Engineer Project

Jonah E Safar

Arlington, MA *****

******-**@******.***

Objective:

To secure full-time, long-term employment in a challenging

environment that provides the opportunity to enhance existing skills

and to also develop new ones.

Availability:

Boston, MA and surrounding areas only. No out of state, no

relocation desired.

Computer Skills:

Operating Systems: UNIX (Solaris, SunOS, HP/UX, Irix, Linux, BSD),

Mac, Windows (98, NT, 2000, XP), DOS.

Languages:C, C++, perl, Ada, Pascal, Fortran, PHP, XML, HTML,

Java, Tcl/Tk, Javascript.

Extensions:TCP/IP, SQL (Oracle, mSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL), X, GL,

CGI, HTTP, AJAX, UNIX Threads, RCS/CVS, SVN and BK code

control, TT2, mod_perl, Insure, Purify, JNI, Swing, make,

cons, RT, Bugzilla, Click, ATG Dynamo and Vignette

Storyserver.

Configuration:Solaris, RedHat, Mandrake, Apache, Sendmail, Oracle,

Postfix, PostgreSQL, MySQL, NFS, squid, iptables, ipchains,

ssh, NAT, firewall, wireless, ant, make, Cisco IOS.

Education:

MSEE/CE, Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 2001.

BSEE/CS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. 1994.

Certifications:

CISSP 2006, #88133.

Experience:

Mazu Networks, Inc. Cambridge, MA.

June 2005 to Current.

Senior Engineer

Promoted best of breed engineering practices to improve quality of

product releases while decreasing the time from specification to

customer release. Pilot projects included unit testing, middleware

interface libraries, better API specification, better automated

testing within the engineering group, dependency tracking,

automated documentation, strong templating and procedural

separation. Some on-call related duties to assist customer

engineering on a part-time basis. Varied duties included

developing embedded web content, designing and implementing partner

data transfer and export API and code, database optimization and

bug fixing. Tasked with helping to find and repair potential

security vulnerabilities in the product lines. Also responsible

for a complete overhaul of the engineering and customer experience

in product software updates.

Skills used: C, C++, Perl, Java, XML, Apache, PHP, Perl, HTML, SQL,

Linux, Postgresql, Bugzilla, make, Click, AJAX, shell, Javascript,

iptables, CVS, SVN

GameLogic, Inc. Cambridge, MA.

October 2003 to November 2004.

Engineer++

Responsible for accelerating development of casino, lottery and on-

line gaming backend systems, including display, statistics,

accounting integration, security, identity verification and

monitoring. Job encompassed taking original designs or pre-

existing code and implementing functional units and tests within

the scope of the task given. Languages used were primarily C++,

with some smaller modules being done in C. Scripting, reporting

and integration, as well as most build, monitoring and test tools

used Perl. Continued to help expand and improve on the automated

regression testing system as well as the RT-based trouble-ticket

system and the bk-based merging and code control system. Helped

port the cons-based build tools to an automake/make process.

Furthermore, was regularly tasked with acting as the devil s

advocate for security issues. Was the company s subject matter

expert for database issues, including MySQL tuning, replication,

backups and recovery, as well as DBA for some table design, foreign

key constraint, table size and indexing concerns. Acted as senior

code reviewer and provided junior engineer mentoring on coding,

standards, best practices and on-call procedures, as well as

presented numerous internal classes on database and SQL usage,

designing and coding with security in mind, and using the Standard

Template Library in C++. Was a primary on-call engineer throughout

duration of employment, which included 24/7 remote support, remote

debugging, network and hardware analysis and patch coding.

Skills used: C, C++, Perl, XML, Apache, HTML, SQL, Linux, MySQL,

RT, cons, make, bk

Virtual Focus Consulting Erie, CO.

September 2001 to Current

Consultant

Brain Enhancement Services

Contracted to pick up maintenance on a previous contractor s

work, as well as help them design the next major release of

their web test, sales and customer tracking website. Supported

incremental roll-out of features and review of code for phased

refactoring. Analyzed code to detect future security

vulnerabilities as well as performance bottlenecks to make sure

an expanding customer base would not cause an unexpected

processing failure. Also worked with the customer to try and

develop better business processes around their automated tools

to simplify order processing and speed turn-around time. Helped

customer develop a wish list, prioritize their requirements and

then write up detailed specifications for RFC bidding.

