Resume of Tom Jennings
Los Angeles CA 90039
tomj @ wps .
com
Synopsis.
My main strength is synthesis -- problem-solving across multiple discipline boundaries. These days my main focus is my art. Computers, software, and electronics since 1977; computer networking since 1984, internet since 1992, basic machine-shop skills, and when all else fails, I make art. I've run two profitable businesses (tiny, largish) and created more than a few cultural/social entities, some utterly non-technical.
Born 1955, Boston Massachusetts.
August 2003-present: Technician for the Arts Computation Engineering graduate program at the University of California, Irvine. I work for Simon Penny, Beatriz da Costa and Bill Tomlinson.
July 2002-June 2003: Under contract with Public Software Fund writing a generalized, secure software package distribution based upon RedHat Inc's up2date system. All work released under the GPL.
July 2002-2003: Under contract with Public Software Fund I am writing a generalized, secure software package distribution based upon RedHat Inc's up2date system and the peer-to-peer BitTorrent protocol. All work will be released under the GPL.
March 2003: Moved a server farm (that include country-code-level DNS servers for African continent) into a commercial telecomm POP in Seattle WA. Upgraded the peculiarly-positioned wps.com server which provides core services (mail and second-level DNS) for various not-for-profit projects as well as my website and services. Maintain state of the art security and spam filtering in multiple machines (including my home machine).
January 2003: Built neighborhood wireless 802.11 network, approximately .4 miles, intermediate relay, 300 foot altitude difference.
May 2001-October 2002: Wrote fully automated domain name registration system (Perl, CGI, Apache) soliciting domreg form data from the registrant, exhaustive cross- and error- checking and analysis of DNS data, registrar-side management interface, and automated RIPE WHOIS database record submission and management; nearing completion now (summer 02). House-building here in Los Angeles (conversion of derelict commercial building) also consumed time and resources.
April 2000-May 2001: Senior Network Operations Manager, Keen.com, Inc. I designed and followed through to completion a replacement of their network from a simple IP network feed to a netblock announced at two national ISPs and peerage at PAIX with full dynamic routing, failsafe, automatic and manual monitoring, weaning them from Global Exchange before the meltdown. Cisco and BGP4, OSPF. During this time traffic quadrupled, reliability went up, all configuration was documented, automated and placed under source control. DNS infrastructure was brought in-house with self-replicating, redundant, secure linux-based nameservers integrated with existing Microsoft servers. Multiple domain names were placed under professional management. Thorough and repeated ongoing audits were done, at least once finding flaws in outside auditors methods (sic). I built the underpinnings for their NOC, including partially automated logging, priority and delivery of security events to the proper staff, scripted the first real collection of network throughput data. Pre-existing router hardware was used, no new purchases were made (except for some interface cards and memory and leaf routers). The switchover was done without downtime.
October 1996-present: Artist; documented elsewhere. Also maintained my machine on the net, turing.wps.com and fido.wps.com (both in commercial, secure telecom POPs), other unix system accounts, and built a decent-sized website for my artwork, writing and research; built a small radiation spectroscopy lab, and other pointless ventures. Maintained my technical skills and gained a sense of perspective.
July 1996-October 1996: Best Internet Communications, Inc (245 E. Middlefield Rd, Mtn. View 94043, 415-964-2378). {Now Verio.} Vice President of Engineering. A largish ($10M) regional ISP and web provider. Research on Los Angeles ISP market, high-level network design, etc. They purchased my business, TLGNet, Inc (see below).
September 1992-July 1996: TLGnet, Inc (3004 16th St, San Francisco CA 94103). Owner; then corporate president. Grew a small shared internnet connection into a regional internet service provider, approx. 400 leased-line and Frame Relay customers, $2.0M/year. Built 24/7 Network Operation Center, technical lab, pioneered now-common internet business policies. TLG spanned at least two orders of magnitude in scale (from 56K to T3 internal backbone). I did BGP4, policy routing, RADB, Cisco 7000/7500 config, business planning, hiring, firing, etc. A tediously detailed story of TLG is here.
1992-1993: WIRED Magazine (Louis Rosetto, Jane Metcalfe) Contractor. Built their first internet, email server (www.wired.com).
1992: KOIT-AM/FM (Radio station) (400 Second St., San Francisco CA 94107; Randy Pugsley, John Buckham). Contractor. Assembled, wired and tested three on-air and production broadcast studios.
December 1991: KKIQ-FM (Radio station) (Walnut Creek CA). Contractor. Built, wired and tested four new broadcast studios (on-air, news, two production).
July 1991: Cygnus Support (814 University Ave., Palo Alto CA 94301; John Gilmore). Staff programmer. Unix/MSDOS/GNU telecommunication software ports.
March--June 1991: KKSF-FM (Radio station) (77 Maiden Lane, San Francisco; Tim Pozar). Assistant engineer (fill-in). Maintained the station's on-air and production electronics.
1990--1991: Communitree Group (1047 Sutter St., San Francisco CA 94109; Dean Gengle). Contractor. Wrote a rather large and complex windowing user interface for a medical laboratory viral testing robot prototype.
1986--1990: Self Employed (d/b/a Fido Software). Created the worldwide FidoNet bulletin board network (35,000 servers in 1995), income derived from licensing software and customizations (Canada Post, etc).
1985--1986: Apple Computer (Mariani Blvd, Cupertino CA) Macintosh OS/ROM group programmer. Features and fixes to Macintosh ROM (the "new" Mac SE and II).
1982--1985: Phoenix Software Associates (now Phoenix Technologies), 320 Norwood Park South, Norwood MA 02062, (Neil Colvin, owner). Programmer. First employee. MSDOS implementation and utilities, from 86DOS 0.86 (MSDOS precursor, 1981) through MSDOS 3.05. Designed "portable BIOS" that led to the Phoenix ROM BIOS. Ported MSDOS to IBM Displaywriter, DEC Rainbow, etc.
1982: Avco Everett Research Laboratory (Everett MA, (George Adaniya)) Staff Engineer. Designed a 24 CPU real-time multi-channel megabyte/sec data collection. 8X300 code for real-time video processor.
1981 and beyond. 1981: Microft Inc, East Falmouth, MA, (Thomas K. Campbell) Staff Engineer. CP/M, CP/M-86 consulting services. 1979--1980: CSSN, (Boston MA) Staff Engineer. Wrote tape backup system (non-streaming DC450XL). "Large" Z-80 based computer system design hardware and software, CP/M and proprietary operating systems. 1978: Solid State Technology, (Woburn MA) Programmer. 8085 system software for a far too early multi-tasking desk-top computer ("Athena 2000"). 1977: Bose Corp (100 Mountain Road, Framingham MA 01760) Engineering technician; Ericcson PBX maintenance. 1973--1976: Ocean Research Equipment, (Falmouth MA 02540) (Cliff Adams, Thomas K. Campbell) Electronic technician, programmer. Side-scan sonar, acoustic navigation, technician, lab and field. FORTRAN IV and NOVA assembly. Made in-house test equipment.