Alejandro Rivera

I started playing with Java when I was 17. During college, Java was the language of choice for most programming classes. I loved learning about the different frameworks, integrating with libraries, discovering ways of making Java less verbose and obviously all Java-related things. I've been coding Java professionally for the past 5 years. Spring is what I've been using the most (MVC, Data, Security, AOP, etc.). Most of my work has bee using Java 6 and Java 7. I'm familiarized with Java EE and some of most of the important JSRs (REST, Validation, etc.). I know many handy libraries to make things easier. I don't like designing things that scream "enterprise" (like FizzBuzz Enterprise Edition), but I do like following best OOD practices (SOLID) and well understood Web standards. I can get my hands dirty with Java profilers to understand performance issues, but I'm NOT an expert in JVM tweaking though.

My experience dealing with Mongo has been mostly creating complicated queries, using Mongo directly through MongoDriver or through some ORM like SpringData or Morphia. I've had experience managing/designing complex collections and document models, including indexes and stuff. I know the quirks about BSON and I know what kind of things can get you in trouble when designing your documents that will become a PITA in the future when you try to query. I don't have much experience doing db/sysadmin kind of work with Mongo. Setting up replicas, scheduling backups, etc. is not something I've had to deal with so far.

I can't claim to know the in and outs of Git, but I'm well versed into it from using it myself and having gotten into many nasty situations. I can easily recognize what's been done wrong and what needs to happen to fix issues with merges, "lost" commits, git hooks, multiple remotes, branching strategies, even Git-SVN.

I've started using MySQL since I was 17. It's been a while since I had to do anything interesting with this DB, but I have vast experience designing schemas, writing complicated SQL queries, using views, stored procedures, indexes, sharding, a couple db engines, etc. I don't have much experience as a db admin though so tweaking MySQL to (replication, multi-master setup, memory, etc.)

Ruby on Rails is definitely NOT my strongest suit. I understand Ruby pretty well, I've coded on Rails while working at Zynga. I know the idiosyncrasies of the language, but what I lack is more exposure to the ecosystem. I don't know the many different gems as well as I would like to. I can't recommend solutions that won't present issues later in terms of integration with the framework or other gems. I can help figure out where issues are coming from by performing debugging.

SQL is something I learned early on (15 y.o.) when playing with MS Access. I found it very powerful and fascinating so I went to play with more heavy-duty SQL servers. MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL. (Oracle is my least favorite :P) I can help build complex queries, explain long queries, design or help with schemas, etc. I can explain the different types of joins, how aggregation works, etc.

Started working with PHP when I was in college. I found it very practical and easy to learn. Then I worked on it professionally for 2 years and I started disliking the language a bit. I haven't touched PHP in maybe 4 years now, but I still have a good understanding of it. I also much prefer the Object Oriented features of PHP than using it as a big script. Learned a lot from working with and reading the code from Magento, Zend Framework, etc.

I'm not a front-end engineer, but I worked with HTML/CSS/JS since I was 15 years old. I have a good understanding of the DOM model and best practices for optimizing pages for browsers. I don't have much exposure to many new HTML5 elements/practices, but I can definitely build a website from scratch with or without the help of 3rd party utilities.

I started coding in JS around 1998, back when the term DHTML was still popular. Since back then there was no JQuery, I learned to do everything the long way. I'm not even sure back then JS supported Prototype-based programming. I've continued to use JS for simple stuff and have played with a few libraries/frameworks like MooTools, Prototype, JQuery, etc. I'm able to detect and fix issues related to JavaScript. Create simple to moderate behavior and I can navigate my way around JQuery plugins easily. Since my day-to-day job is mostly back-end, I don't consider myself an expert in the quirks about JS.

I have experience creating "simple" auto-scaling AWS systems, selecting images, connecting intances, configuring Load Balancers, simple security, installing required software, EC2, S3, Elastic Beanstalk, etc.

I have experience installing and configuring WordPress installations. I can also help customize little things in a Theme. I have played with many plugins. I can also help debug PHP errors. I've never developed a plugin by myself but I would be able to do it simply because of my experience with PHP, HTML, CSS, JS, etc.

I have experience setting up and managing personal servers for different purposes. I'm most comfortable with Linux distros (Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS, OpenSUSE, etc.) but I can work with Windows Servers as well. I have experience setting up and tweaking Continuous Integration workflows as well.

My Android experience is derived from developing an app to scratch my own itch. This app is somewhat sophisticated since it requires video playback to be synchronized with images (slides). This app turned out to be so good that I'm in the process of selling it to the company who caused my itch to happen in the first place :) In short, I have experience with a) App/Activity lifecycle (avoid leaks, async tasks) b) Analytics integrations (Google Analytics, Mixpanel) c) Ads (AdMob, InMobi) d) A few Android libraries