About

This is the blog of Matt Van Horn

Picture of Matt Van Horn

In June of 2012 Matt quit the best job he ever had with the best company ever Capax Global. He decided to take the plunge into the startup world and started FoxHorn Solutions. He identified a hugely underserved market with small to mid-sized casinos in in Central & South America. Most of the big players in the industry are far too pricy for these casinos, which are small businesses (it is weird to think of a casino as a small business but most in the developing world are just that). So in 2012 Matt along with his co-founder Jim moved moved to Managua, Nicaragua to partner with a long time friend (and now investor) who owns a casino in Managua.

Currently FoxHorn Solutions have 180 slot machines in 2 casinos deployed with a slot & player tracking system. We are finishing up the development of our next product offering which will be brought to market early next year.

Matt, a seasoned developer with proficiencies in a wide-array of programming languages and platforms, focuses on creating flexible and dynamic code tailored to the specific needs of customers. Matt is an experienced presenter, regularly spoke at User group meetings and Code Camps before moving oversees.

Matt has produced unique and innovative solutions to add complete transparency to the casino gaming process. Both small regional land casinos as well as the on-sea casinos from some of the world’s largest cruise lines rely upon these solutions. Matt was big on XAML (both Silverlight & WPF) and produced several state of the art products for clients. Among them the first two 3rd party developed shells for Microsoft’s LightSwitch and a Visual ETL Solution that renders Excel Documents in Silverlight.

Matt’s philosophy of ‘rapid development’ focuses on creating fluid software that can handle a wide array of tasks with minimal modifications. Instead of strictly following written specifications and deliverables, Matt believes in working closely with his clients.

Unlike many developers who all too often develop more specs than applications (and more questions than answers), Matt uses his unique style of rapid development to produce tangible results alongside the people who will utilize the completed system. In this manner, Matt feels that it is possible to guarantee both system performance and client satisfaction. This dedication to client satisfaction has taken Matt on-site to projects in Nicaragua, France, and across the Atlantic Ocean.

Matt shares his thoughts, tips, and tricks on modern coding on my blog, which you are currently reading!

I know that I will never be the world’s best writer or speller so if you find mistakes please let me know

I am well versed in the following technologies:

  • Microsoft.NET
    • MVC
    • ASP.NET
    • Win Forms
    • Silverlight & WPF
    • Entity Framework
    • WinRT
  • Databases
    • sqlite
    • MySQL / MariaDB
    • MongoDB
    • SQL Server – Architecture/Maintenance/Optimization
      • SQL Server Reporting Services
  • IIS Configuration/Maintenance
  • Windows 2000/Windows 2003 Server/Windows 2008 Server/Windows XP/Windows 7
  • Web Stuff
    •  CSS
    • HTML
    •  JavaScript
      • jQuery
      • Knockout
      • Prototype
      • YUI
      • Moo Tools (least experienced framework)
      • EXT JS
      • Written several custom OO JavaScript libraries
  • PHP
    • WordPress – written several plugins
    • CakePHP
    • Smarty
  • LAMP – Configuration/Maintenance/Deployment
  • Android
    • Kernel Customization
    • Building & managing custom rom based on AOSP
    • Application Development JAVA & native

I want to thank Bill Wolff for the support, encouragement, and opportunities that he offered me as I grew up as a developer and a member of the .Net community.

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/matttvanhorn/