, certification and work with Vignette Story Server to maintain websites.

04/99 to 05/00 - BestWeb Internet (New York) - "Webmaster": Maintain, upgrade, and add features to website. Extensive use of HTML, DHTML, CSS writing, and configuring CGI & Perl scripts. Other duties included creating artwork for marketing and advertisement purposes.
Other:

Freelance Graphic Design - 04/97 to 04/99. Cameron & Hornbostel, LLP, Computer Consultant & Support (New York) - 09/92 to 04/97. Software Link, Video & Computer Graphics Consultant / Sales Associate (New York) - 10/89 to 09/92. Carrington Macrai-Gibson Architects P.C., Architectural CAD System Operator / Draftsman (New York) - 08/87 to 05/89

Key Skills:

Over 10 years of web site project management and web site development and design experience. * Experience with multiple site environments including PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl * Hand Coding of HTML, CSS, PHP, etc * SEO and extensive knowledge of current web browser compatabilties as it relates to design. Excellent CSS site design and layouts / structures built around CSS exclusively. * Site building apps such as Dreamweaver and others * Indesign, Photoshop, GIMP, and other image editing software, have trained others. * General working knowledge and skills with PHP coding/building and programming. * 3D graphic design and visualization skills. * Experienced with both Mac OSX and PC hardware & software. * Flash animation and design to add visual flair to websites. * Audio / Video editing and composition and creating DVD's, presentations, or other multimedia applications.

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Bing mobile still in German only?

Goto bing.com on your iPhone and you are presented with this (see photo below)

How can Microsoft hope to expand marketshare of Bing if one cannot access the search engine on their mobile platform?

Does a blackberry show the same?

-- Posted from my iPhone

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HTML, CSS, Web Training - Computer Purchase Hand Holding

I'm now beginning to slowly roll out training and consulting services in the West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Southern Florida area. Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Jupiter, just to name a few areas.

Who I'm targeting:

1. People who want to purchase a new computer but don't know enough to talk to the salesman. Who see ads for $500 computers and have to return it a week later because it's too slow or see ads for $1500 computers and say, "ah, I'll just stick with my current machine because I can't afford that."
   
   
2. People who want the basic skills and knowledge of how to setup an entire website on their own.
   
   
3. People who want additional skills in HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP to get ahead in their job or find another job.
   
   
4. People who have a computer but really have no idea what it can do beyond checking their Gmail account. Who want to write Word Documents without Word. Why it's acting so slow and flakey. Why they can't get rid of all the cables around it (ie, setting up a truly secure wireless network)
   
   
5. Tech Programmer types like some of my co-workers who can write the latest database app but don't have a clue when it comes to Photoshop and are constantly saying, "ah, I just need another icon so I can push this change live,". Or maybe they want to take a photograph from the latest "Programmers Night Out" and remove that one artist guy standing in the middle. Pretend he wasn't there.
   

---

• Maybe you're an artist (like I was and still am) but you can't get that job you want because, while you can use Photoshop or InDesign quite well, you have no idea how to get the graphics up to the company website. So the company hires a web designer and now they're paying two people instead of just one. (ie, forget about that big raise). Do you know CSS? No. HTML? no. Can you dabble in PHP? Uh.. no. Javascript? Next!
  
  
• Maybe you have your own small business and you want to setup your own website. You check around at some prices for creating a site and your jaw drops. $10,000. $50,000. They can charge what they want because you really have no idea what they're doing or what it all means. You know you can't do it yourself... or can you? Did you know that setting up your own domain name, plus the server and storage space only costs about $90 a year?
  
  
• Maybe you're like my sister who just spilled a glass of wine on her $1500 computer. She wants to get a new computer. But she's has no idea that the $1500 computer she bought last year can now be purchased with more options, better features, for probably less than $600. She'll go to a store like BestBuy and they'll talk her into getting a $1700 computer. Because she doesn't know. What's a CPU, what's dual core? How much RAM should a video card have and why you really don't need a DVD drive anymore except to play movies or create home videos (which you'll never do because they take so long to make) and how if you really do want to create home movies one day... you can always get an external DVD. How you should back up your computer and can do it less than an hour onto a removable drive that can cost less than $100. 
  
  
• Maybe you're like my friends who get the computer but then have no idea how to setup a small home network. A Wireless network. A secure Wireless network. That the teenagers next door won't hack into. To be able to bring that laptop upstairs to the bedroom without cables hanging all over the place. Or walk around the pool outside with your Iphone watching the baseball game on MLB "at Bat" and not have to use your Cell phone data plan. Or to share files between your computer and your husband or wife's? Do you know what Antivirus program to use? One that won't cost you anything? Do you know that you can write Documents and create PDF's (maybe of your resume!) and never have to pay for software like Microsoft Word or Excel or Adobe Acorbat? Each of those packages costs upwards of $200 or more.
  
