About the Author, Todd Rafferty
Taught myself HTML / design in 1994 and kept with it and began persuing technical jobs. Learned CFML while employed @ MetalSite, Inc. in March 1999, at which point I began my career as a developer. Amazingly, four months later I was promoted to Site Architect Manager. I was sent to Japan for a week to help get the MetalSite Japan venture get started. Despite my schedule, in December 2000, I graduated with honors from Art Institute of Pittsburgh with an associate degree in specialized technology, Multimedia (3.6 gpa), during that time at MetalSite I was promoted to ColdFusion / UI Architect.
I departed from MetalSite in Feburary of 2001 becoming a consultant for Maxim Group. August 2001, I signed up fulltime with H2 Design Group, Inc. During this time I became even more familiar with datamodelling, mysql and more importantly development methodology. I also realized how important being part of a development community and helping out others became. After all, you should attempt to put back into the community what you get out of the community. During 2002-2004, I've was part of Team Macromedia. I stepped down of my own volition. I'm still active in the community. I can be found on some coldfusion mailing lists and I participate as much as possible in alpha/beta releases of ColdFusion.
So, where the hell did you go?
Heh. Uh. Yeah. I took some personal time off from blogging and such. I'm happy to report that since then, I bought a house, adopted a dog and ended up with a girlfriend with 2 kids. Amazing what happens when you're not expecting it. I'm back now!
WTF? Why "rat"?
I get this all the time, why did I choose 'RAT'? Well, this stems back to my childhood. Way back in the good ol' days when my parents used to own a bar, I frequented some of the arcade games we had. I had competition though, my older brother. Both of our initials are 'TAR' and it became confusing as to whose high score was who's. So, I started marking my high scores by reversing my initials, so, anyone that saw 'RAT' knew that it was me. I love the internet, the technology, the web, etc. I had registerd another domain, but it just didn't work and I wanted to settle down on one domain. So, I chose web-rat.com after that and stuck with it.