Benjamin R. Blank

4509 Margery Drive
Fremont, CA 94538

Email
dark.ryder+jobs@gmail.com
Cell
510-229-9944
Web
http://www.535design.com/people/ben.blank/

It is my opinion that programming is not the dry discipline it is sometimes made out to be, nor is it primarily a matter of memorizing APIs — to be a truly skilled programmer requires intuition, creativity, and adaptability. It requires understanding how a computer "thinks" and writing to that, regardless of the language used.

For more than a decade, my passion for programming and the challenges it presents have driven me to acquire a broad skill base which is unique to no particular language or discipline. That same passion and those same skills can be put to work for your company and your products. Contact me by email or by cell.

Qualifications

Bachelor-degree-equivalent work experience in web development, application development, systems administration. Quick, intelligent learner with a solid work-ethic. Eligible for previously held top-level security clearance.

Skills

Skill
Years Exp
Last used
.NET Framework 4 2008
AJAX 3 2008
Assembler 4 2000
C# 4 2008
C/C++ 4 2002
CSS 10 2008
Database Admin (MySQL) 4 2008
Database Design 4 2008
DHCP 1 2004
DNS 1 2004
Firewall 1 2004
HTML >10 2008
Java 2 2000
JavaScript/DHTML 8 2008
MS Office >10 2008
MySQL 4 2008
Network planning 3 2005
Perl 1 2004
PHP 6 2008
Python 5 2008
Shell script (bash) 6 2006
SQL 4 2008
Sys Admin (Desktop - Win, Mac) >10 2008
Sys Admin (Server - Mac, Linux) 7 2008
TCP/IP 10 2008
Tech support 9 2008
Technical writing 9 2007
VB.NET 4 2008
VPN 5 2008
Web Design 10 2008
Web Development 8 2008
XML 6 2008
XSLT 4 2008

Work history

April 2008 - present

Sabbatical / skills development. All work listed below is on a volunteer basis.

Hell Has Found Me (http://www.scottv.com/ — site design and development)

  • development using PHP, JavaScript / jQuery, MySQL, and Python
  • design using HTML, CSS, and XML / XSLT
  • database design and administration using MySQL

WoWWiki (http://www.wowwiki.com/ — MediaWiki “bot” development for mashup)

  • development using PHP, Python, and the MediaWiki template engine
  • interfacing with the MediaWiki API and performing non-API session authentication
  • datasourcing schema-less XML for inclusion into wiki pages

May 2000 - April 2008

Contract to direct hire at Lawrence Livermore Labs, Senior Systems & Networks Technician.

Web tool developer (internal use only)

  • development using PHP, JavaScript / jQuery, MySQL, and Python
  • design using HTML / XHTML, CSS, and XML / XSD / XSLT
  • database design and administration using MySQL

Client tool developer (internal use only)

  • GUI development for the .NET Framework using C# and VB.NET
  • CLI development using Bourne shell script, PHP, and Python
  • cross-platform GUI development using XUL

Quality assurance (of software to be used internally)

  • debugging, bug/behavior analysis
  • interfacing with developers

Customer support

  • troubleshooting unfamiliar applications (i.e. fixing problems in software I had never used or been trained in)
  • interfacing with clients

Web administrator (internal site)

  • Linux administration
  • Apache administration
  • MySQL administration
  • Bourne shell script, PHP, and Python

Newsletter editor

  • design using HTML / XHTML CSS, and Apache SSI
  • development using JavaScript
  • technical writing

Maintained a Top Security Clearance.

September 1999 - January 2000

Direct hire at NetHelp International. Tier 1 phone support. Eureka, California.

April 1992 - January 2000

Part time consulting business doing office support, network design, systems administration (desktop and server). Concurrent with high school and some college.