I'm available for consulting jobs of all sorts.
I specialize in UNIX and Internet programming, networking, security, system administration, and mail servers. I often do subcontracting work for other consulting and Web design firms.
I consider security an essential part of any project, so I design all of my systems and software to be as secure as possible. I do this by using software which is known to be secure whenever that is possible, and by making sure my own software is written carefully and designed with security in mind from the outset.
Most of my current business comes from repeat customers. That's because I work hard to make sure my clients get exactly what they need, and I'm flexible enough to do all sorts of work. I take pride in all of the work I do, and will happily provide references in general, or for any of the projects I've worked on.
If you have questions about a project you're working on, would like to see how I can help you, or would like a quote, email me at <sgifford@suspectclass.com>
Projects
Some of my projects that I'm most proud of:
- I created a Real Estate Search for the Flint Area Association of Realtors, which we later spun off into HomeSurf USA.
- As a staff member at Resource Genesee, a local nonprofit, I created a volunteer database and volunteer match software.
- As a staff member at the University of Michigan Computer Science department, I created the Whereabouts Project, a fully functional high-performance location-awareness system with privacy controls, for our computer science building.
- I was a security consultant on a project by the Southeaster Michigan Health Association (SEMHA), helping ensure that sensitive data provided by HIV patients was handled in a secure manner.
- As a staff member and later a consultant in 1999-2001, I led a team at OneMain.COM that designed and implemented a qmail-ldap based mail system that served over 600,000 customers, with a total of 2.5 million mailboxes, spread across 25 servers with over 2 terabytes of storage. The system delivered over 23 million messages (totaling 335 GB of data) a day. It supported users managing their own mailboxes via the Web, and management of the mail accounts by customer service via another Web interface. Our 600,000 customers came from 20 separate ISPs, and my team wrote software which automatically imported all of these accounts into our mail server (using an LDAP directory). When OneMain was purchased, I helped EarthLink move these 600,000 customers to their own mail servers.
- As a staff member from 1995 to 2001, I was one of about 10 people who helped create The Internet Ramp, an Internet Service Provider based in Flint, Michigan. I managed our servers, our network, and our security, and wrote software to ease system administration, to allow users to manage their own accounts, and to securely manage financial transactions for users signing up for new accounts.
Qualifications
I have over 14 years of experience in programming and UNIX administration. I've worked as an independent consultant, a subcontractor, a staff member of a small business, a staff member of a nonprofit, and a team leader in a large corporation. No matter what your organization's size or budget, I'll be able to work with you to make sure you get what you need.
I received a master's degree in Computer Science from the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan in 2003. I received a bachelor's degree, with honors, in Computer Science from the Flint campus of the University of Michigan in 1995.
Free Software
I do most of my work with Free Software, and I provide a number of original Free Software packages and patches to other people's Free Software, at my home page.
I spend a portion of my time most days answering questions on the qmail mailing list. This is partly a contribution to the qmail community, but I learn as much as I teach on the list.
