My Coding and Developer Portfolio

This page began on 31 October, 2021 as a portfolio for my IT work, now that I'm back looking for IT work again. It was originally hosted on my Mathwiz maths tutoring website (before Byte Yoga was online), but unlisted on any of the menus or other links on that website (which is for my tutoring business), and required having the URL of the actual page in order to find it.

This page will be updated and significantly added to over the next couple of months...

LinkedIn

You can view my profile on LinkedIn here: www.linkedin.com/in/simon-beer.

I've only just signed up for LinkedIn, so I don't have many connections yet.

2021 Cyber Security and Networking Study

During 2021 I completed a Graduate Certificate in Cyber Security and Networking from MIT.edu.au (Melbourne Institute of Technology). There were three subjects in total (unlike most university courses where four subjects is a full time semester). My final grades were 100% for Operating Systems and Programming (meaning that I got 100% for every assessment in that subject), 95% for Network Security, and 92% for Data and Information Management.

My grades for MN404 Fundamentals of Operating Systems and Programming.

I received an official Meritorious Letter of recognition for outstanding academic achievement, signed by the Melbourne Institute of Technology Chair Academic Board:

Official Meritorious Letter of recognition for outstanding academic achievement, signed by the Melbourne Institute of Technology Chair Academic Board.

Introductory Port Scanning Video

I made this video for an assessment on beginning port scanning. See here for more about it.

Earlier Academic Qualifications

My Mathwiz maths tutoring website has links at the top which show my current part-time tutoring business employment, including my University qualifications and other academic achievements.

Physics

I have a Bachelor of Science Degree (BSc Hons) in Mathematical Science (Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics) from Macquarie University, Sydney. I Graduated with 1st class honours and won the University Medal for Physics.

I was told that unlike many other universities (where "almost all you have to do is top the year"), at Macquarie the medal is very rarely given. And that I was the second person ever to be awarded the University Medal for Physics in the history of the Physics department at Macquarie.

I was the second person ever to win the University Medal for Physics at Macquarie University

I also won other academic awards — such as the Dick Makinson Prize for 2nd year Physics, shared the J.C. Ward Prize for 3rd year Physics, and won the Australian Institute of Physics (N.S.W. Branch) for 4th year Physics.

Laboratory Director, Coding and Data Modelling

While at Macquarie University, I wrote/developed/authored the course material for the entire practical component of a new subject PHYS 220 Scientific modelling. This consisted of an introduction to coding and data modelling using MATLAB. I also taught and supervised the in-real-life coding lab classes, and supported the classroom computer network.

Laboratory Demonstrator

Also (while still an undergraduate student) at Macquarie Uni, I demonstrated/taught practical lab classes for the 1st year subjects PHYS 140, 143, 149, 159, and the 2nd year subject PHYS 278.

Unix/Solaris

Most Astronomy work in the mid-late 1990s was done on Sun SparcStations running Solaris, so I got quite familiar with using and maintaining Sun (now Oracle) Solaris Unix. I was comfortable enough with Unix to write my entire Physics honours thesis using the vi editor (and formatted it with LaTeX).

I was gifted two older SparcStations (plus about fifty older PCs) by the university when they were upgrading their hardware, which I had and used at home for a while.

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)

After deciding to not continue with a PhD in Astrophysics (which had so far involved mostly data modelling and visualisation in C and MATLAB), and pursue an IT career instead, I started some of the study and exams for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) course. I ended up employed before completing the MSCE (so I was a Microsoft Certified Professional, but not an MCSE), though I learned a lot about networks in general at that time.

I had the two Sun SparcStations (see above) and several of the PCs set up as a home lab/network. I mixed and matched around the hardware of most of the computers, and sold the good ones or gave them to friends and relatives.

Web Development

I have a Certificate IV in Web Site Production (3627) from Crows Nest TAFE, 2001, graduated with distinction. The course covered front-end design and development in HTML/CSS/JavaScript using Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop, and back-end development in Cold Fusion (CFML) and Microsoft Databases.

Small Business Administration/Management

Certificate IV in Small Business Management, Northside Business Education Centre, Chatswood NSW, 2001.

Website and Database Developer Links and Examples

Originally my websites contained almost entirely original code handwritten by myself. The more recent ones (including Byte.Yoga) have been made with purchased HTML/CSS templates, which I then modified, and integrated with my custom Content Management System (CMS) which I've been gradually developing and refining since February 2001. I've also experimented with (and done sites in) other CMS platforms such as Joomla.

Here are a few sample links for now, I've got dozens more to add (probably over several web pages of portfolio). This will probably happen around January and February 2022, as I look for IT work.

I made my maths tutoring website www.mathwiz.com.au in early 2020 from a cheap HTML/CSS template and stock photos. I had moved house from the area I'd lived in for about 11 years previously, so I needed to advertise for new students (at my previous location I always had an oversupply of students, so I never had the need for a nice modern looking website).

I began the site www.ark.net.au in Winter 2021 partly as a content-site for affiliate sales, and partly to showcase some modern full-stack website development.

Example of advanced JavaScript including animated circular visualisation done with D3.js and Observable, and then further customised by myself: www.ark.net.au/strongs.html?s=H1234. Click on the different parts of the circle to see the animated effects. This works to display/parse the grammar for every Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic word in the Bible.

Example of advanced JavaScript including animated circular visualisation done with D3.js and Observable, and then further customised by myself.

Example of a language translation quiz, which steps through a Bible verse one word at a time, highlighting the current word. There are many different options to make the quiz harder or easier. This quiz works for every verse in the Bible (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament). It uses a database with about 450,000 records, one for each word in the Bible, which was freely available in CSV format and I imported it into MySQL for this version: www.ark.net.au/walk-through-bible-verse-quiz.html

Here you can see the first website I ever made as a portfolio when I was working as a freelance web developer after completing a TAFE course in Website Production. It has an animated intro done in Flash, which now runs using the Flash emulator Ruffle.

Here you can see some other examples of my first websites (which I did all the front and back-end design and development of). I'll add more examples here soon...

Video Editing/Production and Team Collaboration Example

I made this short film in October 2021 as an assessment for "Philosophy of Religion" for my Master of Divinity course. My assigned question appears near the start, during the zooming-out-from-Earth sequence. I wrote the script, co-acted alongside two friends as actresses (who also have Physics degrees), directed, produced, and edited the video, still photographic work, and audio. Outtakes and "bloopers" are included at the end.

The software I used was Zoom (for the recording), and VirtualDub, and the free Microsoft Video Editor app that comes with Windows 10, Audacity, and Photoshop CS3 for the editing.

Coming Soon

Many more examples to be added soon...

Cover image by Shutterstock

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