hire me

Note:

I'm not actively looking for additional work, though I occasionally do freelance projects through Onyx Neon Consulting and happily vouch for their abilities. My day job, book writing, hobbies, and family take up the rest of my time.

What I Do:

• Professional free software contributor/author.
• Freelance writer, including technical writing.
  
• Perl Guru, including web software programming, data storage, processing, and retrieval, and backend and middleware development.
• Consulting about Perl, Linux, and other free software.
• Occasional speaking engagements about Extreme Programming, free software, and Perl.

My Skills:

Programming

• Excellent Perl skills, including Object Oriented Programming and design.
• CPAN contributor.
• Perl 5 Porter, Perl 6 hacker, and Perl Quality Assurance member, unit testing and bug fixing Perl language and core libraries.
• Volunteer guru at Perl Monks website.
• Strong experience with dynamic web sites using Linux, Apache, Perl, and MySQL, including Everything Engine and Slash as a user and a developer.
  
• Familar with Extreme Programming development method.
• Regular free software and Open Source contributor.

Computing

• High troubleshooting skills, two years paid work experience
• Several years Linux experience, as a user and administrator since 1998, including setup, configuration, and maintenance. Preferred OS. Experienced with Red Hat, Mandrake, Gentoo, and Debian distributions.
• Familiar with databases, specifically MySQL and SQL.

Writing

• Author of upcoming novel Gravitas, published by Onyx Neon Press in 2006.
• Lead author of Perl Hacks, published by O'Reilly Media in May 2006.
• Co-author of Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook, published by O'Reilly Media in 2005.
• Author of Extreme programming Pocket Guide, published by O'Reilly and Associates in July 2003.
• Co-author of Running Weblogs with Slash, published by O'Reilly and Associates in January 2002.
• O'Reilly Network author. (See also my Perl.com articles).
• Speaker at every OSCON since 2001 on Extreme Programming, Perl Testing, open source publishing, and Perl hacking.
• Principal author of The Everything Bible
• Technical book reviewer for Slashdot, focusing on programming and Open Source software.
• Freelance writer for Newsforge.
• Essayist on computer issues.

Selected Work Experience:

January 2003 - present

Senior Consultant, Onyx Neon Consulting.

September 2002 - present

Technical Editor, O'Reilly Network, covering open source development and languages.

March 2002 - September 2002

Senior software developer and XP coach.

May 2001 - December 2001

Developing, writing and editing Running Weblogs with Slash.

September 2000 - February 2001

Technical writer, programmer for EveryDevel.

• Lead author of user manual.
• Responsible for debugging some code and adding several new features.
• Primary architect of Taskball plugin and Compil-O-Cache subsystem.  (The latter is an experimental performance enhancement that compiles code stored in the database to speed up dynamic pages.)

May 2000 - February 2001

Freelance writer under contract with OSDN to provide technical book reviews and articles for Slashdot, with options to write for other OSDN sites.

Formal Education:

College

• BS Music Performance
• 4.0 CGPA, Summa Cum Laude
• Sophomore and Senior Class Representative