Pasquale Argenio

Philadelphia, PA

pasquale.argenio@gmail.com

 

 

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:                                                                       (Updated: 12/15/2006)

 

  • Twenty years of Information Technology experience emphasizing service and performance within the organization, interoperability of Unix, Windows and other systems, network administration and security.
  • 10 years Systems Administration experience in Unix and Windows administration, scripting, networking, client/server, web and multi-tier application deployment and configuration
  • 15 years of experience in all aspects of Design and Development.
  • Six years of experience in financial applications; 8 years transportation; 5 POS/embedded.
  • Over 10 years of experience in transaction processing environments.
  • At least 10 years of experience in a distributed, client-server, networked environments
  • Over 5 years of experience in embedded applications
  • At least 3 years experience with web/server development
  • More than 7 years experience in Configuration Management.
  • Training/teaching experience giving Unix, C and applications classes.
  • Results-driven IT executive with extensive experience supporting people and project teams, implementing and overseeing multimillion-dollar technology and projects.

 

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

 

Expertise:                     Multi-platform highly-available operations and redundancy/failover

Quality and Performance Improvement turn around and crisis management

Relationship/team building, decision making, troubleshooting, risk management

                                   

Languages:                   C/C++, Korn/Bourne/Bash and Perl scripting, SQL, PL/SQL, VBA, VB Script, Java, C#, XML, Make, awk/sed/egrep etc., Motif/X11, Assembler, …

 

Open Source:                GNU, Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP, SSH/SSL, CPAN, GMake, Gawk…

 

RDBMS:                       Oracle, SQL Server, MySql, Informix, MS-Access, ODBC, …

 

Tools:                           True/PVCS/CVS, Make/ant, Unix Shells, PVCS Tracker, MS Word/Excel

 

Windows:                      Operating systems through XP/2003 Server, .Net, VC++ 6.0,

WSH/VBS/batch, Active Directory, Dynamic DNS, …

 

Tandem:                       TACL, SCF, C/C++, spoolcom/peruse, systems through Sierra

 

Networking:                  Linksys, Perle, Cisco and Sun routing over LAN, T1 & serial, SSH/SSL administration, Samba, SAN devices, TCP/IP and utilities, DNS, DHCP, SLIP, PPP, PPPoE, …

 

Hardware:                    Sun Netra/Ultra/Sunfire/Blade; Intel-based both Linux and Windows, Stratus through Continuum, Tandem VLX though Sierra, various Mainframe, Point-of-Sale and embedded.

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

 

May 1997 to Present: Consultant in various capacities

National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)

 

Porting multiple applications to Solaris 10, includes C++/Motif desktop graphical train control software and perl-based intranet reporting system.  Intimate use and building of Apache and CPAN modules, in-depth analysis of Solaris 10 changes, development of scripts and configuration functions.

 

Modifications to replication and rollout scripts, firmware upgrades, analysis of disk and network configuration, evaluate Solaris 10 on a PC.

 

Create “playback” application in Java, Korn scripts & cron, C and CDE.

 

Created/enhanced file installation tool in perl and ftp calls capable of pushing or pulling sets of files for system setup and rollout.

 

Created scripts in Korn shell to install and configure Perl/Apache/Mysql/CPAN perl modules and other files.

 

Created backup scripts.  Created system cleanup scripts.

 

Enhanced disk replication (ghosting) scripts for system rollout.

 

Other administration and configuration management, Unix scripting, GUI and Web development support for train traffic control system and other software.  Other java code maintenance.  Automate builds using Ant.   Create installation, configuring, control and monitoring scripts for intranet system. Helped automate backup/replicate process.  Created “unification” system that encapsulates differences among all production machines in a simple ascii file.

 

Automated other build and deploy processes in Perl and Korn shell scripts with TCP/IP.  Modifications/enhancements to the GUI front-end “Track Model Animator” and editing software in C/C++ and Motif.  Working with Motif UIL files and UIL editor.  Served as Motif and C/C++ expert.  (Application displays a scalable track model of tracks, switches, signals, trains and other objects.)  Also programmed time setting program in C++ on two platforms and sets an LED Wall Clock. 

