My name is Nico, and I work as IT specialist in a real estate agency called Promeo S.L., where I'm responsible for all computer related issues, including the administration and maintenance of their website. I've been working there for about 5 years now, and I spent most of this time programming, hence I have great knowledge about PHP, MySQL, Javascript, AJAX, Apache, Mod Rewrite,... (continued below) and needless to say, the basic stuff such as XHTML, CSS, and XML.
An important source of my knowledge is programming forums. HotScripts.com (which I've been moderating for quite some time now) and DigitalPoint.com are just two of them, but in fact the only ones where I'm still active. People there come with all kind of problems, and I enjoy helping them, and learning from their mistakes.
Another interesting fact is that I'm a Zend Certified Engineer. I passed my Zend Certification exam for PHP 5 (first try) in October 2007. I was the 15th Zend Certified Engineer in Spain by the time I passed the exam.
Besides that, I have a blog, which is located here. I'll be writing there every once is a while, when I have a free minute or two. It'll be mainly about programming related subjects, but I'll most likely post about other things that I find interesting and post-worthy as well.
My services.I do pretty much anything! From static sites, to completely database driven sites. Custom coding, adding features/functions to existing code, fixing security holes, debugging or even rewriting existing code, creating clones of other sites, etc...
I'm familiar with the following technologies/methodologies:
If whatever you need is not listed here, just send me a message, and I'll tell you whether I can do it or not, and how much it would cost approximately.
The way I work.I'm very picky when it comes to writing code. Everything needs to be clean and easy to understand. Security and performance are my primary concerns, though. I'm well aware of PHP and MySQL's security flaws, and I know how and when to avoid or work around them. Especially when it comes to things like file uploading, session hijacking, SQL injections, XSS attacks, cookies, etc...
The same applies to the application's performance. Keeping a list of things in mind, you can make your code run a lot faster, and this way save a lot of CPU usage, which is very important for larger sites. I always write my codes using full error reporting (don't worry if you don't understand this), to ensure best performance in a live environment.
All my applications are written in PHP 5 (considering PHP 4 has been officially discontinued since the end of 2007), but I can make them PHP 4 compatible, if for some reason PHP 5 wasn't available on the client's server. I do however encourage my clients to upgrade to PHP 5, since it's much better security, stability, and function wise.
All my XHTML and CSS codes go through w3.org's XHTML/CSS validator before I consider my job done. Valid markup is important, to make sure the pages will show up as expected on most web browsers. I always test them on FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome.
Why me?That depends solely on the size and complexity of the project. Usually I don't charge per hour, but per project. I think it's fairer this way towards the client, because sometimes I work on multiple projects at the same time, and it can be difficult to keep track of the time I really spend on a project. You can always ask me for an approximate price quote before I start working, though.
