Technology

IT technology is a fast-moving world, and there will always be something new to try. Whilst always interested in trying something new, there's a bunch of tools I come back to by default:

Python

What makes a language to my mind is it's community and the range of modules available for it. Python excels in this front, both as a server-side application language and within academic research. This makes it a perfect for what Shuttle Thread does. Whilst competent in many programming languages, I will generally come back to Python.

Javascript and AJAX

There is an expectation for modern websites to be dynamic. Whilst server-side generated content has definite advantages when dealing with publicly accessible content, for web applications a well-structured, modularised Javascript app which interfaces with a well-specified backend API has many advantages.

R

Whilst Python has a wealth of tools available for academic research, R is arguably more dominant here, both in terms of tools available and what people use. In such an environment using R has definite advantages.

PostgreSQL

Again, whilst I've had experience in the build and tuning of a range of databases, including Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL offers robustness and flexibility not equalled elsewhere, and should be anyone's default choice.

Plone and Zope

Plone is one of the leading content management systems. It includes enterprise class security, workflow and versioning features that make it an excellent choice for building intranets and complex public facing websites.

With hundreds of developers and solution providers around the world working to improve it, by choosing Plone you can be confident your technical investment is secure.

Plone is built atop the Zope application server which pioneered many of the features other web frameworks are only now discovering.