Mark A. Hershberger

PHP

PHP5, APC, XDebug, PHPUnit, Command Line PHP.

Various PHP Frameworks: MediaWiki, Drupal, Joomla, KnowledgeTree, CakePHP.

Perl

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

Knowledge: mod_perl/Apache, DBI, POE.

Open Source Contributor

Linux Distributions: Contributing PHP packages (MDB2, hardy's XDebug) to Debian and Ubuntu.

Emacs: Contributor to Emacs with copyright assignment papers on file with the FSF.

I make it a practice to track down the source of bugs I encounter (for example, see my list of Debian bugs or Ubuntu bugs). Recently began trying to collect my open source contributions on ohloh.net.

Mail Administration

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

Spam Filtering: SpamAssassin, Amavis.

Virus Scanning: ClamAV.

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, Ubuntu on the Desktop, Preferred Development Platform, Debian/Ubuntu, libvirsh/kvm for virtualization on the desktop and server.

Employment History

Open Source Developer
IntraHealth International, Inc.
July 2007-November 2009

I worked on multiple open-source software projects, including traveling to client countries (in my case, Rwanda and Uganda) to help IT workers there implement Open Source solutions.

Projects:

open.intrahealth.org: Set up MediaWiki as a repository for sharing information with our partners and clients.
iHRIS Suite: My efforts were focused on integration with Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu) and adapting the PHP-based software suite to the WAMP platform so that it could run standalone on a Windows Desktop. Later, I took the Ubuntu LiveCD and adapted it to run the iHRIS Suite from a bootable. I also worked on implementing continuous integration and increasing code quality by setting up Continuum and writing some tests in PHPUnit.
Human Resources for Health (HRH) Global Resource Center upgrade: Upgraded the HRH GRC site maintained out by the USAID's Capacity Project. The site runs on a customized Drupal codebase and I worked to upgrade the code from Drupal 4 to Drupal 6. Also fixed some long-standing encoding issues (MS codepages vs UTF-8) as well as raised awareness to mitigate future problems.
Knowledge Management for Uganda Ministry of Health (MoH): Integrated Joomla and Knowledgetree to provide a complete KM solution for the MoH. When we presented the results to the MoH librarians, they were visibly excited. Prior to the use of an open source solution, they were using an un-networked proprietary desktop application to access electronic documents.
PHP library for OpenMRS DB Schema: As part of the Last Mile Initiative, I participated in a pilot project to make OpenMRS forms available to be filled out via the web from cell phones in Rwanda. For this, I analyzed the OpenMRS DB schema and developed a PHP library to directly update it.

Owner
NicheWork LLC
1999-Present

Nichework LLC is the business entity that I use for any projects or contracts that I work on outside of my full time work.

Projects:

Contract work: Managing Linux-based mail and web-servers for various clients. Custom programming in Perl and PHP. Providing bulk spam filtering services.
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: Maintained 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 maintainer-ship of the XML-RPC library for Emacs.

SysAdmin/Web Developer
Team Gigabyte
May 2006-March 2007

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. Migrated our custom package repository to Amazon’s S3.

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 AJAX features for web site.Worked with third parties to develop a REST+XML API to share job application information.

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

During my time at the campaign, I was the primary system administrator and managed the Linux-based network at the Headquarters as well the Linux servers co-located 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 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.

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.
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

BS in Computer Science
University of New Orleans