Michael S Costello, Jr.
Email: [Send email using form at bottom]
Phone: [Send email to request phone number] 76-2985
Technical Fields of Interest:
Linux, AIX, UNIX.
Software Configuration Management tools including Mercurial Subversion, CVS,
CMVC.
Build automation tools, both high level and low level (Buildforge to
makefiles.)
Java Programming, Perl Programming, Shell Scripting.
Hardware and Software Testing.
System and Network Administration.
Network Security.
Experienced at:
Perl Programming, OO and functional varieties on win32 and Unix-like operating
systems.
Python Programming, though I am annoyed by it’s tab-delimited functional block
idiom I am capable of whipping up reasonably useful tools with it.
Javascript Programming, HTML/XHTML and CSS, I can take accreted non standards
compliant crufty error filled documents and make them validate and function
properly, and appear to even enjoy it!
Shell Scripting, primarily Bash, Korn and Bourne, DOS Batch file experience as
well.
Scripting in conjunction with Grep, tr, cut, etc al.
Java Programming, J2SDK/JRE tuning, installation, JAR packaging, SWT and Swing
gui versions of applications are within my reach. Some experience with JSP
Servlet configuration limited to Tomcat and WebSphere in a very rudimentary
manner (Set up, Test Feature, Tear Down.)
C and C++ programming, console and gui based
System Imaging, backup and recovery
Performance tuning and hardening of Unix-like operating systems
Linux distributions including build from scratch (Gentoo) and traditional binary
(Red Hat, Ubuntu, SuSe, etc.)
Hardware setup, rack assembly, KVM configuration, BIOS/System Firmware and
system software that accesses these low-level components.
Troubleshooting and performance/failure analysis of Unix and Windows device
drivers.
Network debugging and analysis using a variety of tools, some of which I can gin
up.
Work Experience:
Company:Pervasive Software
Location: Austin, TX
Dates: 02/2006 – Present
(02/2006 – 06/2006 Tek Systems Contract)
Title: Build Configuration Management Engineer
Description:
Currently fill the position of a software configuration management and build
engineer. Responsibilities include:
Administration of a number of Windows, Unix (AIX, HP, Solaris) and Linux build
machines.
Completed builds are archived and stored using an Rimage 2000i CD/DVD burning
device and on and off site storage and escrow procedures.
Service internal customers (Project Managers, Developers as well as Marketing
and Support personell) requesting changes or needing updated status of long
running builds; investigate and characterize of failure modes of each build as
necessary, determine root cause and responsible party.
Team uses various SCM and build-automation tools to assist in the overall
software build process. These tools include CVS, Eclipse, Maven, Ant, Buildforge
Telelogic (Synergy and Change) as well as various in house scripts and binary
tools.
Document build and development processes/best practices including instructions
on the replication of build machines In addition to traditional operating system
installations. Also configure document and make available virtual machines for
developers to use.
Company:IBM (CTG Contract)
Location:Austin, TX
Dates: 05/2003 - 02/2006
Title: Senior Software Engineer
Description:
Acted as a team member on an enterprise application server related software
build team. Participated in an on call duty rotation basis as well as rotating
build log analysis duties as a primary task. This involved both telecommuting
and work on site at IBM Austin.
The position involved a large amount of korn shell scripting and Perl scripting
and application development. The overall build system allowed the use of a
variety of source code configuration management technologies (primarily CMVC, CVS
and Rational Clearcase) and required familiarity with each tool as well as
knowledge of functional translation between these various SCCM systems.
After compilation physical media creation, packaging and distribution, as well
as adhering to various processes for notifying and educating individual members
and teams of developers and project management.
Documented team procedures for the team itself as well as the project management
and development organization. Was able to excercize my knowledge of web browser
DOM and JavaScript technologies to make both the build system web application
itself and the documentation systems we maintained accessible to the widest
variety of users. Everything complied with w3c standards by using the various
validation tools available.
Was responsible for general system administration duties as part of a team in
which configuring router firewalls and network performance parameters on network
switches. Often was called on to engage in duties including resets of user
passwords, system imaging and provisioning as well as failure recovery, failure
prevention and performance tuning tasks.
Multiple UNIX flavors and Posix compliant operating system versions used: AIX™,
Solaris™, HP UX™, Linux™, Microsoft™ Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, XP, .net/2003.
For each of these systems one or more compilation environments (including cross
compilation toolchains) were normally provisioned. For maximum build
reproduction and failure tolerance these software setups were exhaustively
documented.
