Hi! I'm David, & I like computers.

I also like websites, open source, Mac, Linux, standards, accessibility, learning, teaching, typography, and a plethora of other geeky things. This is my home on the web.

What is all this nonsense?

The first thing you should know is that I'm a nerd. I play nerdy games like D&D, I do nerdy things like build websites and write computer code, and many of my friends are nerds. The second thing you should know is that nerds are actually really cool people. I should know; I am one.

This website is my personal playground, portfolio, and ball-pit. To my friends: please excuse the serious parts of the site. I have to look professional sometimes. To the professional-types: please excuse the silly parts of the site. I do have to be me, after all.

David Baumgold

web developer with a passion for open source and design

http://davidbaumgold.com — NOSPAMFORsingingwolfboy@gmail.com (remove capital letters)

Education

Brandeis University

M.A. in Computer Science
Spring 2010 to Summer 2010
Cumulative GPA — 3.76

Brandeis University

B.S. in Computer Science, B.A. in Psychology
Fall 2006 to Fall 2009
Computer Science GPA — 3.82
Cumulative GPA — 3.42

Experience

CloudLock

Software Engineer
September 2011 to present

TripAdvisor

Software Engineer, Flights Division
August 2010 to August 2011
Worked in a small, agile team to fix bugs and add new features to the TripAdvisor flight search product written in PHP and Javascript.

Computer Science Department, Brandeis University

Junior Systems Administrator (Guru)
December 2007 to April 2009, September 2009 to May 2010
Worked in a small team to manage, maintain, and upgrade a network of over 100 Mac and Linux computers. Performed routine support and assistance, and researched and implemented solutions to problems as they came up.

Vertica Systems

Performance Intern
June 2009 to August 2009
Worked in a small team to design, build, and document an automated testing harness, written in Python, for the Vertica Analytic Database. Primary designer and architect of a web- based front-end for this system, written in PHP on the server and jQuery/AJAX on the client.

Skills

  • Python
  • SQL
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • PHP
  • Lisp
  • Scheme
  • Java
  • bash
  • regex
  • LaTeX
  • Google Docs
  • Microsoft Office
  • OpenOffice.org
  • GIMP
  • Inkscape
  • Linux (RHEL 5)
  • Mac (10.4 to 10.6)
  • Windows (XP)
  • UNIX CLI

Hobbies

Music

Member of two student-run a cappella groups at Brandeis University. President of A Cappella Etc, a student organization in charge of organizing the many a cappella groups at Brandeis University. Also sung with many award-winning choirs throughout high school.

Theater

Performed in multiple theater productions throughout college and high school. Also participated in the Cappies, a high school theater critics program. Some of my theater critiques were published in local newspapers.

Projects

  • portviz, a Python script to view Macports dependency graphs.
  • Restrict Registration, a Wordpress plugin to restrict user registrations on your blog.
  • meep-meep, a database-free blogging engine written in PHP.

Websites

  • A Cappella Etc, an organizational group for the a cappella groups at Brandeis University. Designer, webmaster December 2007 to present.
  • Company B, a co-ed a cappella group at Brandeis University, with a classic hits theme. Designer, webmaster September 2007 to present.
  • Proscenium, a co-ed a cappella group at Brandeis University, with a musical theater theme. Designer, webmaster September 2007 to present.

Plans

  • I want to make a cross-platform music composition program. Something along the lines of Finale or Sibelius, but written in Python, with an interface that's fun and easy to work with. I'd also like it to be cheap or free, so that students can use it.
  • I want to participate in an open source project, because I've benefitted from open source so much, and I want to give back to that community.
  • I want to work more with Lisp, Python, and Django: I think they're useful, modern, and beautiful languages that aren't getting enough use in the world.
  • I want to learn modern, popular programming languages, such as C, C++, Perl, Ruby (and Rails), and Cocoa. I want to see what all the hype is about, and I want to be a more flexible programmer.
  • I want to learn how to better use image editing programs like GIMP and Inkscape.

Tutorials