Robert Bertsche
Systems Administrator and Engineer
Mountain View, CA
rjmb@magicferret.net


Objective
My goal is to enjoy my life as much as possible while doing innovative things for interesting people.
Overview
Languages: Python, Perl, PHP, Java, C, SQL, COBOL, Bourne shell
Operating Systems: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, AIX, Windows, Mac OS 9
Services and Systems: Apache, Sendmail, Postfix, Subversion, CVS, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Samba, NFS, Appletalk, Courier IMAP
My experience and skills have been largely used to design 'glue' systems to connect one system to another or custom scripts for special needs, such as:
  • an Oracle database incremental backup and archival system requiring CD-R media.
  • a POP3/IMAP-before-SMTP authentication system.
  • a customized network and service monitoring system with dependancies and interactive protocol checks.
Experience

Systems Administrator
Lead Systems Administrator
March 2005 - Present
Nextrials, Inc.

Maintain and monitor network and servers in-house and at co-location facilities. Provide necessary support and upgrades to ensure system performance and reliability. Ensure security for company-wide systems and network. Maintain system for configuration file management based on CVS. Provide and maintain data back-ups for corporate servers. Provide in-house user support for office systems. Manage service and software vendors to resolve issues.

Support Engineer
January 2003 - March 2005
Hurricane Electric

Phone support and basic maintenance of client email and web services. Remote hands and troubleshooting of basic services over the phone and in a 24/7 datacenter environment. Debug and replacement of varied server and networking hardware in a time-critical fashion.

Developed the Raisin media management system as an independant side-project under management approval.

Civil Servant
September 2002 - January 2003
Student Worker
December 1999 - September 2002
Illinois State University
Computer Infrastructure Support Services

Development of UNIX services for internal and student body use. Duties included compiling and installing various network services like innd, Apache, and Postfix, as well as developing new servers. Work included web-accessible secure LDAP-authenticated file distribution, a student webmail service based on horde.org's webmail client, and a services monitor with protocol-based checks. I co-lead a student-developed portal prototype team, helped to define UNIX security and development strategies, and was an important part of the 4-man UNIX administration team serving over 30,000 students, faculty and staff.

Unix Consultant
Medexpert International
August 2000 - October 2001

Development of a content delivery system and network based in Champaign, Illinois. Duties included security reports and strategy development, system repair and installation, network installation and troubleshooting, service development and backups. The networks of Medexpert International were a responsibility shared between myself and an on-site employee, and nearly everything regarding their UNIX servers was my responsibility up until I developed their final production system at a San Jose colocation facility.

Student Worker
Illinois State University
Instructional Technology Services
August 1999 - December 1999

Development of UNIX tools and filesharing services for lab use. Duties included maintenance of existing UNIX tools, porting of perl scripts, and samba/appletalk filesharing setup and repair.

Projects
past and present

Raisin : Raisin manages media uploads and downloads. It was designed with several goals in mind. The first goal was that the system would require no other software beyond a CGI-capable webserver and Python with the standard xml-rpc libraries. The second was that it would allow users to upload and manage with the least amount of work possible. The final goal was that it would allow the user to set limits on any media, whether that limit be a number of uses, a specific referer, an expiration date, or a white/black-list of IPs.

Matrixmaker : A matrix generator for either composition or analytical aid of twelve-tone music that outputs to an Excel worksheet for ease of copy and paste.

Education

A B.S. in Applied Computer Science from Illinois State University.

I was an invited speaker on the subject of "Coding and the Arts" at the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University, where I delivered a speech on "Nerds in the Arts: Save vs. Perspective".

Red Hat Software, Inc. - Red Hat Certified Engineer, RHCE #805299000200069
I received my certification April of 1999. (expired)

I've been administrating and operating in UNIX since the fall of 1996.
References available on request.