Company: Dell Computer Corporation (Contract - Spherion from 9/2001 - 3/2002)
Location: Round Rock,TX
Dates: 09/2001 - 05/2003
Title: System Test Technician Analyst
Description:
Ran test sets designed to measure system readiness on Dell enterprise servers
(Power Edge Rack, Performance Tower, and Performance SC) in all supported
configurations.
This testing secondarily involved quick familiarization with, and configuration
of network routers and switches, analog and digital KVM hardware, high-density
rack enclosures, and various modular chassis configurations.
Used a variety of in house and proprietary network software hardware and other
tools to measure performance, troubleshoot problem areas and assess system
stability under varying conditions of network stress and using a variety of
network configurations.
Instructed peers and subordinates in a medium sized team environment.
Distributed helpful information regarding technical topics of interest to the
team, usually Linux related.
Day to day tasks while on projects tended towards running a given series of test
cases arranged in scenarios designed by the test engineers in order to detect
problems and if necessary open and follow up on issues of varying severity
levels.
Company:IBM (Contract - EMLI)
Location:Austin, TX
Dates: 8/2000 - 9/2001
Title:Software Consultant - System Test Engineer
Description:
Was a system test engineer working with the Pervasive Computing division, worked
through a major reorganization from a thin client test focus to a similar
"pervasive device" technology path.
Skills gained and excercized in this position included: AIX, Linux, QNX, CMVC,
Lotus Notes, in-house test tracking tools, various automated and manual test
suites. Wrote or rewrote existing scripts to analyse and test the entirety of
the client operating systems features. This included system firmware testing and
mass client provisioning functions. Good communications were required to maintain
proper focus in conjunction with remote members of the development team, at times
across time zones in Japan and Germany.
Evaluated various tools relating to testing various functionality of the
products the organization developed. These included Jtest, Soft Metrics, the
Mozilla HTML test buckets, as well as various other bug tracking and work metrics
systems.
Set up and configure wireless networks both ad-hoc and managed(through Cisco
wireless access point), Ethernet, Token Ring as well as niche protocols including
HPNA(Home Phoneline Network Architecture) 1 and 2 (1mb/s and 10 mb/s) and LON
Works PLC controlled networks(echelon.com) and Token Ring.
Set up and configure web servers (Apache, IBM WebSphere, Microsoft IIS, tux),
network time servers and clients (ntpd, ntpq), file sharing (nfs,smb) servers and
clients, telnet, ftp, ssh.
Set up and configured NetVista thin client (BSD, Linux flavors) server and
client machines. Virtually all devices/clients were managed using SNMP service
offerings from IBM/Tivoli Device Management Services.
Maintained own Linux server for test and development use. Maintained a build
tree link over nfs to make obtaining latest development builds painless. Set up a
server for use in WAN testing that was later moved to a remote location. Set up
pppd services on this box with assistance of other team members. Maintained user
logins for this server.
Configured and wrote test cases touching various network topologies and
operating systems in customer use to accurately replicate what would be seen by
customers in the field.
Equipment and devices tested ranged from Windows 95/NT/2000 to Linux
workstations Small Handheld devices such as Psion Netbook, Compaq Ipaq, Palm OS
handhelds (m505, Vx series, Sony Clie, et al.) and other prototype hardware.
Ensured that the software the department wrote to run on these varying platforms
worked well from a customers, end-users and network-administrators perspective.
Developed own tools when others were unavailable or ineffective to test function
in TCL/TK, Perl, C and Java. Development association was in-depth, with close
adherence to software release and test schedules as well as a healthy focus on
ISO 9001 compliance.
Company:IBM (Contract - Ciber)
Location:Austin, TX
Dates:1/1999 - 8/2000
Title:Y2K Rollout Tech - Software Tester
Description:
Two pronged assignment for IBM performing Y2K Operating System image
installations, bringing the entire internal company customer base to a centrally
managed Y2K certified level of operating sytem and application code.
Configured users systems to a satisfactory level, sometimes adding in- where
possible - services that made customers more at ease with the mandated roll out
of code to their business provided primary and secondary workstations.
Moved into an advisory and cleanup position in this assignment towards the end
of the cycle, supporting other technicians and going back to cleanup any mistakes
and/or misunderstandings both for the team and the customers we were to be
helping.
Recieved commendation from 2 of the clients, considering this was a highly
resisted rollout from most if not all of the internal customers, this was an
achievement in itself.
Made a jump to software test and development midway through this assignment
(after the beginning of 2000) to start work on thin-client testing for a
development organization elsewhere at IBM.
