Illuminated Computing

Built an application for visualizing portfolio risk/return for banks with over a trillion dollars under management. Core site used Rails, Postgres, Chef, Ember, and D3, with Python for statistical analysis. Team of four. I helped on the whole stack but especially worked on statistical analysis of distributions and correlations, API integration with a Monte Carlo financial simulation tool, scaling the app to handle massive datasets, and supporting unusual deployment scenarios.

Brought on to scale a Postgres database past 6 TB using table partitioning and custom C extensions. Also added streaming replication to a warm standy, a failover process, backups, monitoring, and Ansible provisioning scripts. Built various new application features in SQL, plpgsql, and Python (Flask). On a separate project, built a custom project management tool in Django and Vue.js with NTLM integration and Google-Docs-like multi-user concurrent editing.

Built a devops tool to remotely discover, monitor, and configure massive server fleets, integrating with a web-based central admin UI. High-concurrency Python, SQLite, Zabbix, ssh, Docker, Vagrant, Vault. 2017–2018.

HIPAA-compliant video education service for health care providers. Uses Rails, Postgres, Chef, AWS, Node.js, Mirth, HL7, HTML5 video, responsive web design. Started as sole developer and architecture consultant in Spring 2013, and eventually managed up to four other developers. After successfully winning initial customers and VC funding, I helped transition the app to an internal team.

Site for activating and tracking debit cards, with a mobile component to pay by scanning a QR code. PCI compliant. Contributed as one of five developers. Responsible for automated server provisioning/configuration/deployment and full-stack Rails development, including use of Twilio, iOS PassBook, and HTML5 web sockets.

Took over management of Kubernetes/Docker cluster running various apps used by over 30k Shopify stores. Greatly reduced ongoing bugs and customer complaints, improved site uptime, and cut hosting costs by 75%.

Large streaming video site. I was called in to assess front-end code written by a half dozen other developers and report on opportunities to improve performance. Homepage initial load time reduced from 12 seconds to 2 according to webpagetest.org.

German excercise site. Migrated their infrastructure from a single server running Rails and Postgres to an easy-to-scale, high-availability setup on AWS using Chef, OpsWorks, and RDS.

Implemented complete site redesign with Rails and Foundation CSS Framework using BEM CSS design pattern. Added lots of dynamic Ajax elements including shopping cart and various product navigation tools.

Founder. A web application to help you find and hire great developers. Uses PostGIS, Solr+Lucene, and machine learning. A side project from 9/2012 to 11/2013.

Web application for pilots to track miles and maintenance. Helped build and launch this site as a distributed team of five developers.

E-commerce site with Rails, MongoDB, and Netsuite integration. Sole developer.

Wrote Chef and Vagrant scripts for this Photobook startup for easy deployment of development/staging/production sites. Source code is on Github.

My favorite side project: an HTML5 game to help people learn new vocabulary for Ancient Greek, Latin, the SAT, and the GRE.

Crowd-funding site for mobile applications, with extra features for mobile developers to e.g. help you find beta testers. I inherited this site after launch and added several features in 2012. Built with Rails and Amazon Payments.

jQuery application to estimate your state tax in all 50 states. Sole developer.

E-commerce site for safety and compliance, serving over 350,000 customers, including 90% of the Fortune 1000, with over 6000 products. Python, Perl, and Oracle. Led development from 2001 to 2006.

Integrated Java+CORBA content management application with product databases to do automatic layout of QuarkXPress files for 1200+ page catalogs. Perl, XML, Oracle, PL/SQL. 2000-2001.

Data warehouse application to improve marketing outcomes, with ETL integration into nine other systems, a consistent view into marketing metrics across all channels, and flexible reporting capabilities. Built with Rails and Postgres. I inherited a prototype version of this running on SQLite and rails_admin, suffering from performance and ease-of-use problems, and addressed those issues while adding the integrations and reporting capabilities.

SaaS app to help lawyers research patents, built with Rails, Postgres, Ember, Docker, Stripe. Responsible for the whole back-end, including patent search, payments, authentication, and provisioning/deployment. 2017–2018.

Mobile/responsive HTML5 video education project for internal employee training. Uses jQuery Mobile, Backbone.js, Underscore.js, SCORM. Sole developer.

Inherited and maintained several legacy Django apps, adding features and getting them up-to-date. Also extended various Confluence plugins written in Java. 2018.

Sole/lead developer since 2013. Was made 1/3 owner in 2015. Built iOS and Android native apps with mapping, background threads, and some custom controls. With Rails built JSON REST API, web-based shopper interface with maps and raffles, city admin controls, and store owner signup wizard with extensive management interface. More than doubled revenue while lowering effort to run the promotion, and expanded into other cities.

Application used by many social service organizations to record services provided and track effectiveness. Rails, Postgres, Angular.js, AWS, Chef. 2014–present. I started out full-stack but as the team grew from 2 to 7 developers I focused more and more on Rails and the database. Designed and built many new features including per-customer OLAP reporting schemas and in-app Lua scripting.

Web site for open source contributors to sign a license agreement, with Github integration to help Puppet Labs employees more efficiently accept pull requests. Sole developer.

Ran the backend for Nike's Wild Canyon Games, including OAuth integration with the Nike+ API. Rails, Heroku.

Took over and maintained Rails applications for Search and Campus Visits, working with university staff to simplify their workflows. Added Vagrant environments for easier maintenance by undergrad volunteers.

eLearning platform for hotels and restaurants to train employees, with retail sales and numerous larger custom-branded installations. Built a custom SCORM LMS (Learning Management System) with Rails to serve Flash and HMTL5 courses built in Captivate and Articulate Storyline. After several years of new features and new custom whitelabeled deployments, I helped the owner successfully sell the company and transition the IP to new management.

Founder & CTO for a politics startup helping voters find the candidates who best represent them using machine learning, Bayesian statistics, gamification, and crowd-sourcing. Rails, Postgres, Chef, AWS, R.

Tool to automatically help you time Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn messages to reach the most followers. I added HootSuite integration, payment processing, and custom realtime data visualizations.

Event-planning/ticketing site with deep social media tracking and analytics. One of two developers.

A two-day project in 2012 to learn Backbone.js. Lets you show Craigslist apartment listings on a Google Map.

A site to help people with shared interests find and discuss great products. In early 2012 I helped rescue this app from a failed development effort and was the sole maintainer from 2013 to 2014. Rails, Postgres, Heroku, HTML5 web sockets, Redis.

Helped build and maintain John Deere's e-commerce website, including a (pre-Google Maps) GIS-based "Machine Finder" mapping tool as part of an online marketplace for used tractors. 2002–2005.

Built a white-labeled, multi-tenant J2EE web application for personalized, on-demand print, with integration into various ERP and inventory systems. Wrote the spec, designed the architecture, and led three other developers. 2002–2005.

Helped build and maintain hp's e-commerce sites for B2C and B2B printers, with product pages, specs, driver downloads, etc. Python driven by a custom CGI binary written in C for Linux & Solaris. 2002–2005.

Application to generate print-ready PDFs of patient communications, customized based on condition, disease progression, and dozens of other patient attributes. Python. 2002–2005.

Helped build one of the Mac's first web servers, OneSite/Web, as part of a high school friend's Internet startup. C and Pascal, 1993–1995.