  
• Maybe you want to take a trip... or just go across the street to Starbucks but can't take that laptop or desktop with you. Did you know you can get a $250 computer and access your home computer as if you were sitting right in front of it? Do you have an iPhone? Need to send that photo or spreadsheet on your desktop machine to the boss but you're not at home?
  

One of my underlying principals is that I want to teach people to learn how to learn.

I want to teach you the underlying concepts behind the web and websites and computers and tech in general. So that when you read something or hear something, you can, if nothing else, understand the basic concepts and then know enough about how to look up more information later on the specific issue.

When you apply for that job you don't have to have all the answers, but you need to understand the questions the company is trying to solve by hiring you. Why use CSS and Divs vs Tables? What software would you use to write CSS? How can you start experimenting with PHP without even having an internet connection? Can you write HTML without something like Dreamweaver? Can you FIX a broken page or HTML email your boss is trying to send out?

When you walk into a computer store to buy a new computer, you have to know BEFORE you walk in, what you are looking for. If you let a salesperson talk to you, you've already lost the game (and potentially a lot of money).

-------------------------------

I've been involved with computers on a professional level for over 20 years (see my resume). I've done everything from building computers, to creating music on them, to creating 3D images with them, to creating entire websites from start to finish (although in reality, websites are never finished and if you think so, then let me explain why).

In my career I've invariably found myself teaching fellow employees how to use even basic program such as Excel or Word and have always been amazed that they don't really teach this stuff at school or colleges.

I've always been the one my relatives or friends call up and say, "I need a new computer, what should I get?"

Then I'm the one they call a few days later and say, "I got a new computer but I can't get online... and the printer's not working... and I think I have a virus."

I'm the guy who the boss calls up and says, "Mary Jane was looking at the site in Firefox and it was fine but then went into Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and it's all messed up. Can you fix it?"

Yes. I can. But I'd rather show you how. And why.

Some of the questions I've always come away with are:

• How can that Harvard grad not even know how to setup a simple formula in Excel? 
• Or that they could use Google Docs to create an Excel Spreadsheet and share it with others?
• Why does the market always dictate that "THE" laptop computer to get is always around $2000? (The desktop always around $1500) But that you can get a Great computer for less than half of that as long as you understand it's limitations.
• Why don't my fellow employees get it that creating a web page takes longer than creating a simple word document and how do I explain WHY it takes longer? 
• Why is that Salesperson telling me something that is outright false?

--------------------
The world of Computers and The Web is a scary place.  And each day it changes just a little bit more.

I can simplify it for you and I can teach you how to fend for yourself.

Web Design/Site Building Training:
I charge $50 per hour for Web and design related training, however the first 1/2 hour is free to understand your needs and goals and to create a project plan for your to meet these goals.

Computer Purchasing, Consultation and/Or Setup:
I charge $30 per hour and $10 per traveling time hour to reach your location. The first 1/2 hour will be free of charge to listen and understand why your computer needs and requirements are. After the purchase and initial computer items are setup and functioning I will charge $50 an hour for any maintenance you may need in the future (ie, you installed a new software package on your own and now nothing works or the printer is dead, etc).


Eric K. Holbrook
914-621-8766 (my cell)


Ask yourself some of these questions and see if you know the answers or what they are referring to.

1. What's an IP address
2. a DNS
3. How to setup your wireless network to be more secure but not use encryption which slows data transmission down.
4. Layer Masking
5. Z-index:100;
   
6. What does JPG stand for?
7. How can you create a flash presentation or animation... without buying Flash?
8. What color is #ff0000;
9. What hex value is bright blue?
10. Is 1 gigabytes enough RAM? In Vista? In XP?
    
11. What is VRAM? What is DRAM? What is DDR memory?
12. 7200 RPM
13. b/g/n
14. float:left;clear:both;
15. Core2Duo. Dual Core
16. Pixels per inch. Dots per inch.
17. kbps vs Kbps

READ MORE...

Blue Danube

I spent a few days (hour here and there) converting this classical piece by Johann Strauss II into a more modern feel.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/rntdtgirdun/BlueDanube.mp3

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South Florida Web Designer / Developer

Eric Knight Holbrook - 1703 Polo Lake Drive E., Wellington, FL 33414
email: ekholbrook@gmail.com - cell: 914-621-8766

Key Skills:

• Project management of web site development and design.
• Multiple site environment familiarity including PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl
  
• Full knowledge of current web browser differences as it relates to design.
  