Had a chance to fully apply my skills in UNIX and Linux to a Net-BSD equivalent
operating system based network booting thin client platform.
Wrote a rudimentary memory monitor in Korn shell which later evolved into an
automated console based testing and analysis tool then written in Perl.
Wrote simple TCP/IP socket based apps in Java to test various functions of the
products networking stack. This involved using AWT components due to the Psion
netbook not supporting the swing Java UI components.
Operated an internally written custom Java test suite in order to test 20-50
machines at once in an automated and logged fashion.
Performed some administrative duties on the AS/400 minicomputer, involving
setting up the NetVista server software, configuring users that would be on both
the host AS/400 as well as the thin-client system.
Later in the cycle of the product participated in the test of a linux version of
the network station. The timeline for the product was quite compressed but
despite the quick development time successful. This was largely due to the teams
dilligent effort as well as the robustness of the linux operating system.
Also did a substantial amount of ISV relations work in conjunction with
marketing leads. Set up Cornerstone, Lawson Software, Oracle and various other
ISV compliance test suites in order to assist marketing in effectively selling
the product to the Banking and Financials market segment.
Assisted developers and customer relationship marketing personell in
cross-organizational projects, this work mostly involved clarifying requirements
for demo applications, presentations and planned product enhancements.
Network Computing Division at IBM later shifted roles to a different technology
path and location for the division, resulting in the loss of my position (See
next Job for details) upon the end of the contract.
Company:Various Sites (Contract - Tek Systems)
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Dates:3/1997 - 1/1999
Title:Contractor, Various Sites, Northern States Power, Cigna Healthcare,
Fortis
Description:
Various assignments detailed below:
1.While at Northern States Power was an Amdahl mainframe operator. Tasks in this
position included tape job managment, paycheck and bill printing, laminate and
microfilm printing, plotter printing and daily maintenance on large IBM mainframe
class printers. Used Hummingbird software for terminal access to the mainframes,
and reported problems relating to job processes to the Solaris and mainframe
system administrators.
2.While at Cigna Healthcare was a technician on a team tasked to do the
evaluation and tagging phase of a Y2K rollout assessment.
3.While at Fortis, setup and maintained patch panel adjustments based on client
needs, deployed user systems, ran system installs to specification (dual boot
OS2/Windows NT) on Dell desktop configurations with Madge Token Ring cards.
Company:Unisys (Contract - Adecco)
Location:Minneapolis, MN
Dates:4/1996 - 3/1997
Title:A-Series Mainframe Operator
Description:
As an A-Series Mainframe Operator, handled developer and customer calls relating
to process information and system job prioritization / adjustment requests.
Handled instantiation of scheduled and unscheduled backup and file retrieval
operations as well as system halt/load failure-recovery testing scenarios.
Maintained the official on-call list, and logged daily system events as they
occurred throughout the day.
Made calls to various on-call users to answer technical questions, and notify
them when the systems reached certain load levels or states.
Company:Z-Net
Location:Minneapolis, MN
Dates: 1/1995 - 2/1997
Title:ISP Help Desk,Programmer,Sysadmin,Web Developer
Description:
Internship that grew to a Permanent Full Time and later Part Time Position as a
Visual Basic CGI Programmer performing the logical equivalent to what JSP and
Servlets do in todays technological world.
Supported ISP user calls relating to login issues mail problems and various
software issues with their home computers.
Modernized a materials exchange program database front end for a government
funded agency in Minneapolis. Work involved the migration of data from a Paradox
database back end and a DOS dial up system to a modernized CGI front end paired
with an Access DB with the stipulation that MS-SQL or another high volume
database could be migrated to in the future. To this end all database access at
the application level was done with standard SQL query operations rather than the
slightly faster but unmigratable VB Access API.
Worked on a shopping cart CGI for a local educational toy company similar to the
materials exchange programs project. This was done with a slightly different
objective and required extensive work with the customer as well as members of the
company to perfect.
Also developed a interactive CD-Rom promotional tool with a media developer
hired by Z-Net. This tool was used to introduce a charter school's educational
methods to parents and prospective teachers.
Certification:
Red Hat Certified Technician
1/2003
Education:
Brown Institute, Minneapolis, MN
1/1996
Computer Programming Certificate Course
9 Month Course teaching the following languages/technologies:
PC/General Computing: BASIC,Visual Basic 3, Dbase(SQL Database), x86 Assembly,
C, C++.
Mainframe/Minicomputers: RPG IV and COBOL.
Awards: Received an award for superior academic performance in the Basic, Visual
Basic and DBase block.
References:
Available upon request. |
