chrisbray.co.uk
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Curriculum Vitae / Resume
Christopher John Bray
Personal Details
Email Address
abowfx@r.postjobfree.com
Website
http://www.chrisbray.co.uk
Driving Licence
Full British (since Jan-1999), Clean
More contact information available upon requestKey Skills
Operating Systems
Extensive experience of:
RedHat Enterprise Linux / CentOS Linux 3, 4, 5.x for server use.
Certified RetHat Certified Systems Administrator.
Ubuntu Linux 7.10 to 9.04 for both server and desktop use.
Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard)Microsoft Windows 95/98, 2000 Professional and Server, XP Professional, Vista and 7.
Windows Server 2003 and 2008 / 2008 R2
Microsoft Small Business Server 2008
VMWare Server, Player and ESXi 4
Zimbra Collaboration Suite
Development
Extensive use of:
Linux shell and scripting languages such as Bash, PHP, Python, Perl and Ruby
Linux C# application development using the Mono runtime
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003-2010 (C# and C++ in web, server, desktop and mobile
situations)
Microsoft Compact Framework for development of .NET applications in C# on PDA's
XML, XHTML, HTML, WebServices and Javascript
MySQL 4.x and 5.x in single server and replicated distributed setups
PostgreSQL, PostGIS and OGC spatial technologies
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 2008 R2, Oracle 10g XE and SQLite (on embedded system)
UML modelling for the design and development of both software and XML Schema including
GML Application Schema
Agile Development methods such as DSDM
Computer Aided Design
Extensive experience of AutoCAD and Autodesk Map (Release 12 to 2012 inclusive) use in
both 2D and 3D and development in C++ (ObjectARX), AutoLISP, .NET (C#) and VBA
Publications
Career History
April 2008 - Present - Proprietor - FreshlyHosted.com
In addition to my regular employment with Keynetix I applied my skills in a private
setting. I have developed both enterprise level web applications and standalone
applications for a number of customers using a wide range of technologies such as (X)HTML,
CSS, MySQL and Object Oriented PHP in addition to content management systems such as
Drupal and Joomla. As part of the operation of FreshlyHosted.com I maintained and managed
the servers required to support these sites. My work for FreshlyHosted.com has included
extensive experience of deployments and migrations to utilise cloud computing technologies
such as Amazon EC2, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and SimpleDB, including management
and elastic scalability using Rightscale, Slicehost and Rackspace Cloud Servers as well as
the NewServers.com hardware cloud for dynamic near real time provisioning of dedicated
servers.
Ultimate Notifier
I also developed a cloud based iPhone application, Ultimate Notifier
(http://www.ultimatenotifier.com) is an online notifier that uses Apple's push
notifications system (APNS) to send messages to your iPhone or iPod Touch when you receive
email, when your Google Reader account receives new items, when your Twitter username is
mentioned and a variety of others. I developed the iPhone App, management web application
and server side supporting services for Ultimate Notifier, including management and
maintenance of the cloud based servers and services required to operate the system.
Ultimate Notifier is a geographically diverse, self healing, service oriented,
distributed system, involving geographically distributed MySQL database replication, a
fast and consistent queueing system, a PHP based website and and a number of distributed
service oriented components, all logging results to a central log server and tied together
by a collection of command and control shell (Bash) scripts, performance monitoring is
provided by the 'monit' and 'munin' tools and the system will detect outages and re-start
itself as required. The system also uses a number of cutting edge Open Source tools such
as Redis, MongoDB, Memcache and Nginx to provide the best possible performance for its
users.
July 2009 - June 2011 - Project Manager, IT Manager and Lead Software Engineer - Keynetix
Ltd
Promotion to IT Manager gave me responsibility for Keynetix' overall IT policy and
infrastructure, with a staff of administrators working for me and reporting directly to
the board I held responsibility for a team tasked with both the initial definition of new
systems and policies and also ongoing operation of internal IT systems both the VMWare
virtualized servers themselves and the services they provided. These services included
MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, SAMBA for corporate file sharing, Bacula for backups,
Zimbra for collaboration and email, internet access including remote access via OpenVPN,
the companies internal SugarCRM system, the internal Alfresco Share based Knowledge Base
and a selection of QA systems, including both the off the shelf SpiraTeam and internally
developed systems.
In recognition of the quality of my development skills I will also continue my work as
both a Project Manager and Lead Software Engineer where I am managing multiple developers
on software engineering projects using the internal Agile/DSDM based system.
May 2005 - July 2009 - Lead Software Engineer - Keynetix Ltd
In May 2005 Key Systems Geotechnical merged with it's sister company KeyGIS and their
child company Keynetix Ltd to become Keynetix Ltd, my role as chief software engineer
continued as did development on the existing projects as all products were carried on
across the merger. I continued working on embedded systems, AutoCAD based visualization
systems and a laboratory information management system.
Since that time my work has included the design and implementation of C# applications and
web services, accessible from everything from PocketPC's to Windows desktop computers and
servers. I researched Binary and XML Serialization of .NET objects for their transmission
via web service, facilitating the design, implementation, testing (implementation of an
NUnit based unit testing procedure throughout the company) and maintenance of a company-
wide object modelling and persistence framework. This allows objects to be modelled in C#
and persisted to and from a number of databases or an XML file, and transmitted via web
service.