• SEO optimization
  
• Full CSS site design and layouts / structures built around CSS exclusively.
  
• Hand coding (ie. text editor only) of HTML, CSS, etc.
  
• Full knowledge of Dreamweaver and other site management type applications and have trained others to use.
  
• Indesign, Photoshop, GIMP, and other image editing software, have trained others.
• General working knowledge and skills with PHP coding/building and programming.
  
• Comfortable working within previously written apps in PHP or other languages or utilizing or modifying pieces of code.
  
• Highly developed 3D graphic design and visualization skills. Extensive Audio and video editing experience and incorporating each in websites or creating presentational DVD's.
  
• Experienced with both Mac OSX and PC hardware & software.
  
• Flash animation and design, although somewhat limited in "Action Script" language.
• Audio / Video editing and composition and creating demo DVD's, presentations, or other multimedia applications

Work History:

04/09 to Present - 85 Broads (NY) as independent contractor in Florida (see job description below)

Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County - Web & Multimedia Manager - 10/08 to 04/09 - Develop, design, and maintain company website (www.jewishboca.org), implement and brainstorm new ideas within marketing department. Using Indesign and Photoshop, work extensively with print designs (posters, invitations, etc) and ultimately convert to HTML based emails and web pages. Responsible to work with all the various divisions (careers, campaign, marketing, womens, executive, etc) of the company and listen & advise and to and try to implement and fulfill all their internet/email/web site based needs. Responsible for various video related projects, including editing of 14 minute 2009 campaign video to be presened in both DVD and internet formats.

85 Broads, Milestone Capital (New York) - Senior Web Developer & Designer - 08/03 to 10/08 - Web Developer & designer designing, writing, and/or building both illustrations & web applications for websites, including developing logos, photo-retouching, writing programs in PHP (such as message boards, "blogs", dynamic art galleries, surveys). Manage, maintain and develop new applications and layouts for website in HTML, PHP, Flash and sites or pages built entirely around CSS based structures or layouts such as the current 85broads.com. Full knowledge of CSS implementation and hand coding of websites (ie, without the assistance of applications like Dreamweaver, (although I do have extensive experience with said application). Working knowledge of Ruby on Rails from a design and layout perspective. Debugging of websites between Mac (firefox, safari) and PC (IE 6 & 7, firefox, safari) and make sites work smoothly on all platforms.

Action Computer - Systems Programmer & Onsite Training (New York) - 02/03 to 05/03 Independent contractor to help configure Windows NT based restaurant management software and hardware. Multi-day training for restaurant employees of equipment.

Freelance Web & Graphic Design - 1/01 to 01/03. Various projects, see below for more details.

Neuberger Berman (New York) - Web Designer / Graphic Specialist, Information Services Dept. - 05/00 to 11/01 - Design and management of Public Website, responsible for converting documentation from Marketing and other departments into HTML. Creation, layout, uploading and staging of graphics and web related content for live and staged sites (http://www.nb.com). 5 day training course, certification and work with Vignette Story Server to maintain websites.

BestWeb Internet (New York) - Webmaster - 04/99 to 05/00 - Maintain, upgrade, and add features to website. Extensive use of HTML, DHTML, CSS writing, and configuring CGI & Perl scripts. Other duties included creating artwork for marketing and advertisement purposes.

Other:

• Freelance Graphic Design - 04/97 to 04/99
• Cameron & Hornbostel, LLP, Computer Consultant & Support (New York) - 09/92 to 04/97
• Software Link, Video & Computer Graphics Consultant / Sales Associate (New York) - 10/89 to 09/92
• Carrington Macrai-Gibson Architects P.C., Architectural CAD System Operator / Draftsman (New York) - 08/87 to 05/89

Personal Skills:

• Able to learn and adapt to new application environments.
  
• Enjoy learning & subsequent teaching to others.
  
• Able to juggle many large projects at once and prioritizing.
  
• Comfortable both managing or being managed depending on the team/company goals.
  
• Able to take criticism in stride and not personally.
  
• Creating or thinking of multiple ways to accomplish a given task.
  
• Communicating potential problems before they become critical.
  
• Able to meet deadlines and use non-office hours if required.

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No NFL Fieldpass app for iPhone? Problem Solved... sort of.

