Karsten M. Self
Palo Alto, CA 94301		(650) 815-9730
http://linuxmafia.com/~karsten/		karsten@linuxmafia.com

Availability & Geographical Preference

I am currently seeking permanent or consulting engagements in the San Francisco Peninsula region and outlying areas: Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Alameda counties. Other Western US locations on a travel + per diem basis

Objective

Permanent or consulting engagements applying technical skills with GNU/Linux-based solutions to deliver maximum organizational value.

Skills

Computer/Programming

• Programming
  • Scripting: sh, bash, ksh, csh, Perl, Python, R, sed, awk
  • Development tools: Mercurial/hg, SVN, CVS, RCS, GNU make.
  • Web: HTML, CSS.
  • SQL: Postgresql, MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, Informix, DB2.
  • C/C++: Build/debug, troubleshooting, minor coding.
  • SAS: Base, Macro, GRAPH, STAT, SQL, FSP, SCL, ACCESS, CONNECT.
  
  
• Platforms
  • GNU/Linux: Debian, Red Hat / RHEL, Fedora Core, CentOS, Novell / Suse / SLES, Ubuntu, others.
  • UNIX: OS X, Sun/Solaris, HPUX, SVR4, BSD. FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin.
  • Virtualization: VMWare Workstation, VMWare GSX Server, Xen, User-mode Linux, qemu, Parllels.
  • Legacy: VAX/VMS & AXP OpenVMS, MVS TSO/ISPF, Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP.
  
  
• RDBMS: SQL, application and database development with Oracle, Informix, DB/2, Sybase, SQL Server, Postgresql, and MySQL.
• Networking: TCP/IP, SMTP, NNTP, DNS, BIND, DHCP, NAT, NFS, NIS, HTTP, SSH, apache, firewalls, Samba, X11.
• Hardware: SCSI, RAID, DAT, SATA, Cat5 cabling, hubs/switches, PC, Sun, HP 9000.
• Large volume data experience (400+ GB), data warehousing, OLAP.
• Document/Content: HTML, CSS, SGML, XML, DocBook, LaTeX, Wiki, TWiki.
• QA: Test case development and execution, bugtracking, Bugzilla.

Industry experience:
Agriculture, biotechnology, consumer credit, engineering, finance, healthcare, insurance, Internet, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, and software.

Healthcare: Extensive managed care, Medicare/HCFA, and standard/exceptions reporting.

Selected Accomplishments

Systems & Network Administration

• Systems and network administration for regional webhosting & design firm. Over 600 websites, 30 internal users, 17 servers.
• Administered heterogenous environments comprising Red Hat Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, HPUX, SunOS, Solaris, and other Unix.
• Administered, installed, and supported services including: exim, qmail, BIND, spamassassin, iptables, ipchains, apache, Mailman.
• Provided 2nd tier internal and external end-user support on Linux, Unix, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, and Microsoft Windows XP.

Software Development & Quality Assurance

• Developed test plans, test cases, coverage matrices, documentation, systems, and execution of QA/QC tasks.
• Opened, verified, monitored, and resolved QA/QC issues with tracking tools including Bugzilla, Trac, Jira, and others.
• Developed internal and external documentation and documentation systems. Creator of TWikIWeThey, a technology-focussed documentation site. Authored several frequently referenced GNU/Linux FAQs.
• Responsible for community development, establishing and communicating licensing policies, liaising with sales and business development teams on free software issues.
• Internal tool development and recommendation, build/buy decisions for: database, software revision control, documentation systems, and other systems.
• Provide design input on the collaborative filtering engine of a popular "technology and culture from the trenches" discussion site, including moderation and trust metric systems.

SAS Programming / Data Analysis

• Pharmaceutical: performed safety, efficacy, and quality of life reporting for stage III/IV FDA drug submissions.
• Investment services: supported database relationship marketing campaigns for leading discount brokerage firm utilizing SAS, JCL, and Unix scripting tools.
• Unsecured consumer credit: developed, ran, and evaluated a validation of third-party data cleaning on 100 million records of consumer credit account summary data, on Sun Solaris with SAS and Informix.
• Biotech devices: automated data visualization reports to evaluate behavior of biomonitoring device under development. Sun Solaris using SAS and Unix shell tools.
• Credit risk forecasting tool development, with SAS under Unix environments, utilizing credit bureau and internal data sources.
• Agricultural data collection and analysis for shelf-life study of genetically engineered "Flavr Savr" table tomato.
• Energy efficiency research: performed automated data collection and analysis, and technical writing.

Employment

PGP Corporation, March 2006 - Present.