I have recently been heavily involved with the DIGGSML project to internationally
standardise transfer of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental data in an GML Application
Schema (XML based file format) my input continues to the current day.
Sep 1999 - May 2005 - Software Engineer - Key Systems Geotechnical
As I studied at University I was putting the theory into practice in the workplace and
rapidly gaining confidence as a developer. I was involved in large scale systems the UK
Highways Agency, we developed a national GIS system for managing geotechnical data called
the Highways Agency Geotechnical Data Management System. My initial responsibility in this
project was a C++ COM component that inspected the database of UK roads conducting
shortest path searches down routes, although my skills were later turned to an embedded
system on Microsoft PocketPC based PDA's. Later my responsibility turned to mapping on the
device, allowing the user to download hundreds of megabytes of aerial photography, to a
PDA with limited resources. A third party component was used for the presentation itself
to avoid re-implementing something that could be purchased, but this C component still
needed to be integrated to our Embedded application. Extensive use of P/Invoke and various
other .NET techniques saw a successful implementation.
Qualifications
Facilitating Workshops and Project Estimation
A course presented by Agile Development guru Keith Richards Consulting illustrating both
formal and informal methods and techniques to improve my skills facilitating workshops and
meetings, and estimating Agile projects.
RedHat Certified Systems Administrator (RHCSA)
The RH133 course and RHCT qualification is an industry qualification from RedHat Inc.
designed to produce "A Linux system administrator who has proven competency by passing the
RHCT Exam, a realistic performance-based lab exam that tests his/her actual ability to
install, configure, and attach a new Red Hat Linux system to an existing production
network."
This RHCT qualifiction was later upgraded to the RedHat Certified Systems Administrator
(RHCSA) qualification.
Certificate number: 100-174-358 Verify my qualification at: http://bit.ly/CBrayRHCSA
Microsoft M6445 : Implementing and Administering Windows Small Business Server 2008
A three day course illustrating the planning, implementing and managing Windows Small
Business Server 2008.
Strength Deployment Inventory
Conflict and relationship management and communication skills enhancement training from
Personal Strengths, presented by Wingman Ltd.
DSDM Atern
I attended a one day course detailing the principals of DSDM Atern to aid with my
understanding of the DSDM Atern software development methodology as we implemented it
within Keynetix.
Autodesk University 07
I attended Autodesk's "Autodesk University" conference in Las Vegas, NV late 2007.
Attending a wide variety of courses centering around technical advancement in Autodesk's
product suite, including .NET development, ObjectARX development, AutoCAD customisation,
Advanced AutoCAD use and Advanced 3d Modeling.
Programming AutoCAD in .NET
A two day course presented by Autodesk teaching the development processes involved in
developing for AutoCAD using .NET.
Systematix SQLServer 2000 System Administration and Database Design
A four day, Microsoft Certified course about using the Transact-SQL language to query,
program, install, configure, administer, and troubleshoot Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in a
Windows 2000 Server environment.
1999 - 2004 BSc (Hons) Computer Science (Software Engineering) Second Class (Upper
Division) 2:1
I studied Computer Science at Wolverhampton University whilst on day release from Key
Systems Geotechnical, modules studied included Requirements Analysis, Specification (both
formal and non-formal), Design, Estimation, Development and Implementation and Testing. We
did extensive development work mainly using the C++ language, however other development
work was conducted using Visual Basic, PHP, Python and Oracle PL/SQL. For my dissertation
I wrote an Internet based mapping system, using dynamically generated and generalised
Scalable Vector Graphics produced from both PHP and Python scripts to draw interactive
maps on-screen in an SVG capable browser such as Mozilla Firefox.
Leisure Interests
I am a keen participant and observer of motor sport with my main pastime being the
driving of my Volkswagen Golf GTi with the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, I am also
currently Chairman of the club itself.
My interest in computing and computer science continues out of work as I am an
experienced Linux and UNIX user on my own desktops, laptops and servers. I also manage and
administer my home network and the associated remote access systems.
I am a keen follower of music, particularly live music, attending concerts and I have
been an amateur performer in the past having successfully produced my own CD.
Referees
References and exam certificates / further educational history are available upon
request.
AttachmentSize
Christopher_John_Bray.pdf 61.68 KB
me
work
Public
Tweets I Wrote
chrisbray: And a taste of home before we head out again :) http://t.co/6xPCjT3W
chrisbray: Preparing for a BBQ later today :D
more
Music I Listened To
Spiritualized You Know It's True
In Fear and Faith Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio Cover)
Vanessa Carlton Paint It Black
Manic Street Preachers Umbrella
Tori Amos I Don't Like Mondays
more
Sites I Like
My last.fm
My Twitter
My Flickr
VZi at Volkszone
Kean Walmsley's Through the Interface
Iain Baker's Westway
VW Drag Racing
The Hype Machine
DIGGSML Geotechnical Data Transfer
Chocolate and Vodka
Web Hosting by Freshly Hosted
More
The views represented here are those of the author, not the site, and are in no way
connected to any past, present or future employer. - c chrisbray.co.uk 2011