Software Engineer and Entrepreneur with 23+ years of experience spanning tools development, Linux kernel and distribution development, security design, automation, virtualization, containerization, source control, and open source contributions
Skills:
Python, sh/bash, C/C++, ARM/Xscale assembly, Java
Django, Satchmo
Git, Mercurial, Subversion, CVS, patchutils
Source control conversions, svndumptool
DevOps, Jenkins, BuildBot, Trac, MergeBot, iTest, Ansible, Atlassian suite (Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence, Bamboo)
virtualization, VMware ESXi, vCenter, vCloud, ovftool, qemu/kvm, VirtualBox, linode
Docker, minikube, Rancher Desktop, Kubernetes, Helm, Hashicorp Vault
Linux Kernel development; file-systems, network, block, and character device drivers; x86/ARM/Xscale
Linux distribution development and RPM packaging
Software security analysis and design
Reverse-engineering Java bytecode to source code
Dot Hill RAID array storage management
Columnar database (InfoBright)
data recovery, forensics
Contributor to open source projects
Mentoring and training coworkers
Code generation
Fedora, CentOS, Debian, Solaris
Javascript, CSS, html
NXT robotics, CNC, 3D printing
JTAG, embedded systems, Android
System administration, NFS, NTP, Apache
Make, Ant, Maven, Gradle
*NIX utilities
Philosophy (Or "How I Work"):
- Write code that is concise and clear.
- Select a minimal set of modular tools and languages with maximum combined scope; learn them extensively; apply them appropriately; and continually reevaluate the possibilities.
- Automate and augment as much as possible to reduce errors and speed up development.
- Use source control to its fullest to capture forward progress, improve confidence in changes, improve teamwork, and increase manageability of development.
- Watch the world around you; discern what is worth knowing; learn from others' successes and failures.
- Use Free and Open Source Software everywhere you can; know "why" when you can't, and work to change that.
- The path to performance is: fastest to implement first, then algorithmic improvements, then profiling guided improvements, then progressively lower languages with greater optimization. Tread no further down this path than you must.
- Push inherent complexity into data structures to simplify the code.
Technical Experience:
Automated development processes; implemented installation process around Helm to reduce manual steps and human error.
Implemented Helm chart for identity provider solution; created reproducible local Kubernetes development environment based on minikube and later migrated to Rancher Desktop; designed configuration and secret management scheme; implemented migration to Hashicorp Vault.
Helped maintain internal Keycloak fork, including version upgrades.
Created tools around Jira, Bamboo, Confluence, Fortify, and NexusIQ to streamline the team's work, improve consistency, and automate repetitive tasks.
Handled release processes, automated tasks done between human decision points (Jira issue creation, builds, test deployments, MOP generation, security scans).
Replaced a data transformation C++ program that was the system throughput bottleneck, with a data-driven Python implementation which improved throughput by 10x, eliminating that stage as the system bottleneck.
Developed and deployed a virtualized (VMware ESXi and vCenter) continuous integration (Jenkins) and testing (iTest) system, applying DevOps principles to a complex environment while source control transitioned from Subversion to Git.
Developed Mercurial-based promotion engine for software development; providing pull requests and automated merges.
Added configurable workflow capabilities to Trac, and gained trunk commit privileges in 2007 (over 700 commits).
Created “Advanced TicketWorkflow Plugin” to further enhance Trac's configurable workflow.
Brought source control (Subversion), bug tracking (Trac), continuous integration (BuildBot), and pull requests (MergeBot) to a chaotic development environment.
Scripted conversion of a CVS repository to Subversion with nightly updates; those scripts were the basis for the organization's later transition to Git.
Converted Subversion, CVS, and VSS repositories with full, interleaved history into a multi-project Subversion repository.
Recovered lost source code from Subversion metadata directories, recovered lost bugzilla bug tracking data from Outlook mailbox files and imported into Trac.
Contributed new source control history transformations to svndumptool.
Contributed bugfixes to Mercurial related to large files.
Linux kernel experience includes rewriting a vendor network driver for a 6x performance gain, implementing file-systems, flash block device driver, numerous character device drivers; and modifying existing drivers.
Ported the iop321 XScale sub-architecture support from Linux 2.4 to Linux 2.5, and got it merged into Russell King's tree (2.5.65-rmk1, 2.5.70-rmk1), and from there into Linus's tree (2.5.62, 2.5.64, 2.5.68, 2.5.69).
Worked on four x86-based boards and seven ARM/XScale-based boards, from initial bring-up on Linux through deployment, including an upgrade to a new generation platform.
Designed and implemented the build and packaging system for the RPM-based Linux distribution running on those boards, an ARM/XScale cross-compile of RedHat 6.x; documented build and release procedures for the SCM group.
Automated the product installation process to create reproducible installs in 1/5th the time, and in the process, identified undocumented bugfixes missing from source control (CVS).
Implemented tools and libraries for managing storage arrays.
Provided platform-level support for development team.
Implemented a virtualized (VirtualBox) environment for storage development.
Created a data-structure based cable auditing tool for complex hardware deployments, providing specific, plain English explanations of the cabling errors.
Scripted IOzone benchmarks and identified parameter-induced file-system performance problems on (up to) 32-way striped SCSI disks on a supercomputer.
Identified catastrophic security flaw in the company's flagship security product, created a new security design that passed third-party review, and evolved the implementation toward that design.
From ad hoc backups, reverse-engineered legacy security binaries (Java bytecode) to recreate lost source code.
Created tools for creating and analyzing attack trees and implemented code generation to enforce security properties.
Mentored coworkers on security principles.
Mentored others through design and architectural discussions and voluntarily requested design and code reviews across team boundaries.
Won first place in company programming competition.
Contributed to or supported open source projects including: Trac, Linux, Vim, svndumptool, and Mercurial
Launched a business using Django and Python as a solo founder.
Maintained “breakindent” patches for Vim until Bram accepted a variant into upstream.
Built and programmed a robotic floppy disk conversion system, including photographing disk labels via Android, data recovery in the presence of bad sectors and forensic analysis for deleted files.
Wrote decoder for a digital multimeter's serial output.
Links:
https://brickbuiltnameplates.com
https://trac.edgewall.org/search?q=ecarter
https://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git/log/?qt=grep&q=eli+carter
https://www.mercurial-scm.org/repo/hg/log?rev=carter
https://repos.borg.ch/svn/svndumptool/tags/svndumptool-0.6.1/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
Employment History:
| Synchronoss Technologies | Sr Deployment Architect (DevOps) | 2017 - Current |
| Entrepreneur (brickbuiltnameplates.com, software) | Solo Founder | 2009 - Current |
| Viavi Solutions | Software Engineer | 2015 - 2017 |
| Independent Contractor | Software Engineer | 2014 - 2015 |
| Tektronix Communications (via contracting firms) | Software Engineer | 2011 - 2014 |
| HEB Technologies, LLC. | Software Security Engineer | 2008 - 2011 |
| CommProve Inc. | Software Tools Engineer | 2006 - 2007 |
| Tektronix Texas / Inet Technologies | Software Engineer (Platforms) | 1999 – 2006 |
Education:
Computer Engineering, B.S. and Mathematics, B.A. from Southern Methodist University, 1999, GPA: 3.8, Magna Cum Laude, with honors in the liberal arts.