Skills used: Perl, HTML, Javascript

Turbine Entertainment, Inc.

Contracted to help accelerate and complete an ongoing project

that was falling behind deadline. Took ownership of a complex

GUI tool to help customer support research customer issues by

visualizing large amounts of archived game data. Project was

integrated into existing code and required interfacing with new

modules being produced by other internal groups. Windows

2003/NT development environment using P4 source control.

Project was multi-threaded, used MFC components, and interfaced

with newer .NET components. Project was taken from

specifications gathering, through proof of concept, writing,

integration, testing and delivery. An additional high-level

security audit and a series of talks and documents were also

provided on safe coding practices, and tools to help with the

secure development process. This included internal web servers

and tools implemented in PHP, as well as back-end engines

providing game services in C++.

Skills used: C++, P4, Visual Studio, MFC, Threads, Windows,

Linux, PHP, Apache

Virtual Focus

Designed, purchased and maintained the in-house network and

systems. Handled in-house provisioning of leased line, ISP

services, repair and security. Automated nightly tape backups

and some critical OS update patch handling. Network comprised

of Mac (OS9 and OSX), Windows (2000 and XP), Solaris and Linux

machines. Network supports shared printing services,

transparent firewalls, wireless roaming with authentication,

email spam-filtering and shared network disk-space.

Skills used: Postfix, PostgreSQl, MySQL, Solaris, Windows,

MacOS, Linux, Wireless, Firewall, Arkeia, Apache, iptables, NFS

Alignment Software

Contracted to provide a set of network exploration tools that

would run natively on Windows 98, 2000, NT and XP, Linux and

Solaris systems (from 2.6 to 2.9), but would have a consistent

Java interface. System-level code was written in C++ and used

makefiles on Linux and Solaris and Visual Studio under Windows.

The Java interface implemented JNI and ant was used to build and

manage the project including documentation. Additional research

and coding was provided to create burstable queries that would

respond to network congestion. High volume and high load

testing was conducted on all code for reliability and memory

use. Provided insight into user-interface changes to improve

graphic visualization of test results.

Skill used: Java, JNI, C++, ant, TCP/IP, UDP/IP, Windows,

Solaris, Linux

Prestige Medical

Given a sample order file and the company s EDI specification,

created a high-speed parser to explode an incoming order into

human readable printable or web-viewable orders. Working with

the company s IT lead to modify an open-source software and

hardware inventory tracking system that includes a trouble

ticket and help desk system to the company needs. Also making

sure it will run on currently available systems, and be able to

be maintained and upgraded by the company internally.

Skills used: C, EDI, HTML, PHP, mysql

Stonekeep Consulting

Assistant developer for the Congo distributed registration

system. Provided back end printer driver development in the

CUPS environment, created build and configuration platforms for

CUPS printing support, PHP and XML web development, MySQL

database development and Java ODBC and Swing development for

middleware and mobile client. Planned for hot-failover, load-

balancing, hardware and network growth as services expand and

better mobility is needed. Contributed work on simple kiosk

infrastructure planning with security in mind. Provided data

migration and translation between existing client database

sources and target Congo use both remotely and at site.

Skills used: Java, ant, Swing, C, CUPS, Apache, MySQL, CVS,

ODBC, Swing, PHP, XML

Audible Magic Corp.

Updated and provided technical support and training for

purchased IP rights from ipArchive. Helped design product

expansions. Provided feasibility studies and protocol analysis

on demand for further product studies. Remote-diagnosed

hardware issues, and provided on-site service to companies that

were using Audible Magic hardware. Provided load-balancing

consultation, hardware selection and configuration assistance

for a number of projects. Wrote a high-speed, SMP enabled

application for rapid Ethernet protocol detection and multi-

level assembly with content analysis and action.

