About brothercake.com

Episode VII: The Voyage Home (27th January 2009)

This is the seventh iteration of brothercake.com, and its ninth continuous year online. Just as a child takes some years to establish its personality, so this site has taken time to find its purpose.

And now, although it still contains some personal information (and I could never let go of the cookery guide!) the site has become clearly focused on my work in the web industry. It's an outlet for me to publish scripts and games I've written, a place to sound-off about industry issues, and a brochure for me to promote my services as a professional web developer.

When I first built this site in the year 2000, it was originally intended to promote my music, and provide resources for other electronic musicians. I offered downloads of all my tunes, wrote reviews of my favourite bits of music-making hardware, and had a library of unique WAV samples, including breakbeats, bass loops, and interesting sound-effects. But as time went by, the website itself was soon consuming most of my creative time. I began to explore the technologies behind it, and before long I'd become good enough to make it my living. I got my first job as an Assistant Webmaster in January 2001. Then in August 2003 I turned freelance, formalising brothercake as the name of my business.

I had to wind up the freelance business for a couple of years while I worked full-time for SitePoint in Australia (it was necessary for my visa that I be employed and earning no other income). But apart from that I've remained a freelancer ever since, and I don't envisage this changing in the foreseeable future. I like the flexibility of working to my own hours, and although it does require a certain kind of discipline, it just fits-in with my lifestyle so much better.