• 3025 Deakin St.
    Berkeley, CA 94705
    Text Resume     		Andrew J. Slater http://aj.slater.net/resume/
    aj@slater.net
    Phone: 415.203.3881
  • Objective
    To lead a team of smart, fun developers who love software in the San Francisco bay area.
  • Employment
    Bloglines (aquired by Ask.com, IAC Inc.)
    Leading Feed Reader Web Application    		 Oakland, CA
    February 2006 - Present
    Senior Linux Software and Site Operations Engineer
    Software Engineering
    • Bloglines is a web application consisting of a JavaScript front end, and C and C++ CGI web server logic that talks to Berkeley Databases and a large distributed storage cluster based on the Google File System.
    • Designed and developed Model View Controller logic for Bloglines Beta CGI web logic in C++ with 3 other engineers.
    • Extended and maintained Berkeley Databases, a 20 node MySQL Cluster Database and our large custom built "Podserver" Google File System in C and C++.
    • Implemented Berkeley Database replication and autoatic failover for Bloglines databases and clients.
    • Maintained and added features to Bloglines Classic in C and C++ with 3 BerkeleyDB other engineers.
    • Upgraded, fixed and maintained the Bloglines web crawlers, RSS, ATOM and HTML parsers and security filters in C and C++.
    • Developed OpenID consumer for Bloglines authentication.
    • Designed and developed modifications to the Bloglines CGIs and databases to serve as the engine for the Ask Today start page.
    • Built a URL shortener service using the Bloglines infrastructure.
    • Designed and developed many database and cluster maintenance utilities in C++.
    • Maintained and added features to Bloglines user interface in Javascript, ClearSilver template language and HTML.
    • Wrote and maintained our SCons Python based build environment.
    • Packaged Bloglines in RPM for a non-developer operations team to install a Bloglines cluster with Yum. SPEC files built from templates with Python.
    • Integrated Phorum PHP Bulletin Board Software into Bloglines. Synchronized Bloglines BerkeleyDB and Phorum MySQL user databases.
    • Involved with many aspects of Bloglines product design, promotion, development, operations, and customer service.
    • Work via IRC and phone meetings with a geographically distributed team scattered about the US and China.
    Site Operations (concurrent with software engineering)
    • On call 24/7 for remote operational support for the 200 machine production Bloglines cluster.
    • Responded to pages for systems in error and fixed them, often requiring significant development work late into the night.
    • Planned and moved the Bloglines cluster to a new data center retaining 40TB of data with minimal downtime.
    • Performed regular upgrades and maintenance of Linux cluster and associated software.
    • Monitored Bloglines traffic and database load to anticipate operations issues and plan capacity expansion.
    • Deployed new releases of Bloglines software to the live production environment.
    • Planned for expanding hardware capacity as Bloglines grew and recommended hardware purchases.
    • Installed separate Bloglines test cluster.
    Aldon Computer Group Linux Product Team
    Change Management Software    		 Emeryville, CA
    June 2004 - February 2006
    Senior Linux Software Engineer and Head Linux Systems Administrator
    • Developed Lifecycle Manager a software development change management system written in C++ and Java with an IBM DB2 back end as part of a six person team.
    • Ported Lifecyle Manger server from OS/400 iSeries operating system to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu Linux, SUSE Linux, and AIX while keeping a single code base.
    • Provided Systems Administration for all Aldon Unix based computers including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubunutu Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, SUSE Linux and AIX machines.
    • Configured Samba Active Directory integration, NFS, Kwiki Wiki, Jabber IM, Postfix SMTP, and BugZilla for internal development use.
    • Acted as Linux and GNU toolchain expert for the development team and provided Linux systems programming and administration training for developers and Windows administrators.
    • Designed and developed build management tools and Lifecycle change management interface tools on Linux using Python, Bash, GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool.
    • Packaged products using RPM.
    AVI Systems
    SAN/NAS Startup    		 Berkeley, CA
    April 2004  - May 2004
    Linux Systems Software Engineer (short term contract)
    • Linux systems programming in C for storage management software.
    • Wrote a HTTPS web user interface in C for the storage management product with OpenSSL.
    World Travel Europe and Asia
    September 2003 - April 2004
    Traveller
    • Explored Europe and Asia. Met many nice people. Ate many strange things.
    Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies
    Paperless B2B Billing. (Formerly Alysis startup, acquired)    		 Holyoke, MA
    May 2001 - August 2003
    Software Engineer
    • Designed and developed Java HTTP Model View Controller for D3 Advantage, a scalable distributed electronic B2B bill presentment and payment system for WebLogic and Oracle on Solaris and Windows (Before Struts was mature). The MVC included an XML API to control Enterprise Java Beans logic and a customizable interface via XSL Transforms.
    • Developed Java XML processor Servlets for scripting control of D3 Advantage J2EE server beans.