Skills used: TCP/IP, Protocols, C, C++, Perl, Linux, FTP, HTTP,

P2P

ReEnforce, LLC

Advanced Linux work involving iptable intercepts and rapid

TCP/IP stream capture for categorization and rewriting in

modular C++. Gave lectures on P2P concepts and fundamental

networking topologies, both actualized and virtual. Gave

additional lessons on computer-user motivation and ethics.

Project under NDA.

Skills used: TCP/IP, Protocols, C++, Linux, iptables, HTTP, FTP,

P2P

PlanetiBiz, Inc.

Acted as a sub-contractor for expert hourly consulting for web-

enabled business plans, websites, back-end databases, server

infrastructure, security consulting (including system integrity)

as well as code-walkthrough. Specialized in PostgreSQL and PHP

solutions, requiring knowledge of Apache configuration issues,

hardware optimization, PHP standards for versions 3 and 4, as

well as the differences between PostgreSQL versions 7.0 and the

newer 7.1. Also provided C and C++-based PostgreSQL dynamic

loaded triggers for complex behavior.

Skills used: Apache, HTML, PHP, C, C++, PostgreSQL, SQL,

triggers, Perl, Javascript

WebUseNet, Inc. Boulder, CO.

May 2001 to September 2001.

Senior Architect Colorado R&D Office Closed

Created a new on-line music service targeted to take advantage of

fat pipes to allow for streaming and downloading of MP3 encoded

music, with the ability to move to MP2 and MP4-encoded video in the

near future. The job encompassed the entire development cycle from

creating project requirements from the base concept, to determining

infrastructure needs and planned roll-out, to database design, user

interface, privacy concerns and media rights management. The beta

functional system was implemented on Oracle and Apache, running

under Linux. A caching and balancing system was devised to allow

scaling from one machine to many, both for the session management,

and database access. The majority of the coding was done in Perl,

using the mod_perl and TT2 interfaces to Apache. A large amount of

low-level coding was done to allow database access and session

management to be scalable into the future. The project was

designed with a strong eye towards bringing in liaisons, co-

branding of the site for various sponsors, creation of warehousing

and burn services for people that wished to use the site as a

conventional on-line music service, or as a mix-CD creation

service and most importantly, integration with content protection

services, such as those that had been being developed by ipArchive.

Also handled development machine specifications and procurement,

and helped set up and configure the office machines. Was

responsible for office data security and handled the firewall and

password databases.

Skills used: Apache, Perl, TT2, mod_perl, HTML, Oracle, SQL, Linux

ipArchive, Inc. Westminster, CO.

December 2000 to April 2001.

Senior Architect Company out of Business

Researched requests for currently existing commercial off the shelf

solutions that could be adapted to company needs (both hardware and

software). Helped write and review patent applications and created

non-technical white papers based on highly technical subjects for

public and board consumption. Did rapid prototyping in multiple

languages to create proof of concept projects, collected facts and

made algorithm measurements to support company fact sheets and

engineering specifications. Was tasked with assisting business

development in creating product specifications and use cases, then

formalizing the lists for applicability and testability. Developed

UML object-oriented specifications with the engineering group for

implementations. Provided example code to help engineering with

complex coding issues such as allowing C++ object inheritance

through a dynamic module loading architecture at run-time.

Code developed included modification of TCP stream assembly

products for real-time, high-bandwidth protocol monitoring, high-

level protocol reverse engineering and advanced automated content

recognition. Work included concepts taken from network intrusion

detection systems and from leading edge human sound processing and

speech recognition techniques, as well as video and picture

modeling coupled with pattern recognition. As ancillaries to the

main projects, supported hardware selection, linux kernel

compilation and tweaking, database design, web server setup and

interface creation, network design for local servers and remote

clients, and machine security, both for transmitted data, and for

the network machines themselves. Created and maintained the CVS-

based code archive and automated backup scripts, as well as the bug

submission and tracking systems and automated build scripts.

Helped create a system to allow for publishing content to a

staging web-server before being released to the internet server.

Worked closely with the Solaris administrator and the building s

network administrator to make sure all departments had required

resources, and monitored network traffic to prevent unintentional

release of proprietary data.