Sr. QA Engineer for leading encryption solutions company, performing QA on server products software, including UI and functional tests involving SMTP, IMAP, POP, PKI, HTML, SSL, and other functional aspects, interfacing directly with developers. Additionally perform test case development and execution, bug reporting and validation, and documentation of tools and procedures.

XenSource, August 2005 - February 2006.

Sr. QA Engineer for the leading Open Source enterprise virtualization company, performing QA on multi-platform systems software, including building and running automated functionality, stability, and performance testing on a 40-node cluster.

Independent Consultant, San Francisco Bay Area. 9/1995 - present

Periodic consulting engagements with corporate, non-profit, educational and SOHO clients, including GNU/Linux administration and deployment, website development, SAS consulting, and on-site systems support.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley, March 2004 - December 2004.

Technology director for youth & teen programs. Oversee both programmatic and technical aspects of running a safe, educational, and kid-friendly network for over 200 users. Legacy clients on a GNU/Linux back-end utilizing Apache, Samba, Squid, Dansguardian, and other technologies.

Quality Planning Corporation, January 2003 - July 2003.

Database design, process clarification, standardization, and capabilities enhancement of insurance policy data quality improvement system utilizing multiple third-party data sources resulting in insurer revenue recovery for San Francisco client.

Sr. Systems Engineer, Freerun Technologies, Inc., January, 2002 - November, 2002.

Provided systems administration, systems support, internal and external end-user support for regional webhosting & design firm. Over 600 websites, 30 internal users, 17 servers. Red Hat Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, qmail, bind, apache, perl, Java, HTML, bash, shell scripting.

Director of Evangelism, Zelerate, Inc. (formerly OpenSales, Inc.), San Mateo, CA, 11/1999 - 1/2001

Served several business and technical roles in a rapidly evolving e-commerce software Internet startup environment, encompassing technical, business, and legal tasks.

Statistical Programmer, Trilogy Consulting, San Mateo, CA, 8/1997 - 11/1999

Providing systems solutions to clients utilizing SAS, Unix, and PC tools, in pharmaceutical, investment services, unsecured consumer credit, and biomedical devices sectors. Clients: Roche Pharmeceutical, Visa International, Charles Schwab, Vital Insight.

Analytic Programmer, PM Squared, Inc., 3/1996 - 8/1997

Technical SAS lead for managed healthcare consulting firm.

Sr. Analyst, HealthCare COMPARE Corp., West Sacramento, CA. 12/1994 - 8/1995 (now Coventry Health Care, Inc.)

Developed reporting and analytic solutions for internal and external clients using SAS in a VAX/VMS, AXP, and MS Windows environment.

Healthcare Analyst, HealthCare COMPARE Corp., West Sacramento, CA. 4/1993 - 12/1994

Consultant, Calgene Fresh, Davis, California. 2/1993 - 4/1993 (now Monsanto).

Intern, Davis Energy Group, Davis, California. 6/1991 - 9/1992.

Intern, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Sacramento, California. 6/1990 - 6/1991.

Publications & Presentations

• "CIDR House-Rules: Use of BGP router data to identify and address sources of Internet abuse". Presented at MAAWG 6th General Meeting, San Fancisco, CA, February, 2006
  
• "Open Source Software Licenses" Intel Developer's Conference, Presented in Santa Clara, CA, September, 2000
  
• "Open Source Business Licenses -- Choosing the Right One for Your Project" O'Reilly Open Source Conference, Presented in Monterey, CA, July, 2000
  http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/e_sess/786
  
• "T. Bollinger, R. Nelson, K. M. Self, and S. J. Turnbull, "Open- Source Methods: Peering Through the Clutter,", IEEE Software, Vol. July/August, no. 4, 1999, pp8-11.
  
• "Data Know Thyself: VV - a macro to tell you Evverything You Need to Know About Data Set Characteristics" Western Users of SAS Software, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Regional Conference, p 14, (c) 1996. Presented in San Francisco, CA, September, 1996.
  
• "UNIX Large file Processing Secrets", SAS Institute, Inc., Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual SAS(r) Users Group International Conference, p1468 (c) 1997. Presented in San Diego, CA, March, 1997.

Education

BS University of California Davis, Agricultural and Managerial Economics.

Interests

• Creator & Editor, TWikIWeThey collaborative documentation site oriented to free software technologies & issues.
• Member of SVLUG, Silicon Valley Linux User's Group; LUGoD, Linux User's Group of Davis; and BASAS, Bay Area SAS User's Group.
• Active on debian-user (Debian support) and SAS-L email lists.
• Backpacker, cyclist, competitive swimmer, world traveller.
• Classical, jazz, and blues.
• Conversational German.
• US Citizenship

This document available in text, HTML, MS Word, Postscript and PDF formats, as well as specifically targeted versions on request.

Last updated: 2006/10/04 22:14:05