David P. Discher

dpd@dpdtech.com
http://davidpdischer.com http://davidpdischer.com/resume
1220 N. Fairoaks Ave. Apt 3204
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(cell) 408-368-3725
(home) 408-541-0159

Summary

Web Application Developer and UNIX System Administrator
With Technical Leadership Aspirations

by David P. Discher July 23, 2008 00:33

SAINT LOUIS (dpd) - David Discher is a skilled Information Technology Professional. He has been working with UNIX and its various flavors since 1990. Since then, he progressed from the user environment to the System Administrator in the mid-1990's. He's worked with various distributions of Linux and finally settled on FreeBSD as his preferred production server Open-Source UNIX distribution. He currently maintains four FreeBSD/Linux, which will be expanding in the near future. Despite his passion for UNIX, Discher has been an Apple Macintosh User since the platforms beginning in 1984. His desktop platform has been and continues to be MacOS. MacOS X fuses both skills he has used - the Macintosh User Interface and the power of the BSD Unix under pinnings. Discher is also a registered Apple Developer.

To solidify his skills, in the fall of 1996, Discher enrolled as a full-time student and attended Washington University in St. Louis, MO. In December 2001, his efforts were awarded with a Applied Science Degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Science in the field of Computer Science. His course work mainly focused on systems and machines and applied practical topics rather than theory. During school, he applied with these skills within an extracurricular robotics team. The team's three different designs won three awards in four different competitions. Discher assumed a leadership roll in the team, and pushed for progress.

Discher has a very aggressive and entrepreneurial personality. His talents, skills and drive are often under utilized in large corporations. He much rather be involved in a small group or small to medium size company especially a startup. He would like to work closely with the details of the project. A technical/development position is preferred over a management position. Discher would like to work within a vertically organized project group, designing a system begin to end and seeing it through to release. Discher would enjoy working on projects using open-source software or open standards in software development, web application or an embedded system. Projects taking advantage of Open Standards and Software like XML - SOAP, XMPRPC, XSLT/XSL, XHTML, CSS, MySQL, Apache, PHP, Perl, and Linux would be ideal. Discher's ideal job would involve working to develop web-based applications.

Discher is passionate about expanding his knowledge. Earning professional certifications is a current goal. However, due to time constraints, professional certifications are currently on hold.

Education

Washington University in St. Louis, MO Major: Computer Science   Degree Date December 2001

 

Work Experience

Yahoo!, Inc.   Aug 2005 - Present
Infrastructure Engineering Sunnyvale, CA June 2008 - Present
Technical Yahoo: FreeBSD Kernel Team Member Full-Time : Employee
In Team Support for Senior Kernel Developers
Tested Kernels and drivers on new hardware
Help Create new PXE Networking Installers
Facilitated signing of NDAs with major chip-set vendors for creating drivers for FreeBSD
 
Platform/Y!OS Engineering Sunnyvale, CA Oct 2007 - June 2008
Technical Yahoo: FrontEnd Engineer Full-Time : Employee
Creating Web 2.0 Widgets for Common Community Platforms
Frontend Engineer for next gernation ("Y!OS")community platforms
Legacy Data Migration and Download Applications
 
Yahoo! Ad Systems Operations Sunnyvale, CA Aug 2005 - Sept 2007
Technical Yahoo: Sales Operations Full-Time : Employee
Provide production operational support for Yahoo! Internal Ad Sales Systems
Provides 24x7 production support (rotating basis)
Implementing monitoring using proprietary internal Yahoo! tools, integrate with Nagios
ensures Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance and proper Change Management process for controlled products
Basic Release Engineering and support for developers
Developed Internal tools on (L)AMP platform to aid in operational tasks
Inherited and became main support and developer (hacker) contact for the customer, internal SOX compliant build system
Teams resident UNIX (FreeBSD & Linux) guru and resource
Teams go-to IT/SA contact
 
SBC Communications, Inc.   March 2002 - Aug 2005
SBC Advanced Solutions, Inc. Dublin, CA Nov 2004 - Aug 2005
Senior Communications Specialist Full-Time : Employee
Primary Responsibility: Solaris System Administrator, support, installation, maintenance
Implementing Sun One Directory Service as a Solaris Naming Service
Working with NFS, NIS+, LDAP, perl, php, SSH, nsswitch, PAM, DNS/Bind, Cisco Switches, Sun/Solaris Jumpstart
 