Skills used: C, C++, UML, Perl, TCP/IP, Protocols, Apache, Squid,

CVS, Linux, Solaris, Shell scripts, HTTP, FTP, P2P

Quova, Inc. Westminster, CO.

April 2000 to December 2000.

Senior Engineer Colorado R&D Office Closed

Wrote perl and C libraries to handle database interconnect

(primarily Oracle) as well as high-speed network exploration.

Considerable CGI work with perl and modperl was later added for

remote analysis and control of an expanding tool set. Assisted

with data structure design and data compression methodologies to

rapidly store, transmit and index huge volumes of data. Worked on

rewriting parts of basic networking tools such as ping, traceroute

and nslookup for the purpose of robustness, speed, better low-level

socket use and reduced internet traffic. Involved in the staffing

selection process to expand the research department to meet

increased demands from the engineering and data warehousing

departments. Provided math and algorithm support while exploring

fuzzy logic, neural networks and self-fitting algorithms until a

full-time mathematician was employed. Wrote, over a three month

period, a massively threaded, distributed engine for parallel

network exploration in C++. Emphasis was placed on remote control

of the code, high speed, and very low network impact. Helped deal

with the creation of filters and procedures to rapidly handle

complaints and to improve the code to reduce the incident of

further similar complaints. Considerable effort was expended on

removing all store and forward designs in an attempt to minimize

data loss and provide as much fail-safe and fail-over capability as

possible. Rewrote and integrated improved socket-level objects to

take advantage of ICMP and TCP network protocols. Involved in the

patent request process for development done on both code and

concepts.

Responsible for keeping track of the latest releases and versions

of critical software and kernel upgrades, as well as maintaining a

list of bugs and other problems found during the course of research

and development. When possible, was tasked with creating code

patches or workarounds for serious low-level problems in the OS or

application level software. Worked with the Unix community and

vendors to handle purchasing decisions and product support from

VALinux, Parasoft and others. Worked with IT to keep the

development environment and desktop computers up to date, networked

and fully functional. Did machine repairs, upgrades, and

internally consulted for VxWorks and ip-space deployment.

Skills used: C++, Perl, TCP/IP, ICMP, Linux, Solaris, Oracle, SQL,

Threads, Insure++, CVS, NFS

bCandid Boulder, CO.

December 1999 to April 2000.

Senior Consulting Engineer Company Sold

Originally supporting engineer for the Twister discussion engine.

Worked with customers to customize both the interface and add

enhancements to the base server with the main engineering team.

Also acted as QA for the product line, writing and running test

cases, and generating reproducible faults based on customer

feedback. Consulted on machine selection, backup plans, security

and tuning. Generated Perl, XML, HTML and Javascript templates for

customers. Later moved to the bConnected project to act as initial

architect and coder to a secure business to business EDI solution.

Worked with a small team to quickly engineer a prototype based on

management input, then implement a working system. Initially

integrated two companies as proof of concept. During second-phase

engineering, moved to concentrate on back-end integration with a

wide array of database systems and communications to be able to

support as many future customers as possible, as well as document

formats and automatic translation and conversion. Helped

customers, both internal and external, obtain and configure the

hardware and software needed to fulfill their business functions.

Skills used: Perl, XML, HTML, C, Twister, Usenet

DMR Consulting Group, Inc. Englewood, CO.

August 1999 to December 1999.

Senior Systems Analyst Work Contracted for Completed

Was on contract to U.S. West, E-commerce group. Acted as assistant

to the Vignette project leader. Helped to establish and review

development procedures for both coding, coding style and web

deliverables. Was instrumental in helping to collect and analyze

requirements, then apportioning work based on expected load.

Produced an on-line product catalog that extended across all

internal 'stores.' Additionally, each department had the ability

to add custom extensions and abilities to their storefront. The

project involved constructing the database back-end and the web-

based data-entry tools. The project existed in a StoryServer

environment with coding done in Tcl, Javascript, HTML and SQL.

Emphasis was placed on extensibility, consistent look and feel as

well as ease of use.

