Russell F. Holt

484-686-1278

Spring 2010

I am

A software guy: creative, passionate, full of ideas. Deep web experience, key developer and architect on many successful projects for large clients. Good hard skills in current web technology. Visual, artistic, and communication skills. A generalist.

What I want is

A position as lead developer / software architect, working on a product that has a real purpose in life

I have

A burning, self-directed desire to work on next-generation technologies
Deep understanding of software, particularly OO and web architecture, programming language design, and server software
Extensive experience in fundamental web technology and design/development of web applications and servers
A creative, intuitive approach - very good at generating options and alternatives.

I'm available

Seeking full-time employment by fall 2010, available for part-time through this spring and summer.

Experience

Summary

past ten years: stay-at-home-dad for two daughters while doing some tech projects on the side, including a startup company, several web projects
1994 - 2001 worked through the internet bubble at a startup company in online banking
1990 - 1994 Purdue University (BS/CS)
1982 - 1990 hardcore programming for myself
In-depth project details on my website, http://russellholt.com/

2007-present

New Horizons Montessori School

Ongoing volunteer work daughters' school

Redesigned and implemented the website in its entirety- design, graphics work, photography, Wordpress PHP hacking, JQuery, AJAX Flickr API (and ongoing work)
Co-chair, IT committee
Leading web strategy development
Participation in new technology adoption strategy
Implementing Google Sites / docs to staff and board committees

2005 - 2007: Cuts.com

Cofounder, Cuts, Inc

Cuts allowed legal, real-time editing of protected commercial DVDs by consumers. A software DVD player in users' computers played "cuts", or simply descriptions of which part of the dvd to play and which to skip, like an automated remote control. Users could create and share cut files online. We hired a CEO, several employees and moved Cuts, Inc. to San Fransisco while I stayed in Philadelphia. Launched at DEMOFall 2006. Cuts, Inc. sold for a song after failing to raise additional capital (to rifftrax.com). All this while still a stay-at-home dad for my two young daughters.

Had the original idea
Developed the mac version
co-authored patent application
created the cut file format
solved DVD identification problem

September 2000 - 2005 / present

Stay-at-home dad
assumed lead role in daytime care and feeding of a high-need infant while mom worked, twice
responsible for diaper changing, feeding, walks, education and entertainment, etc.
maintained documentation web site, Holt-o-Rama
worked on independent software and web projects
transitioned both daughters to 5/3 preschool without any separation issues (an accomplishment, to be sure)

1994-2000 Destiny Software / Destiny WebSolutions

Summary

consultant in 1994, first employee in 1995; Destiny was 117 people at its height in 2000
designed and developed most key technologies in the product phase of the company
successfully transitioned into new roles many times as Destiny grew

1999-2000 Destiny Futurist

Paid to think big thoughts in a for-profit environment
articulated a vision through writing and meeting with project teams, backed by technology demos
developed pattern server version 2 for use by the WebCycle team as well as a tech demo foundation
spun off the pattern server's XML parser as a separate freeware project, hexml,
published a paper Pattern Languages in Practice in the Cutter IT Journal about WebCycle

1999 WebCycle team

Created a new role for myself as Destiny transformed from a product company to a pure consulting services model.
Proposed that Destiny's consulting approach, WebCycle, be conceived and organized as a 'pattern language'
transitioned into a new role as a member of the WebCycle team
Created a web application, the pattern server, to facilitate pattern access, definition and review

1997-1998 Chief Architect

Designed a distributed network architecture for Granite Foundation.
created a high level dynamic C++ library to share a complex object model between C++ and RSL2. It featured abstract composite objects, generic collections, virtual data, memory management & object recycling, typed smart pointers, object serialization, a code generator.
created a tool to transform a web application prototype (hundreds of HTML files) into a working Granite Foundation application framework.
Granite Foundation 2.1 was used to build a giant wealth management system for The Northern Trust

1996-1997 Lead Developer

Redesigned and rewrote Granite Foundation and RSL from the ground up. RSL became a fully OO application language with memory management, automatic documentation generation, better C++ integration, shared library support (much like Java); RSL and C++ code generation, application version management;
Granite Foundation 2 deployed to First USA to manage online credit card applications
Interviewed job candidates (including one hearing-impaired person) and participated in hiring decisions; known as a tough interviewer

1995-1996 Bank of America HomeBanking under AOL

Created the application server and its object-based application development language RSL which became Destiny's product Granite Foundation. It was one of the first application servers, before there was a market for them. This system powered BofA's HomeBanking from 1996 to 1999. I was 23.
Was a key technical person on a distributed team of up to 5 developers
Created an interpreted, object-based application language RSL in C++ on Sun OS using gnu g++, flex++, bison, Rogue Wave components, etc.
All the basement startup company activities: server admin, email config (sendmail), backups, upgrades, security (tripwire, skey, ..), did Destiny's web site design & maintenance, etc.

1995 first employee at Destiny

established the technical direction of Destiny.
relocated from Purdue U. to Elverson, PA (precisely in the middle of nowhere) sight unseen
developed a web server from scratch in C++ that ran Destiny's website for almost three years
designed a networked application protocol on my own to run atop HTTP called CSAP
worked from the founder's basement for 2 years in near-refugee conditions

1994 Oct-Dec

offsite consultant to Destiny (while at Purdue University)
developed CGI application in C to manage and serve a flat-file database; installed and configured NCSA web server for Destiny's client
my 1994 homepage and one of the first hypertext resumes on the web

skills

Experienced software designer / architect / abstractionist
Design and implementation of programming languages and interpreters
Server software / distributed system design and implementation
Mac/iPhoneOS: XCode/Objective-C
Python, Javascript, PHP, Objective-C, Java, C++91, C
Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, SunOS ... vim and vi derivatives, ba(sh), zsh, ksh
Python - cherrypy, django
Javascript - client (DOM, JQuery) and server (node.js), AJAX, JSON
Java (core)
LAMP: php/mysql and friends, WordPress hacking
source control: git, svn, cvs, rcs

other skills and interests

technical and creative writing
graphic and web design, digital photography, video editiong (FCP, Motion, etc)
international travel and overseas living (I lived in Jakarta, Indonesia in the 1980s)

Awards

30 Under 30 to watch in high tech, Philly Tech magazine

Publications

Living Structure and the Software Garden, presented at OOPSLA 2005
Pattern Languages in Practice: eBusiness Consulting and The Timeless Way of Building at Destiny, Cutter IT Journal, August 2000, with a sidebar by Prof. Rob Austin of Harvard [pdf]

Education

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science and Mathematics, Purdue University, 1994

References available upon request.