Hello world! I’m Daniel Tan, also (if not better) known as BoltClock, a Singaporean teenage schoolboy with a craze for the Web, free software, design and green. I’m easily amused by being called a nerd in school.

blog.NOVALISTIC (BoltPress)

BoltPress

This is my tech blog. What do I write about? Well, if you’ve stuck around for quite some time I reckon you should be able to tell that I blog about anything about the web and other aspects of technology. As of October 2007 I chronicle my life at BoltClock @ WordPress.com.

As long as NOVALISTIC is around, this will also detail progress of its development and everything else that goes on in my (not-so, yet) lovely site. Stay tuned, especially when right now it’s still NOVALISTIC 2.0.

NOVALISTIC

I run NOVALISTIC, of course. Who else in Asia did you think would be running a green personal site with nothing but silly antics? Why else did you think I’d formally call this blog.NOVALISTIC?

NOVALISTIC Novalgen Logo

Currently, NOVALISTIC is in its second generation (NOVALISTIC 2.0). But only a couple months after finishing it I stopped updating it. Why? Well, I didn’t see any point carrying on with a static site after I first began learning PHP.

NOVALISTIC N Logo

The new NOVALISTIC is gonna be a web developer community. Well at least it’ll try to be one. NOVALISTIC will be what I’ve never dreamed of before.

Right now, my site is no longer being developed (this post explains why). However I’ve been working on my own PHP framework (i.e. something like CodeIgniter), and if it sees enough light to go on and become a complete (albeit slightly basic) framework, I might just make a new NOVALISTIC, and even go open source with it! Please don’t take this as confirmation of a new NOVALISTIC, however.

Life and me

I’m what everyone calls a nerd: I sleep through English, math and science class and still pass or ace tests, I can’t do without my glasses, I sit at the computer for hours and hours and hours on end, the list just goes on. Though someday I might detract from nerd life. Someday. Perhaps. I dunno. Why don’t you make a guess?

I love green and silver. Yes. That’s why NOVALISTIC is green and why I chose a bolt as my Clock character. Green and silver together look even sexier, and that’s why NOVALISTIC 3.0 is going to be both of those (well at least for the novalistGreen color scheme).

I’m not a hardcore gamer but I do like playing games. I own the first two PlayStation systems, a Sega Dreamcast (good ‘ol days), a PC (duh) and an Xbox (not planning on getting an Xbox 360). If I’m gaming I’ll only be speeding around in Sonic games, managing full-fledged parks in RollerCoaster Tycoon games, or blowing $#@& up in Ratchet & Clank games, and occasionally playing many others. And yes, I play Neopets as well.

Computers and me

I’m a computer nerd, really. Especially nerdy about the Web. I’m a web developer who’s been working heedfully on NOVALISTIC 3.0 since 2006 after I got to know the programming language. As of NOVALISTIC 3.0’s launch (January 2008), I have:

  • Nine years of experience with computers
  • Seven years of experience with HTML/CSS
  • Five years of experience with Flash, though I rarely ever do ActionScript (also, the old NOVALISTIC 2.0 logo was designed one 2006 Saturday in school with Flash MX!)
  • Two and a half years of experience with Photoshop
  • Two years of experience with PHP/MySQL
  • An average typing speed of between 90 and 110 words per minute

Once I have the time I might setup a portfolio site for myself.

Open source and me

I do have a strong love for open source and free software, and a slight disliking for Microsoft but only because right now they’re all about proprietary software. I don’t hate them too much, actually: I’m still using Windows XP, but at least I also run Ubuntu now :D

I use the following open source tools in my computer routines:

Currently I only run one open source software project, and that project is novalistTag. However, the project is pretty stale right now, but I’ll see if I can, hopefully, bring it to life with its first alpha. Yes, I’m taking that long. Don’t ask why.