ruby, lisp/scheme, perl, C
database-backed websites, collaborative filtering, adaptive optimization, functional programming, regular expressions, machine learning via Nave Bayesian algorithms and Markov chaining, text classification, taxonomy generation, web spidering, data mining, simulated hyperspatial radiance, cryptography, hashing functions, windows internals, high-performance string-matching, cryptanalysis, compiler/interpreter implementation
flow cytometry, brazilian jujutsu, biometrics
Sermo was a company with a large J2EE codebase whose CEO wanted to switch to Ruby on Rails. I came on to write code myself, teach and mentor employees coming up to speed on ruby, and grow the local ruby community while strengthening the Sermo's connection to it. While teaching classes internally, externally, and at MIT, I worked in teams or solo on a number of different applications (a rewrite of the registration process, a jobsboard, a national influenza tracker, integration with bloomberg, and a survey system for docs) and pushed internally for a number of process changes, including rapid prototyping, short release cycles, and greater involvement by programmers further up the chain of decisions.
After being contacted by a nontechnical founder with an idea on a napkin, I proposed and documented the architecture(REST on RoR+lighttpd+fastCGI+mysql+memcache) of a social music site, then hired a team of 5 other programmers while prototyping and implementing the site. Post launch, I optimized and scaled the site. As of mid-November 2007, the site had grown to 80K registered and .5M total users. Mid-December, 180K registered users and ~1.3M total.
I designed, wrote and operated a large subset of a system that optimizes ad delivery at the level of individual advertisements, using numerous different traffic and advertisement sources. This system brought a $10/day account to $3000/day, and made feasible several forms of advertising arbitrage. Researched text classification and wrote a text classifier as part of a project to write a behavioral targeting system for ads. Documented that system as part of spinning off the company, which resulted in acquisition.
Performed technical analysis of company and competitor software to find vulnerabilities, and then ameliorated the former and exploited the latter. Designed, tested and rolled out software intended to improve persistence on the desktop. Shipped approximately 30 million copies of this software, in various versions. Wrote software to remove competitors from client machines. Wrote encryption software in java for server-side recreation of obfuscated names. Developed further hiding and persistence mechanisms, including invisible processes, unreadable registry keys, virtual processes, and remote thread injection. Architected these obfuscation and persistence capabilities into a platform that achieved nearly a 100% gain in persistence, in the face of increased competitor and antivirus attention. Embedded a highly customized version of the Tinyscheme language as a scripting runtime.
Participated in all technical aspects of distribution: analysed company distribution systems to increase conversion rates. Automated labor-intensive portions of the install process with a custom scheme interpreter and various scripting languages. Wrote competitive analysis software to get competitor advertiser lists. Automated labor-intensive portions of the install process with a custom scheme interpreter and various scripting languages. Wrote competitive analysis software to get competitor advertiser lists.
Developed protocols for an industrial flow-cytometry lab, including sample preparation, Hoechst staining, media preparation, safety, and freezing. Sorted bovine semen to assure sex of offspring, and conducted a quality assurance program, including training employees, testing media and apparatus, and testing product. The resulting product was cut due to lack of funding.
Researched the market, wrote a business plan, hired and trained sales associates, edited website content, prospected sales leads, developed business contacts, OEMed a suitcase fingerprint solution, and wrote to a fingerprint reader API in Perl and python.
Designed, diagrammed, built, and documented electronic devices for an extremely low temperature optical trapping apparatus. (Optical trapping is confining a thin gas with lasers-in this case rubidium at approx -273C). Designed and implemented a sound-suppression device for a vacuum system related to the experiment, designed and set up a water-cooling system for the apparatus, and demonstrated flaws in the lab security that were subsequently fixed. Wrote a Fortran program for the analysis of survey data. Determined the correct timing information for an array of photomultiplier tubes that made up the detection apparatus for a TeV scale cosmic gamma-ray detector.