I'm currently traveling the world, but worked for several years in Switzerland where I started programming at the age of 14. Constantly trying to improve my skill and produce meaningful code and programs in various environments.
In 2004 I started my apprenticeship in Software Development and worked as professional Programmer till now. Starting up my own startup, consulting other developers and firms or employed by great companies.
It's hard to list all the skills and things I do or did. Therefore consider this not as a full list. I selected some of the more important and interesting skills with a personal story
I learn and hack on whatever is interesting to me or is necessary to solve a problem.
Software Developer 2010 - 2013
Simplificator AG is a Swiss software agency and consultancy located in Zürich.
Although it was one of the first full Ruby on Rails company in Switzerland it uses now different technologies to solve client needs in the most optimal way.
CEO and Software Developer 2009 - 2014
whinybyte was a small startup located in Basel. We built small customized websites for clients, consulted and worked on Ruby on Rails projects in need and developed our own projects like fahrschule.ch.
Apprentice and Software Developer 2004 - 2009
Coop is the second biggest retailer in Switzerland. I started my appreniceship there at age 17 and worked in different fields. First in first level IT support where I learned communication skills, then from building websites with Java up to low-level programming for internal transaction processing with ABAP.
In over 14 years of programming I worked on a lot of projects. Here are some selected professional and side projects that in my opinion are the ones that influenced me the most.
Streetfightz was a MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) for the browser that I started as side project with two friends during my studies. The story was simple but addictive; You are located in a city and have to look for other players to fight them. After the fight your skills get improved, you earn money and can buy or improve your house.
This was my first big project and although I had experiences in programming I had none in project management and working with colleges. I learned a lot about communication, what it needs to organize work of individuals.
Also on the programming side was this project a big challenge for me. I never worked with such a complex system and large code base. I wrote my own MVC without knowing about that pattern in the first place, refactored a lot and tried to automate testing.
Although we, or better I, failed in various points I learned a lot about what Software Development really is.
Fahrschule.ch was an online directory for driving schools in Switzerland. Schools were able to create their own profile and present them selfs to students.
Additionally there was an intelligent administration system with integrated planning for drivers and online booking for students.
Fahrschule.ch was my first big project with the startup I founded with two co-founders. It had a lot of up and downs and we learned a lot about the importance of sales and marketing. At the end we decided to stop the project which was not an easy decision. But looking back it was the right one.
Brotseiten is a iOS App developed by Simplificator AG for the Swiss startup Brotseiten. The App lets readers subscribe to a weekly published edition of short stories by famous Swiss and German authors.
With Brotseiten I had the opportunity to work on a RubyMotion iOS App, take the role as a team leader and coordinate with external programmers, graphic designers and clients directly.
I learned a lot about managing a project and also about iOS development. At the end it turned out well and the App is now available in the Apple Appstore.
local.ch is the swiss phone directory. Recently they switched their entire front-end to Ruby. It is one of the most visited websites in Switzerland.
I worked at local.ch as an additional programmer and consultant in front-end as well as in back-end. It was very interesting to see how a big company handles iterative development and how they manage a huge website like this with Ruby. I was glad to be part of it and be able to help with my expertise in Ruby, Rails and testing.
Over the years I met a lot of great people. With some I had the chance to share my work, get inspired by theirs, have good discussions and experiences.
Here are some of them and what they say about me:
All of this blew me away. Like this "@mordaroso" fellow strolled on up, cocked his knee skyward, and jettisoned his leg into the rickety wooden door that previously sheltered my mind. Clay Allsopp (RubyMotion Guru)