• Denis Sokolov in a nutshell

    Greetings, I am so glad to meet you!I am a professional web developer for my work and hobby; a calm and happy optimist cat in my everyday life; and a fantasy world dweller in general.You can see my views on religion, politics, music and other social stuff, you can find my other presences on the web and, finally, get to know my stance on intellectual property and information licensing.

    Contact me:[My email address is ‘my name at my surname dot cc’.]

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    [Photo. Denis Sokolov and the rainbow.]

  • A web developer   Up  

    I make web applications. Be it websites or some tools or widgets. And I do it right. For I care about my honour first and money second. Thus, I prefer to spend more time, but make the final result better.There are many developers out there, who think it’s ok to do their job sloppily, as long as it looks ok from the outside. They say, that ‘the internals don’t really matter’. But this is wrong and it backfires later. Thus, I pay a lot of attention to details and always reach for top quality. Luckily, I know a lot about the current stance on web technical trends and I always keep up to date.Currently I am available for hire as a freelancer.

    Specific skills

    What I value the most is my overall understanding of web development. That includes good HTTP knowledge, understanding of usability and accessibility. Ability to stop and think about the design errors, find the mistakes or opportunities and offer improvements.Recently, though, I have found myself learning typography and typography for the web. I hope to reach a serious level of comprehension in the nearest future.In coding, my main tool of choice is PHP. Wide spread, superb documentation and huge community are what makes it good. I am highly experienced in PHP.

    [ExpertRating PHP 4 Certification logotype] [Zend Certified Engineer logotype]Of course, I am highly proficient with HTML and I keep up with the changes in the standart and its future. Where needed, I use XHTML, although I think that it is overhyped and does not really have that many advantages.On the client-side, we code in JavaScript. Although I am not as experienced in it as I am in PHP, I still manage to get big things done, mostly because learned to use documentation effectively, to search for answers and find solutions.Finally, there are CSS, micro formats, REST interactions.

  • Kawaii Cat   Up  

    What’s kawaii?

    Literally translated from Japanese, kawaii means cute. But there’s much more to that. Cuteness in Japanese culture is more of a concept, a way of life. It’s smiling, being nice and supportive. It’s ignoring bad words and concentrating on positive aspects of every situation. It’s… Kawaii. ^_~

    Life goals

    I have got two main goals in my life: make people I love (myself included) happy and not disturb the happiness of other people.There is a simple set of rules that leads me. They are:

    Be kind and nice to everybody

    For any new person, regardless of his or her identity, I try to be kind and friendly. In other words, I try to avoid prejudice. The only exception? Strange guys in dark streets.

    Assume good faith

    Always assume good faith in words or actions of other people. However unlikely it might look, I try to think that a person meant no offence—that either he made an honest mistake either I did not understand his or her real intentions. There’s a reason why this is one of Wikipedia guidelines.

    Ignore baseless critics

    ‘Faggot!’, ‘Asshole!’, ‘This won’t work!’, ‘You look silly!’… Yeah, whatever.

    Have no principles

    Being stubborn in any principle is very unflexible. I can do whatever is useful at the moment, if that will not hurt me, my future, or anyone else instead.This point highly correlates with my DnD alignment, which is Lawful Neutral with a tendency for Good.

    [Me, Monika and Lula in the Forest, happy and cheerful.]Denis is a cat. Monika is a cat. They both are wonderful cats. =^o^=

  • Fantasy world dweller   Up  

    I enjoy the fantasy world: I read about it, I play in it, I rule it.

    RPGs

    A while ago I tried and played both DnD and GURPS and I have to say, I like GURPS way more. It is versatile, more realistic and easier to adapt to one’s will.Later, I game-(dungeon-)mastered some games of my own. I like it, but, unfortunately, it takes way too much time to fit in my today’s schedule. I hope I’ll get back to it one day…

    Magic: the Gathering and DCI

    I like a great collectible game ‘Magic’. From Mirrodin to Ravnica I have played it and step after step upgraded my mono-blue control deck. Today I no longer play it, but I judge it, me being a certified DCI judge.

    [The DCI logo]

  • Social attributes   Up  

    Religion

    I am an Ignostic, what in simple words means that I do not understand what the fuss is all about and will not understand it until someone gives me a clear definition of this ‘God’ people are fighting for. What exactly do you mean by saying ‘God’? And while you think about it, think if evolution or physics fit your definition. Seriously.

    Politics

    Unfortunately, I am apolitic. That is, I do not know, I do not see, I do not have an opinion. Nevertheless, I vote. I ask my friends, what is the correct way and I vote, effectively multyplying the opinion of my friends, whom I trust.

    Fashion

    Could not care less.

    Music

    I’ve got quite an eclectic music taste. For instance, my favourite artists are CocoRosie, Jean Michel Jarre and Yuki Kajiura. All three are very different, I would say, incompatible.The first and foremost stands CocoRosie—a pair of two sweet freak folk girls, who have very touching voice and sound. There are similarities with Björk or Joanna Newsom (I like both), but CocoRosie feels more… intimate.Next, the master of electronic music, the God and creator himself, Jean Michel Jarre. I do not usually listen to electronic music that much, but he is an exception to the rule, for his creations fit unbelievably with my hobby of coding. Whatever the time of the day, there is no better sounds to lead me to action, than Oxygene or Rendez–Vous albums.Furthermore, I like music, based on anime soundtracks. I am talking of course, about Yuki Kajiura, who is a wonderful creator and a magical lady, which fills my soul with extraordinar music. Other great artists are The Pillows, Jinn, soundTemp.Finally, I love jazz. Mostly swing and bebop, but a few calmer melodies as well. These are the main artists: Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Melody Gardot, Petra Magoni, Dave Brubeck Quartet.

    Sexual orientation

    Do you care? Call me!

  • Elsewhere on the web   Up  

    I am a geek and you can find me on many services online.You can take a look at my business profile, photo albums, check the exact data on my music taste, search through my bookmarks, check out what anime have I watched recently.

    In Lithuanian

    There are some other presences of me, which are accessible if you speak Lithuanian.Sometimes I tweet, sometimes I post something in my microblog. Sometimes I share something in my Google Reader shared items. Sometimes I even organize an event or two on toostis.

  • Intellectual property   Up  

    My stance

    Respecting intellectual property is important. Copyright infringement is not stealing, but it is wrong.I respect the creators’ will and I urge you to do the same.

    Licensing

    • Most icons on this page are from a great set ‘Silk’, which is licensed under cc by 2.5. Some icons are modified a little bit by me (Blue arrow upLight world) and are licensed under cc by 3. RSS icon is from Zeusbox Studio and is licensed under cc by-nd 3.

    • Black popup box is thickbox, licensed under MIT license.

    • Everything else is created by me and is licensed in the following way: the code is licensed under GPL 3, while the content and the design are licensed under cc by 3

This is it.   Up  Want to know more? Contact me: [My email address is ‘my name at my surname dot cc’.]