Mark A. Hershberger

Perl

Modules released: Image::Grab, IO::BLOB::Pg, Filesys::Virtual, POE::Component::Server::XMLRPC, Software::Packager::Svr4.

Knowledge: mod_perl/Apache, AxKit, HTML::Mason, DBI, POE.

PHP

PHP4/PHP5, APC, Command Line PHP.

Mail Administration

Mail Transfer Agents: sendmail, qmail, exim, postfix.

Spam Filtering: SpamAssassin, Trend Micro's eManager Plugin, Amavis.

Virus Scanning: Trend Micro's VirusWall, ClamAV, CommandCentral's Vexira.

Protocols

LDAP: OpenLDAP.

Jabber (Instant Messaging): xdb_ldap, POE::Component::Jabber::Client.

SQL: MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL.

Web Services: XML-RPC, BloggerAPI, MetaWeblogAPI, REST, JSON.

Operating Systems

Linux: System Administrator, Primary Desktop OS, Preferred Development Platform, Debian/Ubuntu, Xen and KVM for virtualization.

Solaris: System Administrator, Bootable Recovery CDs with JumpStart and Flash Archives.

Employment History

SysAdmin/Web Developer
Team Gigabyte
May 2006-Present

Initially helped implement front-end enhancements using AJAX and PHP. Later, took on the management of the production, integration systems, the autobuild system, the custom Ubuntu package repository for our internally produced packages, backups, and system monitoring via a combination of Cacti, Swatch and Nagios.

When we switched our front-end to MediaWiki, I wrote custom handlers to produce fast geographical lookups using PHP. Currently working on migrating our custom package repository to Amazon’s S3 and using Hudson for managing builds.

SysAdmin/Web Developer
Layover, Inc.
June 2004-May 2006

Managed servers and helped maintain current base of legacy code. Planned and began implementing a move from custom template system with a mix of custom CGI code to Catalyst and Template Toolkit as part of a complete redesign of the site. My initial decision to use Catalyst on mod_perl has been implemented site-wide.

Other activities of note: Introduced Subversion for source control.Introduced some AJAX features for web site.Worked with third parties to develop a REST+XML API to share job application information.

I continue to work for Layover, Inc. on a contract basis (through NicheWork LLC) and have normalized various databases, worked to integrate their newsletters with Constant Contact and done other programming work as needed.

Tech
Clark for President, Inc.
November 2003-February 2004

During my time at the campaign, was the primary system administrator and managed the Linux-based network at the Headquarters as well the Linux servers colocated in Little Rock and New York City.

Implemented virus and spam scanning using open-source tools for all @clark04.com email addresses. This alone saved an untold hours in staffers' time at little cost to the campaign.

Saved the campaign $50,000 on a contract by benchmarking a vendor's field outreach tool which purpose was to aid grassroots volunteers in writing letters and making calls to potential voters. My measurements showed that the tool became unusable with even a small number of users. The contract was canceled.

Implemented a campaign-wide directory using OpenLDAP and managed the email systems for the campaign.

Owner/Operator
NicheWork LLC
1999-Present

Projects:

System Administration: Managing Linux-based mail and web-servers for Downtown PC and their clients (including the promoters of New Orleans Jazzfest: Festival Productions, Inc). Custom programming in Perl.
OpenWeblog: Developed and abandoned a weblogging system using AxKit that served up multiple weblogs and from a single server with a database backend. Replaced with a LiveJournal server
Filesys::Virtual, POE::Component::FTP::Server: Developed an FTP server built on the POE (Perl Object Environment) engine that allowed users FTP access to their OpenWeblog-based weblogs.
qmail-scanner implementation: Implemented qmail-scanner for a client so that mail received with qmail is checked for viruses and spam.
Exim Filtering: Developed a spam filter for Exim3 (later migrated to Exim4) that reads user's filtering preferences from LDAP and can optionally sort mailing lists and/or notify a user via Jabber when they receive new mail.
User information in LDAP: Implemented an OpenLDAP-based system for keeping user's information and preferences across several domains. This included registering a new OID with IANA and designing objectClasses specific to the site.
XML Namespace handling for Emacs: Implemented namespace handing for the XML parser in CVS Emacs.
RSS reader for Gnus/Emacs: Maintaining and updating the RSS reader that comes with Gnus 10 and later. Added auto-detection of RSS feeds. Added better handling of disparate namespaces.
weblogger.el: Developed a weblogging client for Emacs that uses Emacs native xml-rpc library and supports the BloggerAPI and then MetaWeblogAPI.
xml-rpc.el: Assumed maintainership of the XML-RPC library for Emacs.
xdb_ldap: The xdb_ldap back-end for Jabber required binding and clear-text passwords stored in LDAP to bind to the verify authentication. Since I prefer to avoid storing cleartext authentication data, I added a routine that would search for an attribute with the value the user supplied as a username and attempt to bind to the database as the user.

System Administrator
Universal Personnel (New Orleans, Louisiana)
January 2001-October 2003

Responsible for maintaining: internal and external DNS resolution for McDermott at multiple sites; external SMTP gateway router; internal and external FTP servers; HTTP Proxy; SOCKS proxy. Applying security upgrades for supported applications. Reviewing and implementing Auditor's security recommendations. (This contract was previously owned by Volt Technical Services.)

Projects:

Converted use of stock Solaris FTP daemon to ProFTPd using OpenLDAP as the backend for authentication. Later deployed the LDAP store on the iPlanet Directory server bundled with Solaris 9.
Developed and Deployed a spam and virus scanning system using mimedefang, Trend Micro's virus engine and SpamAssassin. Each mail is logged into a relational database and statistics, block overrides and other information are available via a web-based interface built using AxKit.
Implemented Trend VirusWall for virus scanning of HTTP, FTP, and SMTP traffic.
Developed bootable CDROM to deploy UNIX systems locally or at remote sites in a uniform fashion without using a JumpStart server. See http://mah.everybody.org/docs/bootable-cdrom-for-solaris for more information.
Developed a means of packaging Solaris SVR4 directory-format packages without the use of Solaris tools (e.g. without pkgmk).

JCALS System Administrator
U.S. Air Force Reserve
September 2000-December 2000

Maintained documentation storage system for Air Force Reserve base.

Perl Developer
PixSell Data Brokers
February 2000-August 2000

Contracted to perform work in Perl.

Also, performed miscellaneous System Administration duties including working with the FBI and Navy Security to track down a hacker.

Projects:

Form 1003 submission: Developed an automated system for Standard Mortgage that would take input from a web-page. The system used that information to submit a prepared Form 1003 to Fannie Mae for a lending decision. The decision would then be given back to the user. Implemented entirely with Apache and Perl using a custom Perl module.

System Administrator
Baily Link, Inc.
July 1999-January 2000

Registered domain names. Created and implemented policies for a separate development and production servers; Created and implemented policies for a version control system for internally developed software.

System Administrator
Department of Interior (Minerals Management Service)
June 1998-July 1999

Maintained the DNS; Developed an interim web-based solution for plotting and displaying over 200GB of well-logs. Implemented Cfengine to ease maintenance of Solaris workstations. Installed and maintained the proxy servers for the Gulf and California locations.

Computer Operations Supervisor
Tulane University (EECS Department)
June 1996-June 1998

System Administrator for over 40 Sun Solaris workstations, three servers and several Microsoft Windows 95 Personal Computers. Also managed student workers.

Education

BA in Computer Science, 1995
University of New Orleans