Rod Begbie
Geek of all trades
| Headline: | Engineer |
| Work status: | Employed Full-Time |
| Website: | http://begbie.com/ |
| Skills: | AJAX, C/C++, Django, Facebook platform, HTML / CSS, Java, Javascript, Languages and Platforms, Python, Software Engineering, SQL, Web Development |
| Location: | San Francisco, CA |
| Interested in: | Finding team mates, Meeting new people |
| Schools: | Heriot-Watt University |
FEATURED STARTUP
Slide
Slide
New online media startup headed up by the founder of PayPal, Max Levchin. Backed by Mayfield Fund, Blue Run Ventures, Khosla Ventures and the Founders Fund.
- Startup type: Company
- Status: Active
- Stage: Growth
FULL BIO
Objective
* To design and build online tools that are so innovative and invaluable, people wonder how they ever lived without them
Summary
* Clueful software engineer with over ten years of professional experience
* Hugely varied background—everything from building an n-tier healthcare system for a state government, to hacking on iPodLinux prototypes
* Absorbs information like a sponge, with a goal of pulling out the right lessons at the right time
* Seeks smart co-workers with interesting problems needing solved
* Utterly passionate about building things that real-world users will love
* LinkedIn profile containing recommendations from former co-workers: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/rod/begbie
Technical Skills
* Able to find and learn new technologies very quickly
* Fluent in: Python, Java, JavaScript, Unix shell scripting
* Little bit rusty, but still pretty knowledgeable about: C#, Visual Basic, .Net
* Know enough to be dangerous with: C, Perl, PHP
* Extensive database development experience with: Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite
* Passionate about: Django, JQuery, Twitter, XMPP/Jabber, Virtualization, OAuth
* Built and administered development and personal servers running Debian, Gentoo Linux and VMWare Server
* Built, administered, and been driven crazy by development and production servers running Windows 2003 Server
* Detailed understanding of Internet networking technologies, protocols and security issues
* Excellent presentation skills. Have given presentations on how to give effective presentations
* Keen believer in open-source development
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | Slide |
| Position: | Senior Software Engineer and Sheep Herder |
| Time period: | December 2008 - Present |
| Description: | Building a community of cute. |
| Employer: | Current TV, San Francisco CA |
| Position: | Online Software Engineer, current.com |
| Time period: | April 2008 - October 2008 |
| Description: | * Led re-architecture of existing current.com social news site from monolithic Java webapp to RESTful API
* Designed API, focussing on pragmatic application of the RESTful philosophy to the current.com problem space * Simplified existing complex and ad-hoc multi-level caching strategy into a solid standardised distributed cache, improving developer productivity and system performance * Introduced lightweight "agile" planning and project tracking to back-end team * Wrote RSS application in PHP Symfony framework to supply all current.com content as valid RSS and MediaRSS feeds |
| Employer: | Bose Corporation, Framingham, MA |
| Position: | Senior Software Engineer, Home Entertainment Applied Research |
| Time period: | December 2004 - April 2008 |
| Description: | * Designed and developed PC-based software prototypes for potential future Home Entertainment products
* Primary goal was to create experiences to sell to upper management to convince them of value of our product ideas * Focused on Internet music sources and delivering great music experiences to users throughout the home, and elsewhere * Architected and led small team building scalable RESTful web services in Python & Django, plus supporting website (containing hefty helpings of AJAX) * Lots of really cool stuff that I can't talk about, not limited to hacking on MP3 players, stringing together various groups' Java, Python, Flash, COM and DHTML code into a working prototype, and generally making cool half-baked toys * Quotes from co-workers on my last review: "Very clever with cool ideas", "Very comfortable to work with", "Very conscientious - responsive and always wants to do the right thing", "Gives ideas without making me feel stupid" |
| Employer: | Business Innovation, Inc., Woburn, MA |
| Position: | Senior Engineer |
| Time period: | February 2004 - December 2004 |
| Description: | * Developed new website and EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) process for a catalog marketing company
* Acted as lead developer on EAI track. Designed and implemented BizTalk 2004 application to submit orders from website to legacy order-processing system * Built website functionality using Microsoft Commerce Server, C# and ASP.NET * Extended EAI application to populate new Data Warehouse with data from legacy system |
| Employer: | SKG, Inc., Ashland, MA |
| Position: | Senior Java Developer |
| Time period: | April 2001 - January 2004 |
| Description: | * Working for small start-up, designing and building three-tier financial services applications for a large investment institution
* Responsible for rapid design and implementation of Java Swing front-end * Designed Java framework to allow the smoother building and deployment of future applications * Implemented data-loading process, responsible for nightly transformation of large mainframe flat-file dumps into accessible Oracle data warehouse * Led design and implementation of Jakarta Struts-based web application * Expanded web application, seamlessly exposing business logic as SOAP web-services using Apache Axis |
| Employer: | Sapient Corporation, Cambridge, MA |
| Position: | Engineer |
| Time period: | August 1998 - March 2001 |
| Description: | * Responsible for business & technical design, implementation and support on a wide array of different business problems
* Facilitated clients to fully determine the best business design for their needs * Developed security and privacy policies and requirements for large multi-tiered Internet projects * Led planning and goal determination for sub-teams * Wrote, coordinated and presented training sessions for client developers and support staff to enable them to support systems once live * Played active part in company hiring and training initiatives |
EDUCATION
| University: | Heriot-Watt University |
| Time period: | 1994 - 1998 |
| Degree: | Computer science, BSc |
INFORMATION
| Hobbies: | * Helping organize, run and present at BarCampBoston (BarCampBoston2 had almost 200 attendees, despite happening during the worst snowstorm of the winter)
* Performing, directing and watching improvisational comedy * Mildly-obsessive music geek |
Rod's Startups (1)
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Slide
New online media startup headed up by the founder of PayPal, Max Levchin. Backed by Mayfield Fund, Blue Run Ventures, Khosla Ventures and the Founders Fund.
Rod is Following (7)
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Reddit
Launched in 2005, Reddit is a social news website that displays news based on your personal preferences and what the community likes
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Playfish
Playfish is a social gaming company. They design free games for players to interact and compete on social networks such as Facebook.
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Moo
Located in London, Moo prints MiniCards from your photos which can be uploaded directly or accessed through Flickr, Bebo or one of Moos other partner sites
Rod's Contacts (1)
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Meghan Crosno
i break things.