Administer and support object client/server version management (“True”) software on Unix, Windows and HP-Nonstop (formerly Tandem) systems.  Unix system administration tasks including all aspects of Unix automation through scripting, supporting users, patch levels, vendor interface, performance and some network administration.  Also set up and configured CDE (desktop) and window manager menus and resources, application resources and xinit startup of the X server and applications (turnkey).  Unified diverse Unix machines.  Taught Unix course.

 

Automated the release process, created suite of release and distribution tools in ksh and perl, restructured source file tree to eliminate duplicate code, instituted tracking policies, brought all internal and third party software under source control, created startup and turnkey scripts for the application on several platforms.  Also pitched in on development effort, debugging a time setting C++ program that runs on HP-Nonstop and Unix, debugging serial I/O to the program and the setting of a wall clock.  Debugged and configured tape backups, machine reboot and many other Unix administration tasks.  Also created many tools using Unix scripts and maintained TACL scripts to automate the installation of software and to configure maintain and operate the development, test and production systems.  Added users, configured startup scripts, built machines, installed SSH, configured Apache and other Unix Administration.

Achievements:

  • Developed CM tool suite to build and distribute the application on four platforms
  • Developed start/control/monitor/stop cradle for the application
  • Developed a unified workstation model for all desktop Unix systems
  • Located and fixed a critical GUI bug that had evaded developers for 5 years.
  • Created configuration-file-driven file transfer front-end in perl
  • Completed, enhanced and maintained 3-platform clock program and tools
  • Exercised QA regression scripts and supported 3 month 24-7 availability tests

 

 

May 15, 2006 to Present (Part-time): System Administration, Database and Control System Consultant;  Hudson-Bergen Light Rail; Jersey City, NJ

Support Tru64 Alpha-server train control system.  Created suite of scripts to automate backups, disk space monitoring, system performance monitoring and network trouble alerting.  Configure and support various real-time devices connected to the servers.  Support IT infrastructure, Spear/Oracle and Windows desktops.

Support control system, database/reporting , internal LAN and internet access in Windows and Unix environment.  Upgrading scripts in perl, batch, VBScript, Korn and Bash.  Oracle 9i support and maintenance.  Maintenance of backups, disk space and other regular maintenance using cron jobs, DNS/DHCP management, diagnosis and troubleshooting, resolve LAN issues using probes and sniffer, firewall configuration, router configuration.  Wrote several TCP/IP tools such as multi-purpose ping utility in perl.

 

Administer Oracle 9i.  Set up company sharepoint (WSS) using IIS under Windows Server 2003.  Administer other intranet sites in IIS.  Maintain admin procedures, scripts and database reporting.  Upgrade/enhance Access program that uses ODBC to Oracle database.  Using perforce version control.

Upgrade Oracle from version 8.0 to 9i, recreating all users, views, stored procedures and Crystal Reports. and maintaining data integrity with no user impact.  Administer Oracle daily operations.  Support train control system operations and maintenance and database/reporting applications.  Plan, implement and support upgrades.  Create/enhance/upgrade automated maintenance, backup and report generation scripts/applications using Oracle, Windows and Unix scripting in Perl and VBScript/Excel/Access VBA.

Other Achievements:

§       Replace old, failure-prone excel VBA reporting process that took over 5 minutes to run with a fuller-featured perl script running in 2-3 seconds.

§       Upgrade “Spear 2000” database package and Oracle through nine versions (1999 to current) with no operational disruption while modifying a half-dozen interfaces

§       Enhance Excel VBA program.  Add a toolbar to accept dates as an input.

§       Create VB/WSH script to automate train performance data correction & database import

§       Automate Unix file archiving and backup using perl/bash scripting

§       Institute Configuration Management using “Perforce” CM product

 

August 31, 2007 to August 26, 2008: Senior Developer & Consultant

Telamerica Media

Participate in all phases of design and development of agile SOA Enterprise application (core business infrastructure) using .Net 3.0/C# and WCF. Port Boost Graph Library, write C++/CLI wrapper and C# interface.  Write stored procedures for SQL Server database.  Create API and custom User Control.  Created the System Topography Service as part of core business logic.  Serve as CM/QA, writing VSS and devenv scripts to compile, deploy and startup.

