Bryan Stearns

Software Architect at Paydici Corporation

Portland, Oregon Area

Current
  • Software Architect at Paydici
  • Software Architect (Contract) at Public Library of Science
  • Principal at The Thomas Eliot Company (Sole Proprietorship)
Past
  • Senior Software Engineer at Excite@Home
  • Senior Engineer, Newton Division Tools Group at Apple Computer
  • Senior Engineer, Macintosh System Software Group at Apple Computer
  • Senior Engineer, Macintosh Developer Technical Support at Apple Computer
  • Software Engineer at Forethought, Inc
  • Software Engineer at Advanced Logic Systems
  • Engineer, Macintosh Development Team at Apple Computer
  • Engineer, Personal Computer Systems Division Developer Support at Apple Computer
  • Employee at The Computer Store

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Recommended
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Connections
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Industry
Computer Software
Websites

Bryan Stearns’s Summary

I'm a seasoned software developer with experience in a broad range of languages and technologies. I'm always looking to exercise these skills and learn more.

An ideal position would allow me to continue to grow my Ruby on Rails development skills as a key contributor to a small team: I've been successful in the past at architecture and operations in this environment. I also want to continue to telecommute from my home in Portland, OR: I've found telecommuting to be a big boost to my productivity as well.

Bryan Stearns’s Specialties:

Web and desktop application development, web application infrastructure, database design, and effective written communication.

Bryan Stearns’s Experience

  • Software Architect

    Paydici

    (Privately Held; Internet industry)

    2009 — Present (less than a year)

  • Software Architect (Contract)

    Public Library of Science

    (Computer Software industry)

    November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

    I'm developing a backoffice system for monitoring references to their published articles, in Ruby on Rails; their frontend servers will query this service via its RESTful API to include statistics on article pages. Uses Starling & Workling for lazy offline updating.

  • Principal

    The Thomas Eliot Company (Sole Proprietorship)

    (Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Computer Software industry)

    1996 — Present (13 years )

    As an independent consultant, I've completed projects for a variety of clients, including:
    - user-interface components of a DVD authoring system, using MacApp in C++ on Macintosh, for Daikin-Comtec USA;
    - a tool for managing hosted "chat" sessions, for Apple Computer;
    - Apple University courseware and example code, for training software developers on new OS features, also for Apple Computer;
    - Development tools for Microsoft (prior to my employment there).

    I still take on occasional projects as time and interest allow.

  • Software Architect (Contract)

    OsoEco

    (Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)

    June 2008 — March 2009 (10 months)

    I'm helping this web startup with Ruby on Rails web application development and infrastructure, including managing deployment and performance. I've encouraged their transition to better testing methodologies, including testing use of RSpec.

  • Software Engineer

    Open Source Applications Foundation

    (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

    2004 — 2008 (4 years )

    I implemented the detail and dashboard views of Chandler, an open-source personal-information management application, and created the internal mechanisms supporting triage and alarms. Most of the work has been in Python, with heavy use of the wxWidgets toolkit, on Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

  • Senior Software Engineer

    Microsoft

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

    2002 — 2004 (2 years )

    I increased developer productivity for projects in the MSTV Division, by improving build processes and improving information sharing. I designed and implemented an internal website used by more than 20 internal development teams across several Microsoft divisions; the site collects and hosts project-related static and dynamic content, from “getting started” documentation to the latest automated build results. I also designed build-system architectural changes for componentization, to add flexibility and modularity to our development processes and to allow component sharing between projects. Work done in C#, C++, XML/XSL, and several scripting languages, using ASP and .NET architectures as well as SQL Server.

  • Senior Software Engineer

    Excite@Home

    (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; ATHM; Internet industry)

    1997 — 2001 (4 years )

    I had primary responsibility for architecture and implementation of infrastructure for Classifieds2000, an online-classified-ad service company, throughout our growth from a small startup, through Excite's acquisition, to a 10-million-page-per-day component of the Excite@Home service. I designed, implemented, and managed the load-balanced redundant Oracle databases, created database middleware in multithreaded C++, and wrote monitoring and management tools in C++, perl, and SQL. I also implemented one layer of @Home's end-to-end provisioning system, a server-side Java service (on Solaris) that handled a stream of XML-format provisioning requests by updating an LDAP datastore and configuring individual cable modems via SNMP.

