Ray Slakinski

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Ray Slakinski

Experienced web architect with focus on scaling and SEO
Computer Software | Toronto, Canada Area, CA

Summary

I am a highly motivated and experienced mid-to-backend web developer who loves to solve scaling issues, exploring new ideas and build them to excellence. I have many years of experience in software development from desktop applications to large scale web applications. My passion and goals always revolve around learning new technology and building cutting edge products around them.
Specialties: Web technologies, scaling strategies, seo

Experience

  • 2010 - Present

    Sr. Developer / Hii Def Inc.

  • Dec 2006 - Feb 2010

    Lead Developer / Architect / Mahalo.com

    Mahalo is a human-powered search engine and a knowledge sharing service, helping people on the Internet quickly find the best possible information on any topic. Members of the public can also earn money by contributing to Mahalo topic pages or by answering questions on the Mahalo Answers system.

    * Founding employee, lead developer and architect
    * Scaled website from 0 to over 17M unique visitors
    * Migrated portions of the Mahalo dataset from MySQL to a Cassandra cluster
    * Implemented a task queue system to offload work from our webservers
    * Worked closely with both development and network operations teams
    * Evaluated and made recommendations to enhance Mahalo's SEO
    * Developed a short url system that also tracked click-throughs
    * Devised and acted on a plan to move Mahalo from Mediawiki to a custom solution
    * Developed and documented APIs for third party developers to use Mahalo’s data
    * Created and used tools to handle scale deployments
  • Mar 2006 - Dec 2009

    Co-Creator & Lead Engineer / PopCurrent.com

    * Co-created and developed a website for voting on popular media
    * Architected the site from the ground up
    * Designed and created features using Ruby on Rails web framework
  • Sept 2004 - Aug 2007

    CTO / Thunderstone Media

    Thunderstone Media is best known for developing the first true podcasting application: iPodderX now known as Transistr which I co-wrote with Thunderstone Media CEO August Trometer.

    * Co-created and developed iPodderX, the first desktop podcasting application
    * Appeared on Rogers G4techTV Canada’s “Call For Help with Leo Laporte” and “Tech Books” as an expert on podcasting
    * Built and maintained the cross platform application engine using Python
    * Worked with 3rd party companies on licensing deals
  • Dec 2000 - Jan 2007

    Developer - Internal Tools / Genesys Conferencing

    * Created automation testing tools using Ruby and Python
    * Developed tools to control a number of desktops to perform quality assurance tests
    * Wrote Windows installation packages for software using InstallShield
    * Maintained source repository using Borland Software’s StarTeam
    * Maintained a wiki and forum software to foster better communication in the development team
  • Jan 1996 - Dec 2000

    Software Support / Symantec

    * Was technical lead for software support of: Winfax, The URLabs product line, and Procomm
    * Developed online tutorials using Macromedia Director
    * Became technical advisor for this group
  • Dec 1993 - 1996

    Gold Disk/Astound Inc / Software Support / QA

    * Software support for a large number of Windows & Macintosh software
    * Performed Quality Assurance duties
    * Developed a number of in-house tools to automate various tasks

Education

  • 1997 - 1998

    Sheridan College

Additional information

Honors:
The software iPodderX/Transistr - that I co-wrote - has received a number of glowing reviews.
Interests:
podcasting, syndication technologies (rss/atom), python, scaling, nosql database technologies, wikis, & other great new technology

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