Systems & Network Admin

I work as a system admin at the Florida High School Athletic Association. Active Directory, Exchange, IIS, Linux, and breaking fixing what happens to be broken is what I do. I also love networking and hold several certs including MCSA and CCNA.

Drupal Evangelist & Front End Developer

Drupal is my passion. I’ve worked with Drupal for over five years, attended several Drupalcons, and presented at Florida Drupalcamp. I’m the co-organizer of the local Gainesville area Drupal users group, and am a member of the Drupal Association. The Drupal websites that I create kick so many asses, that I prefer not to list them all in one place.

UX Fanatic & Designer

As *not* evidenced by this website, I am obsessive about user experience. The vast majority of internet users are looking to be told where to go and what to do next, and user experience design is the language to speak to them with. The combination of psychology and computers make the UX field fascinating.

Speed Junky

I have 99 problems, and performance is number 1. Websites are simply not fast enough- and that includes my own. I love tinkering with Varnish, Memcached, Redis, APC, my.cnf and httpd.conf's. And, if I have edited it, I have broke it.

When I’m not in front of a computer…

You can find me hanging out with my beautiful wife and daughter, fishing, hiking, using my telescope, hanging with my golden retriever mix, or doing anything outdoors. I am also the ultimate tailgating enthusiast and Florida Gator fanatic.

Thoughts on Drupal Core

I believe in a small core Drupal. There’s no reason why Drupal should include modules such as forum and poll in core. Unnecessary code equals unnecessary complexity. Furthermore, projects move and improve faster in contrib- for example, the new Views UI redesign would have never happened if Views were in core.

Mobile Philosophy

In the great debate between responsive design and dedicated mobile, user experience is too often overlooked. Right now, designers are designing responsive themes just because they can. This doesn't result in the best website experience. I not only believe in the mobile first philosophy, but a UX first philosophy. Neither responsive nor dedicated sites are the solution in all cases.

Fast Websites are cool

Fast page load times are a key element of the entire user experience. Studies have shown that customers will migrate to other websites if you're site is slow. Furthermore, the studies have shown that they don't always migrate back when the issues are fixed. Fortunately, even behemoth CMS' can fly with the help of caching, reverse proxies, code optimization and CDNs. If you need a starting point on this, contact me. I'm a speed freak.

IT Customer Service

Want to really make me angry? Be condescending when you're giving me support. As an IT professional, the most infuriating things that I witness is the sterotypical condescending, know-it-all, and arrogant attitudes that my industry is famous for. IT departments need to realize that thier business is customer service. IT doesn't add to your company's bottom line- it takes away from it. IT's sole responsibility is to make other workers more productive. This is done through computerized tools (mostly behind the scenes) and training. If you're company's IT admin doesn't get that, you need to be looking at something else.

Email Addy

Email me at mike@herchel.com

Tweet me on Twitter

Follow me at @mikeherchel

Friend me on Facebook

Facebook profile is at facebook.com/mherchel

Drupal.org Profile

Find me on D.O at drupal.org/user/118428