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Employment History
The Criminal Defense Group : 2001-Present
IT Director and Application Developer
a.k.a. The Chase Law Group, United Defense Group Information Technologies Director and Application Developer for America's largest exclusively criminal defense law firm. Currently manage a single-office network of 25 Windows workstations, 2 dedicated Red Hat Linux servers, and provide remote technical support to several hundred attorneys nationwide. Designed and programmed several web-based applications to assist resident attorneys in their management and reporting duties. Developed proprietary marketing tools to assist in the deployment, management and reporting of extremely broad online advertising campaigns with a monthly spend of over $60,000 and monthly Internet revenues of over $400,000. Applications run on Apache HTTP servers and are developed using HTML, Javascript, CSS, PHP, XML, MySQL, PERL, WAP (for cell phone access) and RSS (for 'news feeds'). They are integrated with various Microsoft products such as Access and Excel in the office. The office Windows systems utilize various VBScript macros and MS-DOS shell scripting which I authored. The Criminal Defense Group employs over 400 attorneys, nationwide, and these applications enable them to communicate, schedule, track, evaluate, and manage their cases. The Criminal Defense Group owns over 80 web domains (primary: TheCriminalDefenseGroup.com), several of which consistently place in the Top 5 results for search terms related to the legal industry on all of the major search engines. CDG is extremely active in PPC and CPC search advertising campaigns, and has achieved excellent results with unpaid search placement in the 'organic' search results, in addition to the paid placement. Aggregate web traffic averages about 6,000 unique visitors per day. View some examples of these websites and applications here. These and The Criminal Defense Group's other domains are hosted on dedicated Red Hat Linux servers, which I arranged for and built-out for production. The servers are protected in part by SELinux and Bastille. We have used both Sendmail and Postifx mail servers with Dovecot IMAP/POP3 server, Procmail, Spamassassin and Sieve. Since we moved to the Linux servers and implemented various company-wide policies which I authored and maintain, the company's extensive network and all of their email have been virus- and hacker-free, despite numerous daily attacks.
Internet Society - Los Angeles Chapter : 1998-2010
Board of Directors Chairman, Chapter Trustee and Education Committee Chair
Founding Member of this well-respected Chapter of the international organization. The Chapter was dedicated to promoting general Internet knowledge, working to develop Educational applications for the Internet, and participating in the creation and standardization of protocols for Internet activities through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a branch of the Internet Society (ISOC). The Chapter was officially the largest ISOC Chapter, with over 400 members state-wide at the time I left office.
Web Developer : 1990-Present
Projects include crunching HTML for the initial rollout of the CitySearch website and building a Shockwave game for the Paramount Pictures/Howard Stern movie site, among others. Clients include OverTheNet, Zentropy Interactive, NextStep Media, ZigZag, Platt College, Glendale Career College, and others.
XactImage : 1999-2000
Application Developer
Working with this Los Angeles-based web production company. Among other activities, I developed the programming for a 'proof of concept' for Fairchild Corporation, a major aerospace parts manufacturer. The proof of concept demonstrated how their web presence would be able to integrate with their in-house inventory chain to enable vendors and suppliers to interact directly with Fairchild's product management system with a low learning curve, reducing errors and streamlining their product delivery stream. Acted as company liaison during a major transition in product offerings for our telco management clients from service affiliate AT&T.
Novomind (formerly 'eBrain') : 1998-2000
English Artificial Intelligence Developer
Working with this German company during development of their proprietary C++/Java engine, I cleaned up and augmented the translated 'brain' for their 'Virtual Agent' web-product. This involved adjusting the translated output and creating patterns and rules for the interaction between the Agent and the site visitor. (See Novomind.com for a demonstration of the current implementation.) On a side note ... I never met my employers on this project; all communication took place in cyberspace or via the occasional transatlantic telephone call.
