| Name: | Nigel James Ramsay | Address: | 133 Wilton Road |
| Age: | 27 | Wilton | |
| Telephone: | 04 475 8939 | Wellington | |
| Email: | nigel.ramsay@wellies.org | ||
| Nationality: | New Zealand |
Massey University: 1993 - 1996
B.Tech (hons) in Information Engineering
Marlborough Boys' College: 1988 - 1992
University Bursary (A)
Sixth Form Certificate
School Certificate
Commercial Software Experience
Total(7), United Kingdom(2), New Zealand(5).
Java Skills
Java(6), EJB(3), JMS(1), JSP(3), Servlets(3), XML(3), JDBC(6) and Applets(3).
Databases
Oracle(4), and DB2(2).
Internet Skills
HTML(6), HTTP(5), JavaScript(4).
Operating Systems
Solaris(4), AIX(2), Linux (3), Windows (6),
and Mac OS(1).
Application Servers
BEA Weblogic(2), Macromedia JRun(2), iPlanet J2EE Server (1), Apache Tomcat.
Further Skills
UML (2; TogetherJ), C++(2), Visual Basic(1), CORBA (1; Orbix), and DCOM(1).
Loan Automation Project
The Loan Automation Project is developing an application to improve the
productivity of staff in different parts of the bank. It does this by providing
a single access point to different bank systems.
My role is to design and develop new features for this application. Also, as a Senior Analyst / Programmer, I assist in the development and mentoring of junior staff. We use the Rational Unified Process.
The diverse technologies used reflect the integrated nature of this application. Visual Basic is used on the client, and this communicates with both Weblogic and Tuxedo servers. XML is used as the communication mechanism between client and server. The Weblogic server communicates with an IBM mainframe application via an MTS gateway. The database is Oracle, and the OS is Solaris. We use JMS for asynchronous processes and scheduled offline tasks.
Tools used include Eclipse, Ant, CVS, SourceSafe, and Log4j.
The Loan Automation project is currently being rolled out to production.
My Global Markets portal
I was personally responsible for the architecture, design and development
of a portal framework which allows customers of Deutsche Bank to select
and display customised information on a personal web page. This provides
facilities similar to commonly known portals such as the My Yahoo
and My Netscape web sites.
Examples of information that is displayed in the My Global Markets include:
The users of the portal were able to select which types of information would be displayed on their personal homepage. This information would appear in boxed areas on the screen. The user could arrange these boxed areas, or Portlets as to their personal preference. The Portlets could also be minimised, maximised and detached. The user could click an "Edit" button and modify parameters specific to that Portlet. For example, they could chose which foreign exchange rates they want to see.
The development of portlets by 3rd parties was a simple process. We provided much common functionality - for example, custom JSP tag libraries, and auto-save functionality for edit pages. This was successful as we ended up having portlets developed by other divisions - from New York and London. In fact, one of the other divisions was so impressed that they decided to stop their development with Weblogic Personalisation Server and move to our custom portal framework.
The portal was based on "Model 2" JSP and Servlet technology. This ran under an iPlanet based server. We later added in support from Weblogic 6 for EJB Session Beans. The database was Oracle 8i. The operating system was Solaris. We used other technologies such as Ant, Log4j, and database connection pooling from the Apache group.
The My Global Markets portal is currently running in a production environment.
Media Tracker project for IFPI
I was responsible for the majority of the development of the Media
Tracker. An Intranet based web application for managing the detection,
enforcement and removal of illegal media on the Internet.
The application managed various external search services through a Servlet / XML interface. It provided the information required for a search to take place, and received the results. The results were passed to EJB Session and BMP Entity Beans for persistence in an Oracle Database. The system was hosted on the J2EE app server Allaire JRun.
IFPI's staff around the world could view the collected information through a web browser. The hypertext views were generated with the use of JSP Custom Tags. The data could be sorted and filtered. It would then be grouped to create various 'cases' such as investigations, escalations, etc. Java Servlets were used whenever a create, update or delete operation was required. We used a combination of the "Model 1" and "Model 2" architecture.
Other features included user management, security, email generation, "whois" queries, reverse-dns queries, HTTP redirection detections, etc. We used JavaScript based client-side validation. In short, the application managed the client's entire business process in a highly automated manner.
Other responsibilities included design of the application and database architecture, and sysadmin of Solaris and Linux boxes. Also coding of HTML, JavaScript, CSS and DTD. I performed some DBA tasks with Oracle, and CVS administration. Additionally, staff mentoring, liaison with clients and external companies.
The Media Tracker is currently in a global beta-test / rollout.