    • Developed J2EE Enterprise Java Beans for financial logic processing in the D3 Advantage server
    • Developed XSLT templates to transform internal financial data to industry standard B2B XML for automated clients or XHTML and CSS for humans.
    • Contributed to the Apache Jakarta project by adding SSL proxy features and fixing bugs for the JMeter network application stress testing program.
    • Performed performance tests and analysis on D3 Advantage Server using JMeter and Python. Redesigned server code to optimize performance under different load levels.
    • Tested modules with JUnit.
    • Wrote system logging and debugging module with Log4J.
    • Left position to travel.
    BARCO Graphics Ludlow, MA
    October 1998 - April 2001
    Lead Software Engineer
    • Lead a four person design and development project to create WebCenter, a Java database server with platform independent Web/ASP, C++, and command-line launched clients on Linux and Windows.
    • Developed GUI and database modules in C++ for ArtiosCAD carton and box design software, as part of a ten person software development team.
    • Assisted with improvement of company software development process, including: Source control deployment, specification requirements, adoption of UML documentation practices, and modularity and layering of existing monolithic software.
    • Tested modules with JUnit and Python.
    Software Emancipation Technologies
    (Acquired by Mortice Kern Systems)    		 Burlington, MA
    June 1998  - October 1998
    Contract Software Engineer
    • Worked on a three person team to test and debug Discover, a software architect source code analysis, and information modeling tool.
    • Assisted with the design of the Discover Java parser and syntax tree modeler.
    • Wrote test applications in C, C++ and Python on Linux and Solaris.
    • Wrote automated regression tests using Python and Bash.
  • Contracts (while in school)
    Cyber Access Internet Communications Cambridge, MA
    May 1998  - June 1998
    Software Engineer
    • Reverse engineered and wrote extensions for UTA, an Internet Service Provider billing program on UNIX in C.
    • Automated monthly billing for Cyber Access with the Expect scripting language.
    ViaTech Natick, MA
    June 1997  - January 1998
    Software Engineer
    • Used C++ to develop GUI and graphical modules for GTView, Ford Motor Company CAD/CAM viewing software as part of a five person software engineering team.
    • Assisted with research, design and development of piracy protection software in C.
    • Installed, and maintained software and hardware on UNIX and PC machines.
    The MITRE Corporation Burlington, MA
    December 1996  - March 1997
    Software Engineer
    • Designed and developed C++ GUI interface for TATTLJ, a US Air Force client/server target tracking and display system as part of a three person software development team.
    • Granted Secret clearance.
    Data General Westborough, MA
    June 1995  - July 1996
    Network Administrator / Hardware QA
    • Installed and Administrated Data General UNIX Clusters and Windows NT Servers on Symmetric Multi-Processor systems for hardware QA group
    • Wrote, executed, and analyzed suites of fault insertion tests on these systems in C.
    Elkay Products Shrewsbury, MA
    January 1995  - March 1995
    Software Engineer / Network Administrator
    • Redesigned and implemented transaction processing applications for company intranet.
    • Built and administered company network of UNIX and Windows machines.
  • Education
    Northeastern University
    College of Computer Science    		 Boston, MA
    September 1993  - June 1998
    Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
    • Five year program. Classes interspersed with contract positions listed above.
  • Computer Skills
    Languages: C++, C, Python, Java, J2EE, PHP, ClearSilver, Bash, Make, SCons, XSLT, XML, XHTML, CSS, SQL, JavaScript, RPM, Deb, Objective C
    Operating Systems: Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, Solaris, AIX, VMS, Windows.
    Software: Vim, GCC, Berkeley DB, memcached, MySQL, Subversion, Mercurial, Git, BEA WebLogic, Oracle, DB2, JMeter, JUnit, Log4J, NetBeans, CVS, Rational ClearCase, BugZilla, OpenSSHD, Apache HTTPD, Lighttpd, Exim SMTP, Postfix, Qmail, Courier IMAP, Dovecot IMAP, Openfire Jabber Server, Linux Software RAID.
    Hardware: Have built from scratch and administered a wide range of UNIX, Macintosh and Windows systems and networks.
  • Personal Projects
    aj.slater.net
    Small web server    		 Internet
    September 1998 - Present
    • Administer an Ubuntu GNU/Linux Internet server that used to provide secure shell, web, mail, instant messenger and Usenet news service for friends and family. Before they all switched to Google Applications.
    • Now aj.slater.net just runs a personal web site for experimentation and keeping me abreast of current technology and security issues.
  • Interests and Hobbies
    Enjoy World Travel, Muay Thai Kick Boxing, Hiking, Reading, Motorcycles, Weightlifting, Tumbling, Writing, Go, Illustration, Physics, Burning Man camp management and construction, hacking and contributions to the Debian GNU/Linux, Apache, and Gentoo Linux projects.