 

August 6, 2007 to December 18, 2007: Data Acquisition Consultant

ActiveNetwork/SportsPower (website: sp.tv )

Extract, transform and load in Perl and MySQL, some PHP for sports statistics.  Scrape PDF, Excel and Word documents and HTML from various web sites and create SQL command files.  Wrote HTML table parser.  Wrote perl loader to process command files.  Loaded 35K multi-column game schedule rows in first 3 weeks.  Implemented web spider, news feed reader, team name fuzzy matching library and date recognition and normalizing library. Also built generic RSS reader for more than 60 RSS news sources.  Managed Linux cron host environment.  Using CVS for version control.

 

January, 2007 to March, 2007: Configuration Management Consultant

United Health Group

Build and deploy Web applications using Websphere.  Start/stop/configure/monitor multiple web sites in both test and production server farms.  Maintain/administer Unix servers and Websphere services.  Wrote Ant and WSAdmin build scripts in XML.

 

October 26, 2006 to Present: Senior Developer & Consultant

Telamerica Media

Functioning as developer to implement Confirmation Report Generator as well as Loader, Matcher and Scrubber processes in C++ and SQL Server for national Cable TV Advertising business application.  Also perl & vbscript pre-processing, lauching utilities, data analysis and testing tools and user support of the product.

 

[Other current consulting clients: Hudson-Bergen Light Rail – redesign & streamline reporting process, enhance archive scripting, support & troubleshooting in Unix and Windows environment.  Amtrak – Unix systems administration, network administration, Korn scripts, DST Java test program & DST patches.]

 

 

2002/2003: Web Development; .Net development

BidAttorney.com; Adavicity.com; Pyramid Technologies

 

Complete the design and initial development of a prototype website matching consumers and attorneys using Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP development environment.  System administration for in-house Linux server.  Complete setup and maintenance of Linux Apache server and static-IP  for hosting web sites:

 

 

September 1998 to March 2000:  Senior Technical Staff (Consultant)

Philadelphia Stock Exchange

 

Led effort for Y2K and decimal conversion of entire trading system, affecting all aspects of the software on all hardware platforms.  Responsible for maintenance to and enhancement of Exchange trading systems.  Led four-member team in migration of trading system product to Stratus Continuum module.  Developed Stratus “quote alert” software in C to notify specialists when their quote is the best.  Fixed various problems in diverse areas, especially in ticker plant.  Converted ticker plant to decimal (PL/1).  Created new tools, especially in the area of resource sharing.  Troubleshot various production problems.  Implemented price improvement based on a percentage of the quote spread, and many other enhancements.  Trained new staff members and provided technical leadership/consulting.  Supported member firms and order submission.

 

December 1993 to May 1997: Senior Programmer/Analyst

Philadelphia Stock Exchange

 

Develop enhancements to and maintain existing systems; create wholly new system components to process financial transactions.  Take part in every facet of formal development cycle including requirements gathering or troubleshooting, system analysis, design of proposed changes, coding, testing and implementation and fallback plan.  This system runs on two platforms: a fault tolerant Stratus and Solaris Sun workstations using C/Motif.  An enterprise LAN of PCs provides support functions.  This application is data intensive, with heavy data communications to and from the customers, among internal systems, and to a CICS back office.  Transactions are stored in both proprietary and Unix SQL databases.  A large number of reports are produced at the end of each business day.  The user interface is through Motif on the workstations.

 

Function in area of equities trading.  Responsible for ticker processing subsystem written in PL/1 and C, that also feeds the Options floor.  Became the lead authority on this system.  Technical lead in a four member team performing a major upgrade of the ticker system.  Eliminated some serious bugs and one severe throughput bottleneck.

