Engineer Software

Nicholas A. Vargish

Silver Spring, Maryland; Washington DC metro area

****@*******.***

Summary: Twenty years of Unix development experience; twenty-five years of

Unix systems and network engineering; twenty-two years of professional

Internet experience.

Goal: Long-term position performing software development or systems

engineering, in an environment encouraging skill growth and original

problem solving.

Employment History

IT Specialist

December 2002 -- present

US Government Printing Office

Washington, DC

Develop and maintain applications as a member of the Graphic

Systems Development Division. Significant projects include the

introduction of Subversion-based revision control and the

development of a browser-based front-end for repository and user

management; and the transparent integration of bar-coding software

into the mailing workflow that is saving the GPO many thousands of

dollars per year in mailing costs. Design and implementation of browser-based

SQL-backed applications using web application frameworks, including

an incident-reporting application, a stock tracking and ordering

application, and a role-based authentication system. Develop

business process models to represent production tasks and implement

them in process modelling software, towards the development of a

site-wide manufacturing workflow system. Also

provide technical expertise for units working with full text

indexing software. Understanding of XML, SGML, Perl and a general

knowledge of Web-based services, CGI form processing, and related

technologies has proven essential. Communication skills, adaptability,

and willingness to self-motivate are additional aspects of this

position.

Consultant

September 2008 -- November 2008

GetReal Consulting, Inc.

Rockville, Maryland

Integrate customer's health database application with Microsoft

HealthVault and Google Health medical record systems. Written in

PHP with a MySQL database backend, the customer's application is

an easy-to-use Web 2.0 system for entering health information such

as medical conditions, physician information, and current

medications. Work involved extracting the information from the

MySQL database and exporting it into Microsoft and Google's

offerings via web services, as well as the importation of data

from these third-party sources back into the customer's

records. Authentication, synchronization logic, and validation

against standard medical databases were essential aspects of

this work. Coordination with a Bangalore-based team that

specializes in .Net development was integral to the success of the

project.

Consultant

September 2002 -- March 2003

iNetXperts, Inc.

Rockville, Maryland

Work with a variety of customers to develop requirements and

implement solutions to a number of system and software engineering

needs. In addition to technical challenges, maintain a positive

and professional relationship with customers, developing business

opportunities as customer needs grow. Projects include Unix email

system redesigns with spam mitigation features, virtual domain

support, pop before SMTP, account information stored in SQL database,

and other enhancements. Member of development team for a voice over IP

application, specifically feasibility study and adaptation of

Win32-specific code to Linux and Macintosh OS X.

Senior Software Engineer

December 1999 -- September 2002

NFR Security, Inc.

Rockville, Maryland

Design and develop security software for NFR Security, a leading

provider of intrusion detection systems. Projects include

architecting and writing the core software for the Secure Log

Repository appliance, a Unix-based syslog and event log

aggregator, as well as managing the team of developers that

brought the final product to market. Performed lead engineer role

on Unix side of a host based intrusion project, including APIs for

core functionality, XML document type definitions describing the

data the system would handle, and interfaces to existing product

lines. Develop SQL database back-end for packet and other sensor

data in PostgreSQL on Unix platforms, including Solaris and

Linux. Replace DES with AES in various communication components,

write installation and configuration scripts for many Unix

products.

Consulting Software Engineer

June 1999 -- December 1999

TMSI/Fannie Mae contract

Washington, DC

Consultant with the Event/Fault Management department of Fannie

Mae, whose primary task is enterprise-wide system and event

monitoring. The core engine is Tivoli, with many in-house

modifications, which interfaces with their Remedy-based

trouble-ticket system. The main project is the development of

software to translate Tivoli configuration files into

human-friendly HTML pages, so that system monitoring parameters

can be reviewed by support and engineering staff. Additional work

involved the development of a forms-based system so that

departments can request additional monitoring or change existing

services. Writing additional system monitoring scripts was a

peripheral duty on this contract.

Consulting Engineer

December 1997 -- June 1999

ATR/Federal Reserve Board contract

Washington, DC

Consulting at the Federal Reserve Board, Information Resources

Management division. Specifically providing Unix engineering and

administration support to the records project. This project

involves the conversion of paper records into electronic formats,

primarily through the use of scanner and OCR technology. Record

and database storage comprises many hundreds of gigabytes, and

scanning is deployed on a number of systems, making the work both

interesting and challenging. Streamlining and documenting

maintenance procedures, such as serial terminal service for

dedicated RAID farms, is a component of the contract. Intimate

knowledge of Solaris, TCP/IP networking, and process-flow

scripting are integral skills in this role. Also provide support

on Year 2000 testing projects.

Applicable Skills

Unix Variants and Environments

Linux (including RedHat and Ubuntu); Apple Mac OS X; Solaris/SunOS; BSD variants; AIX; X Windows (including Gnome, KDE, OpenWindows, and CDE); Bourne shell (including ksh, bash, zsh); C shell (including tcsh).

Other Operating Systems

Apple Mac OS 9 and earlier; MS Windows (9x, NT, 2000, XP); PalmOS; MS/PC-DOS; VM/CMS.

Programming and Scripting Languages

C; C++; Python; Ruby; Perl; PHP; Java; JavaScript; sh; Tcl and Tk; Lisp (including Scheme and GUILE); Smalltalk; FORTH; various BASIC dialects; Pascal; some Intel and Motorola assemblers.

Applications and Tools

PostgreSQL; MySQL; Oracle; Informix SQL; SQLite; Various SQL access libraries; Eclipse; OpenOffice & LibreOffice; awk, sed and the usual Unix tools; various Windows and Macintosh applications.

Markup and Publishing

Web2Py; Ruby on Rails; Web application frameworks; XML; XSLT; SGML; BPMN 2; HTML (including CGI and forms); TeX and LaTeX; nroff and variants; OmniMark; Apache; Emacs and/or vi.

Network and System Services

qmail; sendmail; Apache httpd configuration; Usenet news; various Unix backup strategies; ftp administration; Tivoli; TCP/IP network and host configuration; System V and BSD print serving; care and feeding of cron; NFS administration; DNS/BIND configuration.

Security Systems and Tools

various security tools such as TCP Wrappers, Crack, and

tripwire; NFR intrusion detection products; PGP (various flavors); ssh installation and configuration; packet capture and decode utilities; familiar with cryptographic theory and protocols, some

implementations.

Hardware Experience

Intel/AMD PC hardware; Sun Sparcstations and Sparcservers; Apple notebooks and desktops; DEC Alpha systems; Cisco routers; Ethernet cabling and hubs; Annexes and other terminal servers; modem racks; various printers especially Hewlett-Packard and Apple laser

printers; SCSI devices.

Educational Background

Singapore American School

Republic of Singapore

August 1983 -- June 1987

High School Diploma, National Merit Scholarship Finalist

University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland

September 1987 -- November 2005

BA Philosophy

U.S. Citizen

References Available

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