Résumé

Abhijit Menon-Sen
abhijit@menon-sen.com
http://menon-sen.com

Overview

I work hard to write maintainable code and useful documentation.
I learn and work quickly, and I am used to finding my way around existing code.
I have excellent communication skills, and plenty of experience working with
both distributed and local teams.
I am motivated by seeing my software solve real problems for people.

Areas of specialisation

Over ten years of varied experience with C and Perl, and seven with C++,
developing software under a variety of UNIX flavours.
Over ten years using, administering, and writing code to talk to databases
(PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Informix).
Over ten years of experience with IP networking and various application protocols
(especially SMTP, IMAP, POP, and HTTP).
Nearly ten years building database-backed Web applications (with nginx, PostgreSQL, and Mojolicious now; with Apache, MySQL, and mod_perl earlier).
Over seven years of Linux and Solaris administration in production environments.

I developed a web application to automate a slow, error-prone, manual bid management process for this energy brokerage company. Clients enter bids, which are checked for errors and submitted to the exchange during trading hours without the need for manual intervention. I am responsible for maintaining the system in production, and for continuing development.

Co-founder, Oryx Mail Systems GmbH, Germany (2003–2010)

Arnt Gulbrandsen and I founded a company to write high-quality open source mail archive software. The program is named Archiveopteryx, and it stores a normalised representation of mail in a PostgreSQL database and provides access to it via IMAP, POP3, and HTTP. (See archiveopteryx.org for more.)

My work ranged from research and development to interacting with users and clients, participating in the IETF standards process, contributing to PostgreSQL development, release engineering, and other aspects of working at a developers-only open source-based startup.

Consultant, MPower Mobile Pvt. Ltd., India/USA (2007–2009)

I was in charge of release engineering and deployment, and helped to design the database and the high-availability production architecture. I was responsible for PostgreSQL in production, and was a mentor to half a dozen Python developers.

I also wrote a detailed specification for an end-to-end SMS encryption protocol for mobile apps without IP connectivity. It was based on TLS, adapted to the limitations of the transport (expensive, small, slow packets) and the client (limited computing power, restrictive environment).

Other positions

I maintain the Anti-Phishing Working Group's members site and software. (2009–2011)

I developed a Perl interface to Google's URL parser (Topsy.com, 2010); a high-availability Linux-based system for bandwidth management at ISPs (BrainRoots, 2003/2007); the RT 3.0 command-line interface, and an RT extension to maintain a customer database (Best Practical, 2002/2003); an Apache module to enforce download and login quotas (Choopa, 2002); and an anti-virus system (using Sophos) which was used by Trolltech to scan thousands of messages per day for some years (2001).

I was technical lead at MercuryTech, a startup that developed a prototype of a thematic content aggregator with email and Usenet integration and a search engine. (April 2000–April 2001)

I was technical lead at JobsAhead, where I designed and implemented the résumé matching system that was still in use when the site was acquired by Monster.com in 2004. (June 1999–March 2000)

I was one of the developers of the Lycos Investment Challenge and other stock market simulations by Emerging Markets. (December 1998–March 2000)

I developed large parts of eGurucool's initial service; an online water auction site for Irrigation Extension Services; and wrote web crawlers for other clients. (1996–1998)

Free software

I have been actively involved in free software development since 1997.

I am one of the Perl 5 core maintainers. I was heavily involved in the transition from Perforce to git (both version control systems I have used extensively) in 2008. I also wrote and/or maintain a number of CPAN modules.

I have contributed bugfixes and features to PostgreSQL (in libpq, psql, PL/Perl, etc.), and patches to many other projects (git, valgrind, Ethereal, madplay, etc.). I also wrote some Linux manpages.

menon-sen.com/src has more details (including links to my own projects on Github).

Writing

I enjoy writing, and have worked hard to become a better writer.

My Git tutorials (git-website-howto and git-central-repo-howto) are quite widely read, and I was a co-author of RFCs 5034 (POP+SASL, 2007) and 5802 (SCRAM, 2010).

In 2002, I wrote two whitepapers for firstRain Inc. on market intelligence applications. In 2001, I wrote the DNS chapter for SAMS Publishing's "Red Hat Linux 7.2 Unleashed". I have also written for PC World India magazine and perl.com.

menon-sen.com/txt has more details (including links to technical and non-technical articles).

Last updated: 2011-07-06