The minute our Compassionate Eye Foundation media committee interviewed Francisco we knew we had a match! Francisco is keen, clear, smart and an excellent listener. I will always highly recommend him. His attention to detail is outstanding. We love him and we love our website too! He simply goes the extra mile.
Robert Kent —
Founder
Compassionate Eye Foundation
what is in our name
PICSSEL is pronounced "pixel".
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the most common application to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML.
- Pixel is the smallest item of information in an image.
- Our mission is to craft and deliver web interfaces that are elegant, usable and accessible "pixel by pixel".
who we are
PICSSEL is the web design studio of Francisco Diaz, an enthusiastic and talented web designer living in Vancouver, Canada.
- Crafting websites is our passion, and our strong background in the field and grasp of web technologies paved the way.
- We are "hard coders" but with natural artistic and soft skills.
- We may be a small company, but our attention to detail is big.
- Although we are geeks and technology "savvy", we have a keen understanding of user needs and language.
- We have long experience in the field (Francisco's resumé) but we listen to what you say and what you need.
- We speak human. Please visit our services section.
- Above all, we are professionals: we strongly promote web standards and best practices.
resumé
I have been working with computers, software and technology for so long that I cannot remember when I first started - and the things I have seen and worked with would amaze today's young techno-geeks!
The first computers I worked with were bigger than the apartment I live in today. I wrote my first BASIC program in a DEC VAX-11/700 series, and even learned to write programs using punch cards. I also used COBOL to write administrative programs in an HP 3000.
I witnessed the birth and evolution of the PC and bought my first personal computer that had 256KB RAM, two 5.25" / 360KB floppy disks, MS-DOS 2.0 and an amber monochrome display, and no hard disk - hard to imagine today!
Using Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program, on an Apple IIe, I generated financial reports while working as an accounting assistant by day, and taking programming courses by night. I also helped many others to learn WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, and WordPerfect when they were popular office applications. I helped a publisher to produce a book using Aldus PageMaker. At that time, Pagemaker required a set of 45 floppy disks to access the different fonts and typefaces.
I began working with peer-to-peer computer networks using MS Windows for Workgroups and learned the hard way to install Ethernet 10Base2 and 10Base-T wired networks.
I installed, configured, maintained, trained and mastered all Novell Netware versions from 2.15 to 6.5. In my free time, I earned the Master CNE certification. In addition to teaching and supporting MS Windows NT/2000/2003 Server and becoming MCP for those products, I installed, configured and supported networking hardware (modems, hubs, switches and routers). I also earned Cisco's CCNA and CCDA certifications.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall earning a Diploma in Fiber Optics Technologies and Splicing from The Texas A&M University.
I have worked for top IBM, Microsoft and Novell business partners to evaluate, install, configure, support, administer, train and market computers, servers, networks, operating systems and professional services. At NEC, I was a Server's Senior Support Engineer (T3) and Server's Training Manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. I have provided training and lectures in English, French and Spanish. Most recently, I have been administering web and mail servers, domains and web hosting services, and am a web design entrepreneur.
Regardless of my long and winding road on the information technology highway, I have not let the webs accumulate in my head ... just some web-sites! I clearly have the background, training and expertise that it takes to help you leverage your business with a professional website: I can create one from scratch, or redesign and optimize your existing site using web design standards, valid and semantic code and user-friendly interfaces. Find out more about how I can help you in our services section.
And finally, I think Mexicans make the best food, Italians make the best coffee, Belgians make the best chocolate and les femmes françaises are the best (I live with three)!
