Ches Martin

Current

Awesomeness Engineer of Superb Versatility at Rails Machine, LLC
Independent Developer and Consultant at Self-employed

Past

IT Coordinator at LexBlog, Inc.
Systems Integration and Support Engineer at Atlanta CAD Services, Inc.
Barback / Server at Front Page News

see less...

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology
Darlington School

Recommended

1 person has recommended Ches

Connections

69 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

My (Neglected) Blog

Ches Martin’s Summary

I hunger for progressive work with agile, dynamic teams in media and communications. In particular: standards-based web application development and high-end video post-production -- fields where technology and creativity come together in a fresh product and environment.

I have a well-rounded background in online and analog media, and am continually driven by a passion for learning. I have architected and maintained scalable, fault-tolerant web application clusters, integrated shared storage solutions for post facilities, given product demonstrations, trained and supported users, edited and color-corrected short films, and helped engineer a thing or two.

I'm a geek with people skills. I understand content industries and the needs of media professionals, and can help to improve the efficiency of both.

Ches Martin’s Specialties:

Development: Ruby and Rails, Python, Pylons web framework, PHP, Drupal, Javascript, Bash
Post/VFX: Final Cut Studio, just about any NLE, Color, Shake, Nuke, eyeon Fusion, After Effects, Combustion
Platforms: Linux (since 1999), Mac OS X (since 10.0), not a Windows fan

Also some experience with copy editing and industry-standard desktop publishing tools.

Ches Martin’s Experience

Awesomeness Engineer of Superb Versatility

Rails Machine, LLC

(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

September 2009 — Present (3 months)
Independent Developer and Consultant

Self-employed

(Information Technology and Services industry)

November 2007 — Present (2 years 1 month)

Engineering web applications and services, preferring dynamic languages like Python and Ruby. IT experience lends to assistance with sophisticated and scalable deployments.
IT Coordinator

LexBlog, Inc.

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

June 2007 — September 2009 (2 years 4 months)

Re-architected a load-balanced, high-availability web cluster for LexBlog's customer-facing services, and executed migration from hardware in a colocation facility to cloud infrastructure. Day-to-day administration of this cluster -- which serves over 500 weblogs for high-profile law firms across the US and internationally -- built on Apache, haproxy, and MySQL with a customized Movable Type installation, and a Google Search Appliance. Moved version control history from the company's monolithic Subversion repository to smaller, discrete git repos. Capistrano used heavily for deployment and many remote scripting and automation tasks.

Troubleshooting, bug-fixing and enhancement of Movable Type and plugins, occasional front end development fixes, and other multi-tasking associated with working in a small team. As a marketing partner for clients, LexBlog stays ahead of the curve with web technologies and clean search engine optimization, and I contributed to roadmap and strategic planning.

Contributed to the planning, development and lifecycle management of a large-scale magazine-style legal news aggregation site built with Ruby on Rails and deployed on the Amazon Web Services cloud platforms.

Implemented front end templates for customer support portal application (HelpSpot) and managed merging changes as upstream releases became available.
Systems Integration and Support Engineer

Atlanta CAD Services, Inc.

(Computer Hardware industry)

August 2005 — June 2007 (1 year 11 months)

Spec, build and integrate workstations, storage and network solutions for digital content creation and delivery. Optimization and testing of most major tools for nonlinear video editing, motion graphics, compositing and 3D animation. Hardware-accelerated systems for realtime editing, VFX and color correction, backed by high-throughput DAS and SAN RAID configurations. Implement distributed network rendering solutions for a variety of 3D and compositing applications. End-user and internal technical support. Consulting for multi-tier distributed digital signage solutions.
Barback / Server

Front Page News

(Privately Held; Restaurants industry)

2002 — 2004 (2 years )

Ches Martin’s Education

Georgia Institute of Technology

Computer Engineering 2001 — 2003
Darlington School

Diploma , Liberal Arts College Preparatory , 1997 — 2001

Activities and Societies:

Student newspaper editor-in-chief, lacrosse captain, band, scholar bowl, video yearbook, National Honor and Creative Socieites, a general overachiever

Additional Information

Ches Martin’s Websites:

My (Neglected) Blog

Ches Martin’s Interests:

learning! web application development, Python, Ruby, open source, film and video, post-production, virtualization, VoIP, color correction, video editing, compositing, motion graphics, visual FX, Shake, Nuke, Fusion, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, literature, writing, travel, drumming, philosophy