Steven Brown

Primary Programming Languages:
PHP, JavaScript

Secondary Programming Languages:
Java, Actionscript, Lingo, Perl, Pascal

Framework Experience:
Symfony (1.x and 2.x), Zend Framework, CodeIgniter, jQuery, Prototype, Script.aculo.us

Other Technology:
Android, iOS, Memcache, XCache, Red5, Flex, Flash, Director, Rsync, Subversion, Git, Amazon S3, Google Maps, Lucene, Xapian, FFmpeg, FLVTool, Mencoder, MPlayer, PHPUnit, REST, PDF, GD, JSON, AJAX, ReCAPTCHA, CSS, 960gs

Experience:

Co-author of Zend Framework in Action

Boku

Unable to disclose the details of the project at this time.

Technology
Symfony 2, REST, PHPUnit, jQuery, 960gs

Sportsbet

Brought in to help improve the performance of the site to successfully deal with their annual one-day traffic spike.

Notable Features

• Made changes to Symfony 1.x core to improve performance
• Worked with DBA team to optimise database queries
• Implemented custom CSRF protection
• Discovered and resolved security flaws
• Assisted in adjusting load testing scenarios to accurately simulate load spikes
• Assisted in diagnosis and recommending solutions for performance issues
• Implemented new website design including JavaScript promotional banner rotation

Technology
Symfony 1.x, Memcache, Apache Bench, XDebug, MSSQL, Prototype, Scriptaculous

Juniper Networks Learning Management System

Originally written in a customised version of CodeIgniter, the entire site was converted to Zend Framework in a couple of weeks.

Notable Features

• Course content able to be uploaded and managed via the admin area
• Integration with a remote authentication system
• Almost all content is provided in English, Japanese and Chinese

Technology
LAMP, Zend Framework, PHPUnit, jQuery, CodeIgniter

10,000 Steps

The 10,000 Steps website provides information and facilities to people seeking a more active lifestyle. Users are able to record steps from their pedometer and monitor their progress within the site. They can combine into teams to participate in online challenges. The site is used by several large companies and over 100,000 members. The site is completely administered by non-technical staff.
This site was recently overhauled from a custom framework to Zend Framework. Along the way unit testing was introduced.

Notable Features

• Thoroughly unit tested.
• Workplaces can run their own challenges for their staff, users combine into teams and compete.
• Several performance tweaks were required to reduce the server load as the site grew from 10,000 members to 100,000 and above.
• User statistics are presented in graphical form.

Technology
LAMP, Zend Framework, PHPUnit, jQuery, Open Flash Chart

SNaPS Social Networking System

Designed and built specifically for the adult entertainment industry, the SNaPS system was built from the ground up using PHP and Zend Framework. The social networking essentials are there, including photo and video uploads, friend networking, mail and profile modification. The unique twist is that all of the sites have different angles, some are article based, some have special rating systems and some need to integrate with other adult sites and payment systems, yet all share the same code base and core design elements.

Notable Features

• A single code base to serve several sites
• Integration with other sites and their associated payment and affiliate tracking systems
• Facilities to import photos, videos and articles from several sources, including remote services, databases and XML files
• Heavy focus on performance optimisation to deal with large traffic numbers, caching, query optimisation and denormalisation enable all servers to handle large spikes in traffic, they spend most of their time at 1% utilisation
• There are a large number of servers that need to work with each other, currently there are 4 front (Apache/PHP/Memcache) servers, 1 content server, 1 database server, 1 transcoding server and a cluster of video streaming servers serving all of the sites
• Static content is served through a CDN to improve performance and reduce load on the Apache servers
• A self-upgrading system was designed to allow sites to automatically upgrade themselves without causing any site down time, this includes the ability to add/modify database structures
• Every option and piece of data is available for administrators to modify giving them total freedom
• Utilises the Google Maps API to gather latitude and longitude data to provide distance searching
• Thoroughly unit tested
• First site was constructed and launched in 3 months
• AJAX user interaction including friends lists, comments, ratings, and other features
• Created custom solution to transcode and watermark user uploaded videos into Flash videos for streaming, also created a system to stitch multiple short videos into a single long video
• Implementation of various Red5 and Flash Media Server systems, both custom and third party, for video streaming and Flash based text and web cam chat
• One of the sites currently handles 225,000 unique visitors per month with over 3,000,000 page views.

Technology
LAMP, Zend Framework, PHPUnit, Memcache, XCache, Prototype, Scriptaculous, Javascript, CSS, Red5, Flash Media Server, MEncoder, FFmpeg, Flex, Flash, ActionScript, Java, On2 VP6 , ReCAPTCHA

Skuff TV

The Skuff TV website delivers video and audio content arranged by category and grouped by channel. Visitors are able to maintain a playlist of media for viewing/listening. The content and administration is handled completely by non-technical staff.

Notable Features

• Built a video encoding system that would retrieve files and convert them into multiple bandwidth versions and upload them directly into the site.
• Constructed a storage server capable of more than 7TB for a fraction of the cost of name brand solutions.
• Heavy AJAX development allows viewing of videos while navigating the site.
• Media is able to be arranged into a playlist to be played in sequence.
• A significant number of performance improvements have reduced the need to upgrade servers and as a result costs have been kept down.
• Worked with the Adwords account to create a significant amount of traffic.

Technology
LAMP, Zend Framework, Prototype, Scriptaculous, Flash/Actionscript, MEncoder, FFmpeg, On2 VP6, Javascript, CSS

Health Dx

The Health Dx software allows health professionals to communicate patient details quickly and securely regardless of their location.

Notable Features

• Designed and engineered the security system that allows secure communication.
• Combined client and server technology to facilitate communication.

Technology
Java, LAMP, RSA/TripleDES/MD5/SHA1, XML