Since the MLB "At Bat" iphone came out for the iphone last spring, I've been waiting for a similar application for the iphone for the NFL.

Well, opening day for the NFL is here and still no iPhone application.

I don't particularly want to be tied to my desktop/laptop computer just to listen to the NFL games.

I want to listen on my iPhone.

The solution it seemed then was to find an application that would allow me to stream audio from my laptop, over the network, to my iPhone. "Network" is the key and also the "catch" (no pun intended).

For my solution to work, for now until I find a better method, you must be on the same wifi or lan network as your actual computer. Still, this means the computer can be in a dark closet somewhere and I can plug in the headphones to my iphone and walk around my house or outside and pretend I'm paying attention to anyone talking to me when in fact I'm actually listening to the live audio of my favorite NFL game (via my laptop and it's subscription to NFL Fieldpass).

What's the solution?

There is basically one that I found acceptable.

1. Go download on your phone A free application for the iPhone called "AirMic Lite"
2. A desktop client/sever app for either your mac or PC which can be downloaded at: http://www.senstic.com/iphone/airmic/airmic.aspx
   (also free --- I chose the Mac version simply because I don't really use my Mac much and figured I'd give it something to do while I use my PC.)
3. A Male to Male 1/8th inch audio cable.

How does it work? Why the cable?

The way airmic works is that it will stream any audio it hears in the Mic in or Line in jack of your computer. It does not (strangely) simply stream the audio out from say the audio of a movie on youtube or in your browser or itunes or whatever.

So in theory and practice you CAN do away with the cable but it means having your laptops speakers playing out the audio and the built in microphone picking up this audio. It gets kind of noisey to say the least.

By using a loop via the cable, you do away with all the external audio and what plays out of the headphone jack, now gets fed into the microphone (or line in ) jack.

Problem Solved!

Finally, you start up your NFL Fieldpass in your browser, turn up the audio (you might want to disconnect the cables just to verify your audio is playing on the PC/Mac first).

Once it's playing, boot up airmic, plug in the cables and verify a signal is reaching airmic (you'll see the input signal as a visual).

You may also want to adjust your audio preferences on your machine to increase or decrease what the microphone/line in jack hears, or it's gain, etc.

Now, on your iphone, simply start up airmic, enter your username and password (or whatever it asks) choose your desktop machine... and that's it!

Presto... NFL Field Pass (or any audio really) on your iPhone.

What's the downside? Local wifi or LAN connection only unless you're smarter than me and know how to take this one step further to let you access the audio over 3G or edge which would let you listen to the games while you're shopping with your wife for clothes or mowing the lawn out of wifi range or something.

For me, this is sufficient and means I can now walk around with my iPhone instead of my laptop.

--- One additional package I use is LogmeIn which is not necessary but I find it useful (and free) to access my mac from another computer. I also have LogMeIn Ignition (not free - $29) which lets me view my Mac desktop and actually manipulate my mac as if I was in front of it. This way I truly can do everything on my iPhone, such as visit the FieldPass site, change the game, adjust the input/ouput audio, etc.

To be honest, a better solution would be if Ignition allowed streaming audio from the remote desktop to an iPhone (logmein pro can do this but only from desktop to desktop). Until then, this seems the only solution.

Actually the truly best solution would if the NFL got off their ass and wrote an iPhone application similar to what Major League Baseball did.

But until then, we must overcome these hardships in other ways.

-Enjoy

READ MORE...

Apple's lack of a mobile website

I find it odd that Apple doesn't bother to create an iPhone or mobile version of their website.

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Madden NFL for iPhone. Too easy

With madden NFL for the iPhone comes great graphics and controls, but the game, with no difficulty settings built in, is way too easy. The shots below are typical of what I scored against opponents. 90 points. 80 points. 94 points.

Not recommended.

-- Posted from my iPhone

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Igoogle error on my iPhones

For the past 24 hours my igoogle home page that has worked flawlessly for years on my phone, suddenly stopped working.

-- Post From My iPhone

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Foreign Cars For Clunkers?

Asian Carmakers Doing Especially Well Under Cash for Clunkers
Government data shows that while 54 percent of the top-10-selling vehicles were manufactured domestically, eight out of 10 carry Japanese or South Korean nameplates. Click link above to read rest of article
.(from Fox News, www.foxnews.com)


Ah ok, now I get it. The unspoken Government plan must have been to actually get American's to buy Foreign Cars, ...then ..oops... the Government runs out of funding and won't pay the foreign dealers,... and, uh oh.. have all the foreign dealers go out of business.

READ MORE...