Resumé
Ronald K. Neal
3279 Apricot Lane
Santa Rosa, Ca 95407
Education
Professional Training
- Introduction to Perl, CSU Berkeley Extended Education.
- The IDG Professional, Professional practices development course.
B.S. Degree in Art and Design Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
A.S. Degree and Certificate in Graphic Design Santa Rosa Junior College
Employment
Web Production Manager/Interface Programmer Macworld & MacCentral (2002 - September 2004)
Production
- Converted 10 years of web content into XML for import into Bricolage Content Management System.
- Maintained and modified Bricolage templates using Mason and Perl to create new features on web sites.
- Worked in conjunction with contractors and fellow staff to redesign Macworld and Maccentral, create Playlistmag.com, and playlistmag.pricegrabber.com.
- Redesigned user interface for Macworld.com Forums, and Playlistmag.com Forums.
- Implemented CSS for Playlistmag.com Forums and Macworld Forums to reflect the general sites, and work with a stretchable layout.
Scripting
- Implemented a dynamic advertising system utilizing iframes, Javascript and PHP, which allows 4 individual includes to be used in over 12 advertising categories on over 10,000 pages without duplication of code.
- Updated Industry Brains 3rd party text ad scripting to target all Macworld page categories,
- Created XML Feed conversion Perl scripts to create an always up to date copy of iTunes Charts.
- Worked with programmers at Pricegrabber.com to create an XML data exchange system, whereby Macworld and Playlistmag.com reviews always have current price values, and Pricegrabber receives up to date Macworld product ratings.
- Created and maintained a subscription data collection system that takes user subscriptions from four web servers, converts to a third party database format, stores them on a fifth secure server, sends batched subscriptions on a cron based schedule, and emails notification to data managers.
- Maintained Movable Type weblog software, with tasks including modification of templates and creation of accounts.
Writing
- Created a Browser testing Matrix for the 2004 re-design of Macworld.com, and quality checked CSS for compatibility with 9 OSX Browsers, 3 Windows Browsers, and 2 OS9 Browsers.
- Wrote and updated browser compatibility requirements white paper for Mac Publishing websites.
- Wrote MacCentral News Feeds for Distributors, white paper detailing all the available news feeds, with suggested scripting to implement feeds.
- Wrote simple how-to guides for various technical tasks involved in online production.
- Regularly had business level correspondence via email with end users, contractors and third party partner companies such as Pricegrabber, Google, Techtracker, and Spinbox.
Web Production Manager Macworld, MacWEEK, MacCentral (2001)
- Created templates, production system scripting, and automation for Macworld, Macworld PriceFinder, Macworld Classifieds, MacWEEK.
- Created templates for Alta Vista Search engine.
- Maintained above web sites, modified scripting and user interface.
- Oversaw the implementation of Spinbox ad production system, trained ad production staff.
- Implemented multiple web production systems, including Siteyard, and Interwoven Teamsite.
- Created Newsletter templates for Maccentral and Macworld HTML Newsletters
Assistant Content Engineer Macworld, MacWEEK (June 1998)
- Implemented Userland Frontier Web production system.
- Re-organized, restructured, and converted 7 years of content into Frontier.
- Regularly converted Magazine content and graphics into Frontier Database items for publishing to the web.
Web Production Assitant MacWEEK (February 1998)
- Manual conversion of magazine articles to HTML, including navigation, indexing, and graphic conversion.
- Increased perfomance by creating Bbedit grep patterns.
PC Lab Technician St. Vincents High school, Petaluma
- Installed and maintained software & hardware on Windows 3.1, 95 and 98 machines.
Free-lance Web Page Designer ZnD.net, Los Angeles
- Worked with ZnD.net to create web presence for small/startup companies.
Web Page Designer Information Systems and Intelligent Solutions
- HTML Programming
- Web Graphics creation
- Digital animation using Elastic Reality and Adobe Premiere
HTML Programmer Against All Odds Productions
- Created Custom page layouts for portions of the award winning 24 Hours in Cyberspace Web site.
Multimedia Designer Macduff Everton, Photographer
- Designed Modern Maya interactive CD Rom prototype using Macromedia Director.
Macintosh Lab Technician Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
- Installed and maintained software & hardware on Mac OS 7.0 - 8.6 systems.
- Maintained Cal Poly Art & Design web server
Help Desk technician Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, User Support Services
- Macintosh desktop maintenance
- Phone based support for PC TN3270 Applications
Computer Skills
- Platforms: Mac OSX, Mac System7-9, Windows 2000, XP, 98, 95, 3.11, Linux, Unix (BSD).
- Scripting/Web languages: Perl, Javascript, PHP, HTML/XHTML, CSS, XML, Mason, Usertalk (Frontier).
- Content Management systems: Bricolage, Siteyard, Frontier, Teamsite.
- Web Production software: BBedit 7, VI, Fetch (FTP), Movable Type (Weblogs)
- Mail/Newsletter software: Communicate Pro Web Mail server, Topica Email Publisher
- Ad Server software: Spinbox, phpAdsNew, Double-click.
- Design software: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady, QuarkXPress.
Awards
- Winner of Sonoma County Waste Management Agency logo contest.
- Recipient of Petaluma City Award of Appreciation for educating Senior Citizens in the use of computers.
Hobbies
- The Society for Creative Anachronism
- Researching a Norse persona, including creating clothing and shoes
- Full contact fighting in armor with Rattan weapons
- Learning how to fabricate medieval armor
- Going to SCA camping events and creating a period encampment
