Rowan Rodrik van der Molen
Summary and objective
There's a particular reason that I'm (re)writing my résumé. I want a job, but not as a programmer—not even in IT (nor in construction or gardening). I want a job as a student. I want to learn. Biology, that's my interest. Life. How it operates, the many forms in which it manifests. Stuff like that.
I heard that these days science involves a lot of programming, so I thought I'd include that experience. I also heard that most scientists aren't the best of programmers (and I've seen the code). I can see why: I spent the last ten years at this to only just recently arrive at a satisfying level of competence.
Software development skills
In my 10+ years at various programming jobs and obsessions, I've learned to wield a good number of tools. As a grown-up developer, I might have tool “preferences” (due to particular familiarity or skill with said tool), but I'm otherwise mostly tool-agnostic; I don't care if you use HTML4, XHTML1.1 or whether you prefer tables over floats. As long as it gets the job done and is maintainable.
Version management is particularly important when working in teams, but also for any project that is deployed at some point. I am very skilled with Subversion (SVN), but on newer projects I try to involve Git in the process. I don't care for CVS and would rather not use it anymore.
Web development comes quite natural to me after approximately 10 years of varied experience. I'm fluent in HTML, XHTML and a few other XML dialects (I actually know the difference between SGML and XML and have written a few DTD's myself.) To manipulate XML documents I find my knowledge of XSLT, XPath, XML namespaces and XInclude extremely valuable.
CSS is something that I find myself hating much less now that the most-hated decripit old versions of Internet Explorer are quickly becoming extinct. I used to be an advocate, even before it was always practical. I took up LESS recently to avoid repetition and speed up the whole design process. It's better than the CSS-in-XML dialect I once envisioned myself.
I first learned to love JavaScript while working with Prototype in a Ruby on Rails project. It's a beautiful language, something I recognize even more so now that I use the JQuery library and hardly ever have to use the DOM directly.
I'm not a web developer that is constrained to one server-side environment or language. Although I am most fluent in PHP, I also have extensive expierence with Ruby on Rails and Perl. I know the CGI interface and don't need much handholding between myself and HTTP, so I can produce CGI scripts even in Bash or C(++) if necessary.
Scripting is second nature to me. I'd rather write a quick and dirty shell-script to perform a repetitive task than just repeat the task (even if it's just a few repetitions). This might not always save much time, but it often does, and then it makes me glad to have grown up on Bash's command-line interface.
I've used many languages for automation, even obscure ones such as Corel PerfectScript. (No, I'd rather not use that one again.)
Ecology
From an early age, I've helped develop and maintain ecological/wild gardens. My father helped pioneer the ecological restoration of our forests together with Hans van der Lans and Stichting Kritisch Bosbeheer. He also taught ecological principles to gardeners. Biology runs in the family. My mother's father (Duijm) taught at the University's Biology Department. Needless to say that some of this understanding and appreciation of nature will inevitable rub off on an impressionable child.
Languages
I am not a native English speaker, but I have been fluent for many years, although I'm still learning about nuance and style. I have no problems trying to comprehend complex technical documentation such as W3C specifications or RFCs. My written English is slightly better than my spoken English; my pronunciation is somewhat inconsistent and imprecise.
I am quite fond of Dutch, my mother tongue, and have even produced a crappy manuscript or two (I try not to count them). I do most of my technical writing in English, but for philosophy and fiction I lean a bit more towards Dutch lately.
I've often been in France and can converse in the French language, but not on an advanced level.
Sports
Wushu (武術) is Chinese for Martial Arts. More precisely, Wushu also indicates the modern exhibition sport based on traditional Chinese martial arts. This is my main sport. It is characterized by its speed, elegance and acrobatics. I started practicing this sport in 2002. I am a member of the Aihato demo team and have gathered experience there as (assistant) trainer. Occassionaly, I've taught workshops elsewhere too.
Besides wushu, I dabble in full-contact kickboxing and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).
Skating, cycling, running, walking and swimming are practiced mostly as a means to an end (propulsion or relaxation) but also as ends in themselves. And, like all kids, I love climbing trees.
Employment History
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I co-founded payformystay.com with my sister—Laurelin, who came up with the idea—and a designer/photographer friend—Jeroen Dekker. My main responsibility as Chief Technician is to maintain the total technical kicked-assness of my custom-tailered PHP, JavaScript, and CSS.
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Spent much of three months restorating an old fieldstone barn with my brother and his Dutch employer. He was an experienced builder whom we helped turn the building into a luxerious, modern family home. -
Ten days of breaking my back in the Boujoulais. I wanted to see if I still had it. -
Website and database development. Also some system administration of a Linux (Debian) server and a Windows network. Highlights:
- Built various version of www.sicirec.org, the last version being based on Drupal (with various (self-made) modules) and earlier versions on a pipeline that used GNU Make and XSLT to transform XML and XHTML to regular HTML.
- Built a complicated CRM system based on PostgreSQL for the back-end and Ruby on Rails for the front-end. The database (100+ tables) made heavy use of stored procedures, triggers and views. One of its components was a rating schema with automatic version management using an event model.
- Built an LDAP gateway for said system to supply LDAP-powered auto-completion in e-mail clients and appliances such as a network printer.
- Before the deployment of this system, built a user-friendly LDAP management tool in PHP.
- Wrote a carbon footprint calculator using PHP.
- Created the prototype of a reliable backup framework, requiring advanced Bash shell scripting.
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Teaching of basics (such as stances and jump kicks), forms (style figures), sparring; plus strength and flexibility training. I've taught everything from very young children to older adults, and a number of people with (physical) handicaps or emotional difficulties.
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Some selected projects:
- Lead developer, working together with Ytec on a WordPress-based site for Aihato. Features include: a custom theme, an advanced gallery that merges two jQuery plugins, an intuïtive AJAX event editor, fighter profiles and more. I also published detailed documentation about the development process.
- Development of a wiki and blog for the Omega Research Foundation.
- I own and exploit two wikis (English and Dutch) about investing in hardwood plantations. I'm working with my brother to try and increase the advertising revenue from these. Both wikis use a Semantic MediaWiki extension which I wrote to support dynamic image galleries.
- For the nerds: www.paldap.org is a wiki about LDAP.
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Two weeks bent over without a single day off. The first ten days in Romanêche-Thorins, the last couple of days at Les Fargets.
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The planning and execution of ecological projects. These projects involved the incorporation of dead wood, grazers (horses and sheep), different soil types and plants appropriate to these conditions into a functional whole. I also supervised a few stagiairs during the course of such projects. Principles:
- How to restore and manage heathlands.
- Changing the soil type (by removing rich top soil and adding lime, for example) to accommodate to the preferences of many (insect-attracting) flowering plants.
- Changing the soil composition using dead wood (clippings) to inhibit the growth of ruderal species such as ground-elder and to stimulate ground-life and a variation of (micro-)organisms.
- Transforming forest monocultures into new, gradient-rich nature using techniques such as winching and grazing.