Skills used: Vignette StoryServer, Tcl, HTML, Javascript, Oracle,

SQL

XVT Software, Inc. Boulder, CO.

March 1998 to July 1999.

Senior Engineer Engineering Offices Closed

Brought on to support development of the 'Hop Skip Jump' web

project, to localize displayed content based on the viewer's

location, determined through an algorithm using incoming internet

addresses and zip codes. Provided Oracle support and developed a

high-speed, multi-threaded server back-end to handle http requests

and various algorithms to determine closest-neighbor pairing and

complex-phrase searches in real-time. Was instrumental in the

design of the overall project to make flexible business rules

integral to the entire project. Also involved in efforts to

streamline and accelerate the development of the project from an

original estimated two or more years to just under six months.

Demonstrated a high level of code reuse in a new project to develop

a high-speed, high load, multi-platform application server that

also functioned as a standard web-server. The 'Flashpoint' server

was introduced at LinuxWorld in 1999. Was responsible for

evaluating the reuse potential of many of the coding modules, as

well as adopting the code to fit into the new project. Responsible

for the entirety of the engineering and coding development for the

core server itself. Worked with others to teach threaded coding

concepts, as well as dynamic memory and dynamic linking concepts

integral to the project. Developed a working sub-module for the

server to accept secure socket layer communications through a 'plug-

in' based off of the SSLeay libraries. Produced a GPL version of

Flashpoint and worked out the engineering specification to develop

the next major revision of Flashpoint. Spearheaded use of CVS

revision control processes, accelerated bug-tracking policies as

well as Purify and other tools to catch bugs earlier in

development.

During this period, also helped design the distributed support

networks and backups that would be required to keep the system

acceptably usable as load increased. Helped write up a staged

purchase and deployment plan for roll-out. Worked with Oracle and

with a local Oracle consultant directly for optimal database use,

licensing issues and to resolve bugs. Set up a partial internal

test environment, and also provided internal security audits.

Helped resolve internal DNS, email and FTP server issues, and set

up a caching proxy for the company. Continued to provide direct

customer support and interaction as needed. Included rapid porting

of large projects between platforms, especially to Solaris 2.7, 64-

bit HP/UX and to Caledra, RedHat and Slackware Linux. Provided

engineering support to the cross-platform division to expand their

X-Windows capability with various toolkits.

Skills used: C, C++, X, CVS, Threads, Oracle, SQL, HTML, Apache,

Squid, Protocols, Porting, Linux, Solaris, HP/UX, Purify, HTTP

Raytheon Submarine Signals Division Portsmouth, RI.

May 1995 to March 1998.

Engineer Left for Better Position

Covered both the Block-1C and the NSSN submarine real-time command

and control projects. For the Block-1C project, spent considerable

time debugging and verifying problem reports on simulators and

actual equipment. As part of the NSSN project, designed

interfaces, deciding on the structure of the programs under the

weapon-group control and determining code-reuse potential from

older, related projects. The majority of the programming was

conducted in Ada. Interface design was coordinated using Teamwork

and Rational s APEX development environment. Documentation was

produced using the Interleaf package.

Worked on expanding the internal production toolset. Developed and

rewrote a number of programs to aid in the automatic code

generation effort. Included were a number of Teamwork database

traversing methods to automatically create package and message

specifications, as well as text-parsing algorithms to provide

intelligent linking between modules. Largest project was a

specialized X-based front-end to the Teamwork module editor. With

this were administrative organization tools for managing data

updates, an intelligent monitor to provide on the fly corrections

to entered data and the ability to save edited or created data in

cdif format for exchange with other databases. Also did a code

audit and archive of older Fortran code to asses algorithm

portability for a new virtual environment simulator under

construction. Worked with the advanced projects division to

provide various classification and pattern-recognition programs to

determine the efficiency of a new ultra-wide band sonar in

Mathematica and in C.

Skills used: C, Ada, Fortran, X, GL, Teamwork, Rational APEX, AIX,

SGI, Solaris, Mathematica, Interleaf

Professional Organizations:

IEEE: ComSoc member since 2000.

ACM: Member since 2001.

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