//About

My name is Robert O’Rourke and I’m a front-end web developer from Liverpool. I’m pretty good at street fighter and my favourite movie is Blade Runner. While that sums it up quite nicely I’ll throw a few more details out there…

Growing up I was always very fickle about what I wanted to do with my life and while not much has changed I’ve found that web development has so many facets that it has kept me interested and learning new things for the last 5 years. That’s pretty good going.

At school I got the most enjoyment out of the sciences, biology in particular and getting really specific I loved the subject of genetics. I went to the University of Bristol to study pathology and microbiology then later specialising in virology (the payload of viruses is genetic material so it made sense to me). While I didn’t have great lab skills I got the most enjoyment out of the theory and fact gleaned from years of research.

Although I currently don’t do anything related to genetics for work I’m learning how to use the visual programming language Processing after seeing Ben Fry’s incredible work with data supplied by the human genome project. I’m not quite there yet but I hope to use Processing to help me make some nicer interfaces and apps for the biosciences because most science websites and tools have an absolutely shocking user experience and interface. I even made a start by helping out a friend at UCL by making a simple tool to manipulate DNA sequences ready for the PCR machine.

I began learning web development because after moving to Burnley to work with my oldest brother John (a veteran programmer) I handled the finances and invoicing but quickly got tired of it. Oddly enough I quickly realised that it would be best to get to grips with HTML and CSS first. After a friend pointed me to the CSS Zen Garden I was hooked on web standards and since then I’ve constantly been learning the trade. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stop now either, it’s a hobby aswell as a career.