Instructor, Internet Programming : 1996-1999
Glendale Career College, Glendale, California
Taught a popular course in Web Design, Client-side programming (HTML, Javascript, CSS) and digital graphics production
Game Programming : 1992-1994
Cyberboy Studios, Marina Del Rey, California
Three-man development team wrote and produced award-winning CD-ROM games
PrePress Production : 1979-1992
College Press, Burbank, California Audio Amateur Publications, Peterborough, New Hampshire Precisionforms, Inc., Jaffrey, New Hampshire 80 Microcomputing Magazine, Peterborough, New Hampshire Kilobaud Microcomputing Magazine, Peterborough, New Hampshire Notable Honors
President's Y2K Internet Task Force : 1999-2000
As the member of U.S. President Bill Clinton's Y2K Internet Task Force representing the Los Angeles, California region, in conjunction with the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, the USDoJ's Critical Infrastructure Protection Group and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), I participated in a global system monitoring and network troubleshooting effort during the transition from the year 1999 to the year 2000. You may recall that there was some concern that computers all over the world would have problems with the new century dates, and our task was to find and fix any such problems with the computers that power the Internet as they occurred. Fortunately, the computers of that time rolled over quietly.
Certified by the State of California : 1996-2000
to teach Multimedia Production to all age groups.
Education
APC - Data Center University : July 2011
Completed Course of Study in Data Center Design, Build and Operations
Platt College, Eagle Rock, California : September 1995
Graduate with Diploma in Computer Graphics and Design
Due to my experience with building web properties, I met several times with faculty members during my enrollment at the college to introduce them to HTML structure and code, and to help develop their syllabus as they crafted the school's first web programming course. Development Environments and Tools
Production Environments
Linux, Unix, Windows95/98/NT4/2000/XP/Vista/Windows7, Macintosh 7-OSX
Networking Environments
Servers: Linux, Unix, Windows NT 3.5-XP
Workstations: Linux, Windows95-Windows7; Macintosh 7-OSX Secure Wireless
Miscellaneous Platform Experience
Oracle 8i, Novell 3-4, MS-DOS 3-7, BeOS, Palm, WindowsCE,
BlackBerry, iOS (iPad, iPhone, etc.), webOS (Palm), Android
Web Server Software
Responsible for deploying, securing and maintaining: Windows NT Server, Windows Server 2000-2008, Red Hat Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Slackware Linux, FreeBSD Unix, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL Database Server, Sendmail Mail Server, Postfix Mail Server, Secure Sockets Layer, SELinux Security Layer, Bastille Security Framework, Sentry Tools
Production Software
I keep my skills very fresh with constant experimentation and by tweaking and rewriting existing applications to take advantage of new tech developments. All webpage programming is developed using either a simple text editor or an IDE, like Eclipse with the CVS plug-in. Other project-oriented software includes NetObjects Fusion 1-3, MS FrontPage 97-3, MS Project98, Dreamweaver and other web authoring programs. In addition, at the request of my clients, I have developed several websites using various Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. These include customized base applications, custom plug-ins/add-ons/modules, and expansions of existing community work. Web programming languages include Advanced PHP, PERL, WAP, XML, RSS, Advanced Javascript, HTML, CSS and to a lesser extent the jQuery framework, ColdFusion, Java, VBScript and others. Database software includes MySQL, MS-SQL, a little Oracle 8i, some PostgreSQL, various Berkley implementations and Microsoft Access and Excel. Materials production software includes Macromedia Director 3-8 and all versions of Flash (even back when it was being developed by FutureSplash!), the GIMP, Inkscape and other FOSS tools, and Adobe products including Photoshop 2-6, Illustrator 3-8, Acrobat 2-5, PageMaker 3-7, and Premiere 3-7 with After Effects 3. Audio development and manipulation has been done with various audio programs including Sound Forge 2-6, Audacity and Cakewalk 7. 3-D Virtual Reality production has been accomplished with software from Lightwave, Virtus, Caligari, and most recently with SGI/CosmoSoftware's outstanding CosmoWorlds. During Game Production, our team used Kinetix 3D Studio with custom Photoshop scripts and masking effects and the DOS-based Game Creation System (GCS). Regular production networking activities utilize various conferencing, shared environment, CVS, telnet, FTP, system status, remote control, and high-level browsing software. Extensive shell scripting. Frequently involved in beta-testing and professional developer programs for major manufacturers. As the IT Director for a large law firm, I have had to troubleshoot and modify all kinds of workstations and servers, both local and remote. I regularly train and assist employees of the firm in the operation of their systems both in the primary office and remotely with employees all around America, and I frequently perform computer forensics tasks to aid in the development of legal defense positions. During these activities, I work intimately with all of the major operating systems, several brands of personal and handheld devices and all of their attendant communications protocols ... along with a very wide variety of personalities. |
