Resume of Lyle Troxell

Lyle Troxell
10880 Alba Road, House A
Ben Lomond, CA, 95005, United States
1-831-419-9659 (mobile)
Email: ly..@troxell.com
Web: http://lyle.troxell.com/
LinkedIn Profile
 

Professional Experience

Technical Coordinator
UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA
April 2002 - Present
 
  • Support of Faculty and Students in the creation of Digital Art and New Media works of art. The go-to guy for a myriad of technology including: robotics, web applications, web design, projection work, video editing, theatrical lighting, sound editing/recording, programming, and detailed technical solutions.
  • Teach training sessions on multiple topics: HTML/CSS, PHP, python, Flash/ActionScript, Processing, Photoshop, and SketchUp.
  • Develop web applications and implement content management systems to create a virtual community in order to foster a feeling of shared ownership, responsibility and fun.
  • I was the lead developer for the Drupal based Arts division websites… arts.ucsc.edu
  • Currently implementing the rich web design of a new Film department website in Drupal using HTML, CSS, php and Photoshop.
  • Setup and administration of servers (OS X and Linux) to run file sharing, LDAP, web servers (Apache 2) , Calendaring, and miscellaneous services.
  • Business duties include: research and purchase of equipment, management of student employees and contractors, oversight of multiple research labs, and management of a $100,000 annual budget.
Web Developer
Independent Contractor, Santa Cruz, CA
July 1999 - Present
 
  • Design and development of GeekSpeak.org, a website for the radio show GeekSpeak on KUSP. This includes the development of an ajax enhanced Ruby On Rails web application to update content on the site, editing of XSL documents to output standards-compliant XHTML, the theming of a php content management system and the administration of a linux server. (ongoing)
  • Co-founded, designed and developed PCExtremist.com, an online magazine devoted to technically savvy computer users with a simplified content management system, which would now be called a blog. (1999)
  • HTML/CSS/JavaScript re-work of web applications for various clients of Words and Images, Santa Cruz, CA.
  • Design and created Flash web commercials for Transmetta Corporation.
Senior Software Engineer [Web UI]
Pumatech, Santa Cruz, CA
October 2000 - July 2001
 
  • Lead UI designer for merging multiple web applications into a cohesive product. The company had acquired about five web applications all with their own frameworks and web server technology.
  • Developed projects, corresponding timetables and allocated company resources.
Consulting Software Engineer
Feed the Monster Media, Burbank, CA
October 1999 - September 2000
 
  • Lead web user interface application designer and developer for a proprietary content management system that allowed radio stations to modify their websites without needing HTML skills; what we would now call a web content management system. Each client's site shared the same base content, but, using xslt, they were able to have different designs ("look and feel").
  • Mentored a junior programming staff of 12 on the use of HTML, XML, XSL and object oriented JavaScript.
  • Lead projects, corresponding timetables and allocated company resources.

More job history available upon request.

Technical Skills

Programing Environments and Languages

  • /XHTML and : I am extremely comfortable in both HTML and CSS and love making things look good, work well, and be friendly to text readers. I would almost rather hand code and format a document in HTML and CSS than use a word processing application.
  • : I have developed multiple small projects for UCSC and for my radio show, GeekSpeak. I have a excellent understanding of Rails and at times have been fully comfortable in the language of Ruby.
  • and Perl CGI: My first experience with the the web was with re-working perl cgi scripts, and developed my understanding of web-server-to-browser communication by using perl to manipulate http headers directly. I still use perl for command line tasks and think of it as a standard tool which I grab when I need something fast and simple.
  • : I teach introductory seminars on web applications using PHP and MySQL. I also do a lot of modification and theming of existing PHP applications. I am comfortable in the language and wish there was more application development structure and some agreed upon "best practices" so that PHP web applications could better take advantage of the language. It is a very flexible language/environment which means good and evil can be created using PHP.
  • : I started as a script-kiddy, and am now a competent JavaScript programer. I enjoy using some libraries to encapsulate browser detection and inconsistencies, but don’t mind getting down and dirty and doing it from scratch. jQuerry is currently my library of choice.
  • /: The publishing system at Feed the Monster media required me to have a excellent understanding of XSLT, a knowledge I honed on my own projects: PCExtreimest and GeekSpeak.org. I am a strong believer in a generic markup to be a middle layer before final markup. The XML/XSLT layer in a web publishing system allows for a very clean separation of control and view. Yeah XML! I just wish there were better tools for dealing with XML; for though it is human readable and editable, it is not fun to manually edit XML.
  • /: I have animated cartoons, developed rich text editors, created games, and taught introductory classes. I find myself leaning strongly to the programing environment in Flash; ActionScript is a wonderful place to play. I wish web browsers were as capable with the ECMA Script implementation, but JavaScript is getting better all the time. As SVG becomes more popular I see Flash/ActionScript becoming less so, but Flash’s dominance in online video makes it a steadfast staple of the web.
  • : I have done minimal programming in Python and have taught introductory classes in its use as a web cgi scripting language. I am more comfortable in Perl, but if I were to pick one to play with, I would go with Python.
  • , CVS, SVN, SourceFace, Perforce: I have been involved and used all of these systems but have almost always worked as an independent designer/developer, so I have never become proficient in branching and merging. Lately I have become enchanted with git and am using it all the time. I look forward to working with a team using source control and really using it to it’s fullest potential.
  • , Illustrator, Lightroom: I use these applications all the time and am very good at them. My digital photography workflow is something I think about, share and want to improve. I have taught classes on both Photoshop and Illustrator throughout my career and don’t feel an OS is completely installed without Photoshop working.

Operating Systems / Services

  • Macintosh : I am fluent on the Mac, it is my preferred OS. Ask me about how much I love Quicksilver.
  • : I am comfortable in Windows. I can install drivers, reinstall the OS, clean up the system and troubleshoot problems.
  • : Ubuntu is my preferred Linux distribution, well any Debian based Linux is yummy (I love apt-get!). I can install the os, compile applications, administer services , and admin users. I like having a nice stable linux server at my disposal. I currently run a CentOS box for my radio show and personal sites.
  • : I do a lot of administration of Apache 2 and am very comfortable with all administration tasks except performance tuning. Mod _prox and mod_rewrite can make everything online better.
  • Databases: I administer both and . I can perform general administration tasks: db creation, user creation, indexes, views, and backup & restore. But I always like to work with a good database administrator who can fine tune the database and make it purr.
  • Other Services: I administer Bind DNS and Postfix mail. I know how they work, can set them up, and can keep them chugging along.

Education & Affiliations

Associate in Science Electronics
Cabrillo College
September 1992 - May 1996
 

Professional references available upon request.

Download this resume: lyle_troxell_2011-03_descriptive.pdf or lyle_troxell_2011-03_descriptive.rtf.