SBC Services, Inc. St. Louis, MO March 2002 - Oct 2004
Resource Technician Full-Time : Employee
Tier 1 Monitoring Center (ROCC) for Midrange Unix and NT Systems
Work with System, Application, and Database Administrators to resolve problems
Skills used: Unix (AIX, HP, Sun), Communication skills (writen and phone)
Created Perl Scripts to automate creation of BMC Patrol Desktop Files
Created CRM-DR-Backup Script to save critical information to local PCs from ITO's CRM database for the Disaster Recovery
Proposing to design and create a Web Application (PHP, HTML, CSS, MySQL) for Content Management
In Progress: Global Knowledge Self-Paced e-Learning UNIX Level I/II, Network Fundamentals, and Trouble shooting TCP/IP
Received an Team Awards for 2002, 2003
Received an Individual Development Award 2003 for CRM-DR-Backup
Picture It Sold Berkeley, CA Nov 2003 - June 2004
Web Application Developer Contract
Provided Managed Hosting for client - FreeBSD/Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL
Mirgated Managed Hosting to PictureItSold's System - FreeBSD/Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL
Created Full Custom Web Application, Auction Management System (AMS)
Integrated eBay XML API, FedEx, XML API, PayPal Instant Payment Notification
Standards Compliance: XHTML 1.0, CSS2
Developed Using: Apache, PHP, MySQL, with CVS
AMS automates the eBay listing and selling process for Picture It Sold from a single interface that communicates with eBay, FedEx and PayPal.
Varner Technologies, Inc.** Chesterfield, MO July 2001
Unix System Administrator Summer Employment
** Varner has ceased operations, unable to reach any contacts.
Upgraded an ISP's main server, 6,000+ active users (FreeBSD 3.3 to FreeBSD 4.3 )
Configured qpopper (POP3 Server) & sendmail (outgoing mail server) with POP-before-SMTP relaying control
FixMyLinux.COM ** Clayton, MO July - Sept 2000
Network Administrator for "dot-com" startup FixMyLinux, Inc. Summer Employment
**FixMyLinux.COM is no longer owned by CTitek, and is now ceased operations, contacts are still reachable.
Managed Content for the FixMyLinux Web Site
Developed Simplified how-to's, and scripts for easier installation of Linux Packages
Designed Perl, shell scripts and XML Documents for content storage
CTitek, Inc. (ctitek.com) Clayton, MO Dec 1999 - Feb 2000
Network Administrator Part-Time (Consultant)
Supported the clients' Linux Firewalls and Windows Based Desktop machines
Maintained Linux Firewalls at remote sites
Researched replacing WindowsNT file server with a Linux Server running Samba
Washington University St. Louis, MO May - Sept 1999
Department of Electrical Engineering Summer Employment
Computer Engineer: Embedded System Engineer - NIH-Shoe Project
Improved an existing embedded system prototype and implemented this improved design with a printed circuit board (PCB) using OrCAD Schematic/Layout Software.
Embedded the Motorola 68hc12 micro-controller; coded assembly for the hc12
BECS Technology, Inc. St. Louis, MO May 1998 - Feb 1999
Full Time Software Engineer Full-Time Employment : Co-Op
Created & Design data acquisition systems with National Instruments LabVIEW, C/C++ and assembly for a proprietary research instrument
Implemented a Java application for post-processing for saved binary data

 

Technical Skills

Operating Systems
FreeBSD
Linux
Microsoft Windows 9x/NT/2K
MacOS 9 / MacOS X (Darwin)
Programming Languages
C/C++
Java
Pascal
Scheme/LISP
BASIC
Web Technologies
CSS
HTML
XHTML
JavaScript
PHP ( ASP )
XML
Scripting and Utilities
CVS
Makefiles
Perl
PHP
Shell Scripting
- bash
- Bourne (sh)
- C-Shell (csh)
Software Projects
DEMP
demp.sourceforge.net
Demple
demple.sourceforge.net
Assembly Sets
Intel x86
Motorola 68hc11/12
Multimedia
Macromedias Director
Extreme3D
Deck II
SoundEdit16
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe PageMaker
CAD Packages
OrCAD
Protel Engineering
Schematic & Layout
Mentor Graphics

Software Administration

Network & Web
Apache
DNS/BIND
FTP Servers
Netatalk
MySQL
PHP
Samba
Email Systems
exim
DARC (POP-before-SMTP)
IMAP (uw-imap)
qpopper
Sendmail
STARTTLS, SSL
Security Software
OpenSSH
OpenSSL
PortSentry
stunnel
Tripwire
Desktop Environments
KDE
GNOME
XFree86