john o'connor

I began developing for Android before the first phone came out. Being a computer geek I was very interested in the mobile revolution, but I was also a Linux geek and didn't have a Mac or the desire to buy one. When Android came out, I began immediately developing for it and by late 2008 I'd already written several apps on the platform. In 2010 I founded the first Android-focused consulting firm in Southern California, and developed over 2 dozen mobile apps for companies like Coca-Cola, Industrial Light and Magic, Universal Studios, and the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). I've been an Android mentor at Bloc since June, 2014.

I began adding Javascript to my web applications when we still called it DHTML. Javascript at the time was somewhat taboo, although it was still extremely useful in some contexts. Starting in 2006 I've javascript extensively, and since the inception of node.js I've been using Javascript to power the frontend and backend of many major applications (including an enterprise ERP system for the Riverside County Office of Education).

I began programming Java in college, but really became fluent in Java when the Android platform was first announced by Google around 2008. Being a computer geek I was very interested in the mobile revolution, but I was also a Linux geek and didn't have a Mac or the desire to buy one. When Android came out, I began immediately developing for it and by late 2008 I'd already written several apps on the platform. Since then Java has been one of my main languages. I've used it to write desktop applications for the government of the United Arab Emirates, develop enterprise web applications, and even programmed a smart-card controlled Arduino robot with it.

I began programming for the web in 1999, not long after CSS was created and long before anyone was actually using it. Back then it was table layouts and IE4 support. I worked in various capacities as a web developer for most of the 2000's, including spending 3 years at the Victorville Daily Press newspaper as an assistant web developer. I've continuously updated my skills as HTML has progressed from HTML3 to HTML4 and HTML5, and began using CSS exclusively for styling when CSS2 became a standard. I've been around long enough that I still harbor a hatred of IE6, as it caused all of us nightmares back in the day.

I've been programming for the web since 1999, and saw the initial rise and subsequent fall of Javascript as a frontend programming technique. In the early 2000's, using DHTML (as it was called back then) / Javascript on your web page was considered taboo. This persisted until the mid-2000's when libraries like prototype.js and jQuery came onto the scene. I began using jQuery when it was still in beta, and have watched it grow from a competitor among many to being the predominant javascript library for frontend development. I've used jQuery in some form or another on every web project I've done (I lost count at 50) since 2007.

My work at the Riverside County Office of Education involved the creation of a next-generation ERP system for school districts and County Offices of Education. This system is responsible for managing all of the business functions, from payroll to taxes to warehousing, for the entire school system in Riverside County, CA. The application required a web-based interface, and we chose angular.js as the platform for the frontend. I designed, architected, and built a flexible and scalable frontend system for our developers to build the various frontend components they needed for that ERP system (over 50,000 lines of Angular code and 8 months solid of development). The app has been tested with several million rows of data across 550 different functional areas while remaining compatible with IE9+, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on Mac, iOS, Windows, and Linux.

At my first startup, Catalyzing Concepts, the need arose for a flexible and scalable backend system. I decided to try node.js, and was instantly hooked. I had previous extensive experience with PHP and found the structure and development process a breath of fresh air. For my second startup, TAILS, I needed to expand that original framework. I decided to release it as an open source project, and named it "ghiraldi" after the composer Vince Guaraldi, my favorite Jazz pianist. Ghiraldi was much more flexible than the previous framework, and CardBlanc (my current startup) uses a modified version of Ghiraldi still to this day.