  • Senior Engineer, Newton Division Tools Group

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry)

    1991 — 1996 (5 years )

    I was responsible for all the development tools used for Newton ROM development (source code control, cross-compilers/assemblers/linkers, using C, C++, perl, and MPW scripting). I also designed, developed, and maintained a network-based automated build and test system using 30 Macintosh Quadra computers, allowing division-wide source-code integrations to occur multiple times per day. I also developed the Newton System Update mechanism, and built the first few system patch packages that used it.

  • Senior Engineer, Macintosh System Software Group

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry)

    1987 — 1991 (4 years )

    I developed (in C++) the System 7.0 Finder functionality for installing fonts, sounds, and custom keyboard layouts. Earlier, I developed and maintained many small parts of the Macintosh system software, from control definitions to applications, and created the original dynamic system-extension loader (INIT 31).

  • Senior Engineer, Macintosh Developer Technical Support

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry)

    1985 — 1987 (2 years )

    I wrote the first Macintosh technical notes, and assisted third-party developers with internal and user-interface design & debugging; I also represented developers' interests on several development teams, including Apple's first UNIX, A/UX; AppleTalk/AppleShare networking; and several Macintosh system products from the Macintosh Plus through the Macintosh IIx.

  • Software Engineer

    Forethought, Inc

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

    1983 — 1984 (1 year )

    I worked on development and debugging tools for the company's primary project, an application suite for the IBM PC - this was in the pre-Windows world, so we were development all levels ourselves, from the windowing toolkit up through the applications. We developed on a VAX in C; I created a remote-debugging subsystem allowing use of the VAX's source level debugger over the wire to the target PC.

    Eventually, the company ran out of money, cancelled the project, and switched to publishing others' software for the then-new Macintosh; I then developed a system for copy-protecting software on floppy disks, as well as a help system used for two of their applications.

    (Ultimately, the company did alright with another application they developed themselves, but I was gone by then: PowerPoint.)

  • Software Engineer

    Advanced Logic Systems

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

    1983 — 1983 (less than a year)

    I arrived at Advanced Logic Systems just before their downward spiral began: hired to do research and development of new products to enhance Apple systems, working directly for the company's founder. After the founder departed, I was retargeted to investigate RFI-emissions compliance for their suite of products: I hired and managed a consultant to investigate this.

  • Engineer, Macintosh Development Team

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry)

    1982 — 1983 (1 year )

    I worked on the original Macintosh BASIC, implementing the user interface as well as string-handling internals for the language. As part of this project, I helped to test the Macintosh Toolbox and OS while they were being developed. The first several million Macintosh systems have the team's signatures molded inside the case, and mine is one of them.

  • Engineer, Personal Computer Systems Division Developer Support

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry)

    1981 — 1982 (1 year )

    Developed technical notes and support tools & libraries for developers of Apple II and Apple III products, in BASIC, assembly-language, and Pascal.

  • Employee

    The Computer Store

    (Computer Software industry)

    1978 — 1980 (2 years )

Additional Information

Bryan Stearns’s Websites:

Bryan Stearns’s Interests:

dynamic languages, agile development, cinema & visual storytelling, aviation

Bryan Stearns’s Groups:

PDX.rb (Portland Ruby Group), BarCampPortland, BarCamp, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Portland Web Innovators, Northwest Film Center, Portland Art Museum

  •    Ruby on Rails
  •    Newton Alumni
  •    PDX.rb
  •    Club ex-Apple
  •    Apple Alumni
  •    Apple - Current and Former Employees
  •    543 Howard St
  •    Microsoft - Current and Former Employees
  •    PDX Technology Professionals - Portland Oregon
  •    Silicon Florist
  •    Web PDX

Bryan Stearns’s Honors:

US Patent 5,483,655 - Method for extended file access (coinventor), 1995

Lifetime Achievement Award, MacHack software development conference, Ann Arbor MI, 1994

Bryan Stearns’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • new ventures
  • expertise requests
  • getting back in touch

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