adam-howard - Builds awesome web and mobile software
adam howard [-w, --web-developer] [-m, --mobile-developer]
Member of We Make Awesome Sh.it. Recently finished a computing degree with first class honours. I'm interested in a range of technologies, most of which don't work in IE yet.
I'm committed to open source and I organise developer events. I've done things covered by the likes of WIRED and The Next Web, and my projects sometimes find their way onto Hacker News.
At 16, repaired computers in the local community. At Audioboo I helped empower journalists to report in ways they couldn't before. At 3 Sided Cube I was on the team that created an award-winning first-aid app for the Red Cross. At WMAS, I make interactive sites (mostly for the music industry), craft iOS apps, build larger scale installations, play with mind sensors, hack fish, and help facilitate the internet's addiction to cats.
Ruby, Rails, Javascript, Node, HTML(HAML) + CSS(SASS), Objective C, MySQL, Redis, Git, TDD(RSpec, Cucumber), Unix.
I know enough of other languages to get by (PHP, Java, C#, Python, etc). I'm also learning Erlang.
Provided an interactive installation on behalf of Intel at Inside Lands festival. The giant screen was connected to realtime APIs and displayed images posted to Instagram and Twitter by event attendees.
Built interactive sites and backend tools for most of the big music labels. Bragging list includes: Kylie, Swedish House Mafia, alt-J, Blur, Plan B, Conor Maynard, JLS, Alice in Chains and Bastille.
Worked on cross-platform first aid mobile app for the British Red Cross (#1 in UK app store, widely praised). The CMS-backed 'hybrid' app methods devised have since been used for further apps for the American Red Cross.
Built a cutting-edge realtime (websocket-based) project and staff management system for internal use at a digital agency. "Project Panther" tied the company's operations together and had functionality and UI features I'm incredibly proud of.
Reworked and optimised a stats and tracking service used for 3 Sided Cube's apps. Rebuilt the front end graphing tools and filtering selectors to both be used internally and by 3SC's clients. Was required to heavily optimise and index the database as it had grown to include over 6 million app installs tracking usage patterns, country, OS versions, upgrades, reinstalls and push notifications - all of which could be dynamically filtered. This tool gave 3 Sided Cube invaluable insights into usage patterns, App Store chart positioning, and a real time indicator of the state of the iOS, Android and Blackberry platforms (active handset OS and hardware versions).
Major contributor to a Rails site with upwards of 100,000 registered users including high-traffic producers such as the BBC, Sky News, The Guardian and Stephen Fry. In this period also built an iPhone app used internally at BBC Radio.
Imageoptimiser GitHub bot. This tool searched GitHub for open source projects that would benefit from lossless image compression. It then forked the project, made various beneficial optimisations, and then submitted a pull request. Although praised by the community, it was disallowed by GitHub - leading to an article in WIRED.
Posting Facebook statuses from a genuine 1950s telegraph entry pad (in morse code) at the Facebook London Hackday.
Created a pure javascript (getUserMedia, web audio) goldfish-controlled music synthesiser at the Digital Sizzle Art Hackfest (no animals were harmed). [youtube]
Connected realtime feed of mac screen to an arduino-powered lighting system, MacLight, which also had an iPhone colour-picker control.
Dissertation project developing a passwordless login system. 15,000 words, 2 rails applications, 2 iPhone apps and a new understanding of TeX. [video][pdf]
Written report on the viability of the browser as a gaming platform. [pdf]
Created multiplayer web pool game utilising websockets and HTML canvas.
At Barcamp Bournemouth, created a competition winning arduino hack that displayed tweets on an 8x8 LED matrix using a custom typeface, Lawrence Sans. This was also connected to a real time web page where people could turn each LED on and off.
Worked with Miami artist Joseph Baum to create an interactive piece exploring the concept of 'inference'. A wall of the room changed colour to match the viewer, so that the act of observation disrupted the subject.
Working full time at We Make Awesome Sh.it, creating exciting digital things for the tech and music industries. Previously worked at 3 Sided Cube. Completed an internship as a Ruby developer at Audioboo (#1 app of PC Pro Magazine's '100 Best Apps' feature). Worked behind a bar. Made some monies offering computing solutions, repair, and tuition to the local community when I was still in school.
First class computing degree at Bournemouth University. Earned 4.5 A-levels in school and 11 GCSEs A-B. Took GCSE and AS ICT qualifications early.
Loves skiing and sailing. Tweets too much. Used spare Google Adwords to promote Dropbox referral link. Targets Facebook adverts against his friends as cheap pranks. Made a Windows Phone app to get a free device. Made an iPhone app that restarts his crappy WiFi router on command.