Nat Budin

142 Bridle Cross Rd.
Fitchburg, MA 01420
Mobile: (617) 538-8338
natbudin@gmail.com

Skills

• Programming Languages: Java, Python, Ruby, C, C++, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Scheme, Common Lisp
• Server Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Apache httpd, Tomcat, Mongrel, Phusion Passenger, DNS, LDAP
• Web Technologies: XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, RSS, XML, XSLT, XSL:FO, XML-RPC, SOAP
• Databases: MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, PostgreSQL
• Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows

Professional Experience

• DataSynapse, July 2007-November 2008 - Web Applications Developer:
  • Selected, deployed, configured and maintained development infrastructure technologies, including Atlassian's Jira, Confluence, and Crowd, as well as Sun's Hudson continuous integration server, for company-wide use.
  • Successfully evangelized use above software in all departments at DataSynapse.
  • Developed in-house support for POSIX-compatible OpenLDAP single sign on support in Atlassian Crowd. Submitted the code to Atlassian, which was integrated in their product in version 1.3.
  • Developed plugins for Jira, Confluence, Crowd, and Hudson, some of which have been published publicly under open-source licenses.
• PatientKeeper, 2006-2007 - Integration Engineer:
  • Designed and coded custom integration software for PatientKeeper's customers, helping them use PatientKeeper alongside their existing medical information systems.
  • Worked with customers to define requirements and specifications for PatientKeeper implementations.
  • Troubleshot integration issues on customer sites.
• Novell, 2005-2006 - Software Engineer:
  • Software Engineer in the Quality Assurance team for Novell ZENworks Linux Management, a leading remote software and desktop management solution for Linux.
  • Developed and maintained internal test automation tools, in Python, a web-based test planning application in PHP, automated test scripts in Python and Bash, and QA lab maintenance utilities in Python.
  • Performed manual and automated testing of ZENworks Linux Management and related products.
• Brandeis University ITS Department (now LTS), 2003-2005:
  Worked as a technical support consultant at the UNet student support desk from 2003-2004. Managed the desk in the 2004-2005 school year.
• Buck's Rock Camp for Performing and Creative Arts, summers of 2000-2003:
  Taught campers between the ages of eleven and sixteen how to program computers, in Perl, Python and C++, create digital 2D and 3D artwork using Gimp, Bryce, and Blender, compose electronic music using ModPlug and Impulse Tracker, and make web sites using HTML. Head of Shop in 2003.

Education

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science/Philosophy from Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, May 2005.
  Relevant coursework: Software Engineering, Independent Project in Programming Language Design, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Computer Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction

Other Experience

• Open Source Projects
  • Have written and published several open-source LARP management applications (see below for more details on LARP), including:
    • Journey, an online questionnaire application in Rails;
    • ProCon, a web-based event registration system in Rails;
    • FireEngine, the Python-based networked game engine that runs "Fire on High"; and
    • LarpML, a document preparation system using XSL:FO and XSLT.
  • AE Rails Plugins are a suite of plugins I've found it useful to extract from the above Rails projects for general use. This includes ae_users, a general RBAC and authentication system for Rails apps; ae_forms, a simple CSS-based form generator, and jipe, a replacement for the Rails in-place editing controls using Jester. The plugins can be found at http://ae-rails-plugins.googlecode.com.
  • PPlayer was a powerful music library server written in Perl, along with multiple UI and playback modules written in Python. My friend David Durschlag initially designed the system as a single monolithic application. I redesigned it with his blessing into a client/server architecture using XML-RPC for communication, and an SQLite database (rather than an in-memory hash) for backing storage. The source code can be found at http://svn.aegames.org/svn/pplayer/branches/xmlrpc.
• Live Action Roleplaying Games and related activities:
  Live Action Roleplaying Games, or LARPs, have been a major hobby of mine since 2002. For almost all that time, I have also been actively involved in writing and organizing LARP events.
  • Currently president of New England Interactive Literature, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that runs Intercon New England, the largest all-genre LARP convention in North America. I am the convention chair for Intercon I, the twelfth New England Intercon, which is scheduled for March 2009.
  • Founder of Alleged Entertainment, a LARP writing and production collective, with which I've written 10 original games, including the smash hit "10 Bad LARPs" series and "Fire on High," one of the most technologically advanced LARPs ever produced.
  • Founded the Brandeis University LARP Conspiracy, a student organization for LARP. Under my leadership, the organization started Festival of the LARPs, an annual student-run LARP convention in April. I ran the Conspiracy for three years and retired when I was elected president of New England Interactive Literature.

References available upon request.