Buildingwork Directory for Causeway Technologies
The Buildingwork Directory was part of an Internet Portal that was
aimed at the construction industry. It provided a repository of information
about various companies that offered products and services to the construction
industry. I was responsible for the development of approximately half of
the system.
Users of the system would enter various search criteria, and then a list of matching companies would be displayed. The user could then click on any of the companies for view in-depth information about that company. This consisted of a significant number of screens. The user could then request the services of the company by clicking on a link.
Other features of the system included user management and security, targeted advertising, generated emails, and usage reporting.
The JSP views were implemented using a "Model 1" architecture. Java Servlets were used whenever a create, update or delete operation was required. The JSP pages were populated by helper beans. Both the helper beans and the Java Servlets communicated with EJB Session Beans. The Session Beans used BMP Entity beans to persist data to the Oracle Database. The system was hosted on the J2EE app server BEA Weblogic.
I also implemented the database feeds import from the client. The feeds were in an XML format.
My responsibilities included design of the application and database architecture, and sysadmin of Linux boxes. I was also involved in coding of HTML, JavaScript, CSS and DTD, as well as some Oracle DBA tasks, and CVS administration. Additionally duties were staff mentoring, and liaison with clients.
The Buildingwork Directory is live and in active use.
History Data Viewer for Transpower New Zealand
The History Data Viewer was a web based application used for viewing
historical customer data from a large Data Warehouse. It was ran over an
Intranet and developed for staff at a call centre.
The application used JSP pages that used Helper Beans to communicate with the Oracle Database. We also used Servlets for some specialised tasks, but most of the application logic was implemented in the Helper Beans. The Helper Beans communicated with Data Access code that was generated by Webgain Toplink. We used the "Model 1" architecture based on the JRun server.
I designed the system architecture, and implemented approximately half of the system. I installed and administered the Oracle Database and Linux Servers. I also installed and configured the JRun servers on Windows NT Server.
Other duties included coding of the HTML pages and implementation of the JavaScript and CSS. Additionally, I liased with the clients.
The History Data Viewer is currently live and in active use.
The Orca Project for New Zealand Post
The Orca Application is a Visual Basic based three-tier application
that manages the productivity of Mail Sorting Centres. The client application
runs on Windows PCs and the server / database components are hosted on
Microsoft Transaction Server on Windows NT Server boxes.
I implemented additional modules to calculate statistics about staff productivity for an existing application. The results were displayed in custom controls and graphs.
Other tasks included the installation and administration of Oracle Databases, Windows NT Servers and Linux Servers. I mentored the graduate staff, and liased with the clients.
Other projects
I was involved in a number of smaller projects for other companies.
I implemented new features for a three-tier Java / CORBA based application
that managed Risks for the Ministry of Social Policy. I also implemented
new features for an existing Visual Basic based management application
Enza New Zealand.
Java and C++ Framework Development
IBM were developing C++ and Java based upgrades to an existing Customer
Management application. The application managed many business processes
at the call centres of Telecommunications Companies.
The three-tier application was based on Windows NT, OS/2 and AIX. The database was DB2. I used Visual Age for Java and C++ in my development.
As part of a large team, I was involved in the design and development of a Java and C++ based framework. This framework provided common software features to other teams at IBM.
I also provided remote and onsite support to teams working in other cities. I acted as a mentor to new graduate staff.
Research Project
I was sponsored by IBM to perform research into new Internet Technologies.
This was the research portion of my thesis for the Master of Technology
degree that I have completed.
I designed and developed two major proof-of-concept applications. The first application investigated how Java technologies could be used to harness information in an existing database. It provided electronic commerce capabilities over the Internet using Java Applets.
The second application that I developed used CORBA to link an existing C++ based application to a Java Applet. This application made use of the existing functionality to provide new services.
Massey University
I was employed by Massey University to work on a project to control
an industrial robot over the Internet. This successful project was implemented
by combining a web server and a CGI gateway. The gateway made calls to
some C++ libraries that I wrote. These libraries controlled security, user
management, and control of the robot.
B&M Datatronics
As a technician I implemented various solutions to technical problems.
For example, designing and implementing backup strategies for their clients,
writing VBA scripts, programming EPROMS, consulting with clients, etc.
Telecom New Zealand
I was employed as a "Trainee Engineering Consultant" to work on a C++
project to monitor the performance of their network management system.
This involved generating events and timing the responses. The application
was automated.
HortResearch New Zealand
As a Programmer, I wrote portions of a Windows based application for
monitoring and containing diseases that can occur in vineyards. This successful
application was written in Borland Object Pascal.