 

Implemented the addition of a new market average valuation for stocks.  Displayed this on the workstations, using C++ and Motif, and used it in calculations.  Helped design and implement new trading subsystem based on this value.  Served as liaison to IBM mainframe back office processing.

 

As part of another new subsystem, designed and wrote an efficient query handler process for the Stratus in C.  Designed and implemented database modifications needed for this new querying capability.  Served as Stratus trading system expert on this project.

 

Wrote Unix scripted tools to allow sharing of testing resources among development staff.  Also, supported daily operations, assisted in bringing new customers online, supported customer tests, supported users and interacted with vendors.

 

1993: Coopers and Lybrand

Contract programmer

 

Wrote reports in C embedded Oracle SQL on Windows PCs.  Installed and configured version management software.  Assisted other developers in the use of this and other tools.  Taught C class.

 

 

1990 to 1993: Health Information Technologies

Senior Member Technical Staff

 

Develop software to process and forward insurance claims from Doctors to Insurance Companies from MC68000 point-of-sale devices to a Stratus server and on to the HMO system.  Support system development.  Lead POS development effort.  Support production and shipment of terminals and customer service department.  Work with Novell LAN Administrator to manage system resources for development.  Support testing environment.

 

Created new subsystem in embedded C to capture claims from PC billing systems onto a POS terminal.   Wrote Stratus C process to receive and process these transactions. Created customer service utilities used to support this system.  Upgraded other support systems to provide for building and shipment of these terminals.  Oversaw port of the terminal software onto upgraded hardware.  At the same time, rose to a lead position as one of three people trained for new hardware.  Provided direction to others in a twelve member team.  Wrote and configured software in C/C++ to provide the ability to automatically build all terminals with a specified version of code using PVCS.  Wrote software to upgrade terminals in the field.

 

Worked directly with all departments to support claims capture and processing.  Innovated design of new software and created coding standards document.  Installed, configured and administered PVCS, Make, PC Lint, several editors, Novell’s Btrieve database and associated and third party tools, as well as several C compilers and many other programming tools.  Taught C class.

 

1990: Franklin Electronic Publishers

Software Engineer

 

Implemented parsers to read typesetting tapes using many Unix tools such as lex, sed, grep, awk, tr (many others) and C programs.  Used trie data structures to create searchable compressed data.  Performed Unix System Administration tasks, supported PC users, wrote utilities to read tapes from HP 3000 system.

 

 

1988: Sonalysts, Inc.

Programmer

 

Developed entire display portion of radar and other sensor tracking, advance warning system.  System showed contacts against a zoomable map of the world and maintained a graphics capable history of all data.  This R&D project was well behind schedule until I joined the team -- it was delivered on time.  This system was implemented on a SunOS Sparcstation using C and Motif.

 

Maintained and upgraded text processing system on a DEC Vax.  Investigated and wrote proposal for upgrade to Unisys embedded system.  Supported Trident radio room software in assembly language.

 

 

1988: Telesciences CO Systems

Programmer

 

Began port of embedded real-time billing data collection system to new MC68000 based hardware using psos real-time kernel and C.  Supported older 6809 based system in assembly language.  Used trace emulator, ice, and other tools.  Wrote tools, such as program flow analyzer, in C on Unix platform.

 

 

1987: Unisys

QA Analyst

 

Analyze software design and development of X.25 packet layer.  Participate in all phases of waterfall model.  Create quality assurance Test Plan.  Demonstrate product to subsidiaries and users.  Wrote tools and test drivers.

 

To 1987: Unisys/Drexel University

Coop Employee/Student

 

Managed source versions and nightly build of operating software for a communications processor.  Tested the application extensively using a network of Unisys mainframes.  Maintained a “program agent” used to automate testing.

 


EDUCATION:

 

BS in Computer Science (GPA 3.5) Drexel University, 1983.

University of Pennsylvania Anthropology major (no degree), 1976-1979. 

 

HOBBIES:

 

Playing guitar chords, bicycling, amateur stand-up comic.

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

Available upon request.