About Reinspire
Information about this site, the author, the technology, and other random things
reinspire is the personal portfolio and weblog of Jonathan Eckmier, a web professional from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I’ve been working with the web since 1996 and have held various positions over the years from being an in-house web developer to the lead developer of a small design studio.
This site is a place for me to test out new technologies, showcase the various projects I’ve worked on and write about topics that interest me (and hopefully others). Most of the content on this site is related to web development (or sports) in some way, but every now and then you’ll find some posts on other topics.
History
Reinspire actually got its start as a blog on Blogger while I built a site worthy of its own domain name. I didn’t want to wait until it was finished to start writing, so Blogger provided that outlet for me until my site was ready. For some reason I’ve left the old URL active, so if you’d like to see it, it’s here.
I’ve had a personal website for years and I suppose that’s where this site really found it’s beginnings - without its name or any domain name though. From the time I first learned how to craft a hyperlink in HTML and have it display in all its blue and purple glory in Netscape 2, my site has always been a place for me to experiment with and test out emerging web technologies. Reinspire was formally launched on August 20, 2005 and has seen a few design changes over the years with the most current version launching on August 1, 2006.
9-ish to 5-ish
Since October of 2005 I have been working as a developer/producer at Barking Dog Studios, a web design studio based in Guelph, Ontario. I specialize in creating standards compliant, accessible websites to reach as broad an audience as possible. CSS, XHTML, PHP, ASP, and JavaScript are usually the tools of my trade. I have recently switched jobs and until I write more about it here, please see this entry: New(er) Beginnings.
Please note: the opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of my employer.
Off the Clock
Outside of work I enjoy many things non-web related. Sports have always been a large passion of mine, which is why you’ll see so many posts pertaining to sports on this site. My favourite sport is Football and I’m a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers and the rest of the NFL. Like every good Canadian boy I also have a special penchant for hockey. Baseball and Basketball round out the rest of my major athletic interests.
Other than sports, I enjoy listening to music, playing guitar, and watching TV (usually sports… go figure). Every now and then you may find me working on my car stereo too.
Technology
I often get asked about the technology behind this site and which publishing platform I use. Well, the truth is that I don’t use any pre-packaged software to publish my thoughts. I built reinspire from the ground up as a learning experience, and that’s the only reason why I haven’t relied on the usual tools like WordPress, Textpattern and MovableType. If you’re interested in starting your own website, any one of those tools is highly capable of publishing quality websites.
This site is built on PHP, semantic XHTML for markup, CSS for presentation and MySQL on the back end. Photoshop and Illustrator were used extensively for all the graphics and pixels were harmed during the production of this site.
Hosting
I use DreamHost for all my hosting needs and highly recommend their services. Their features and support are unmatched for the price and they often throw in free upgrades. Since November of 2005 (when this site was moved to DreamHost), they’ve significantly increased my storage capacity and bandwidth limits twice, on top of the weekly/monthly upgrades you get just for being a DreamHost customer. I have recently switched to (mt) Media Temple for hosting. More information to come…
Web Standards & Accessibility
Web standards and accessibility are very important to me and every effort has been made to make this website as accessible as possible. If you have any concerns with the level of accessibility of this site, feel free to call me out on it and I’ll do my best to address any issues that may be brought forward.
XML Feeds
If you’d like to stay on top of all the updates to Reinspire by using a news reader, there is an RSS 2.0 feed available for your convenience.
Contact
If you have questions, comments, or feedback on this site or any of its content, please do not hesitate to contact me. For my most current résumé, please see my public profile on LinkedIn.