Small, but perfectly formed
(or how I realised that the truth doesn't have to hurt)
What? Well, I could pretend to be CEO of large company with an even larger turnover and customer base - but then you'd soon realise that it isn't true. The fact is, Iceforce Systems is a one man band. Back in the old mainframe days the company would have slipped easily into the clothes of "one man and his dog". (In actual fact, I'm one man, his wife and four cats – one of which likes to sit on my knee while I'm coding – but that's another story).
The past
Based in Wallasey, Merseyside, Iceforce started trading in 1989. Since then I've worked as a freelance consultant, mainly as an Analyst Programmer, in a wide range of industries. I've also held positions as Team Leader, System Designer and Technical Support Analyst. My main technical skills are related to GCOS7 but please don't see that as a limitation. Knowing how to use an operating system may be a key skill — but it doesn't detract from my other skills. I have nearly 25 years experience of investigation, analysis and design. I have worked in industries as diverse as Water Quality Control, Whisky Blending, Retail, Insurance, Financial and University Administration.
In addition to my GCOS7 work I have also designed and written a number of Lotus Notes applications and a shareware timekeeping application for Psion hand-held computers. I have designed and written a number of web sites including this site and New Brighton Postcards (which uses PHP and MySQL).
My most recent work, to a supplied design, was for Monroes Restaurant.
The present
I am currently working on a GCOS7 project which is in its final stages. The work is now intermittent and dependant largely on bug reports from customers. These are now quite infrequent, leaving me some spare time to pursue other things.
The New Brighton site has been neglected recently — I have upwards of 300 more cards to scan and catalogue. In addition there are some more features to be added as well as some historical data. I am working on a web-service based version of Icelog and, as a background task, the GCOS7 file utility.
About this site
There are currently 2 style sheets available for this site. By default you see the site using the er, default style. You can switch to the other style by following the link at the top of this page. The text only style presents the same layout as the default style but doesn't use any graphics. Javascript is used to switch between styles and to remember your choice when you return.
The XHTML code and style sheets that form this site have been hand-crafted. I use a number of tools including Adobe Dreamweaver 8.0 & Fireworks 8.0, Style Master 4 and the Web Developer extension for Firefox. Note that, although I use these tools, I write raw XHTML, PHP and CSS. I do not use wizards or drag-and-drop designers.
The code, with the exception of the PCO microsite, should be valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and the Cascading Style Sheets should pass WC3 CSS validation. The site is tested mainly using Firefox but also Internet Explorer 6 and Opera.
Copyright © 2005 Iceforce Systems Limited