Publication
How to Avoid the Curse of Premature Optimization
https://www.toptal.com/freelance/curse-premature-optimization
Kevin is available for hire
Hire KevinKevin Bloch
Verified Expert in Engineering
JavaScript Developer
Location
Bergerac, France
Toptal Member Since
January 31, 2017
PostgreSQL, JavaScript, Perl, and Haxe are among Kevin's specialties, but he has worked with many programming technologies since his interest began during grade school. The bulk of his career has been as a lead desktop and full-stack developer, but his favorite areas of focus are project management, back-end technologies, and game development. He works diligently alone but also loves being part of a team.
Portfolio
Toptal
HubSpot, Asana, REST APIs, Front-end, HTML5 APIs, Back-end...
Mllnnl
pgAdmin, REST APIs, PL/pgSQL, SQL, Back-end, Flyway, Docker, Bash, Amazon EC2...
In the Beginning was the Word Game
Back-end, Shotcut, Godot, Inkscape, Audacity, Blender, Linux, OS X, Windows...
Experience
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Git, Linux, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
The most amazing...
...web stack I've written generated a foreign-key-aware UI for any table, on the fly, from a PostgreSQL DB schema. The back-end audited each table automatically.
Work Experience
Senior Editor (Publications Team)
2017 - PRESENT
Toptal
- Wrote, formatted, edited, and published blog articles, anonymous guides, and other site content.
- Prepared and sent newsletters.
- Recruited and coordinated with authors.
- Brainstormed and coordinated with the design team for illustrations.
- Applied SEO research to articles.
- Helped execute social media outreach plans.
- Streamlined procedures and checklists.
- Added integration automation to the pipeline.
Technologies: HubSpot, Asana, REST APIs, Front-end, HTML5 APIs, Back-end, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Inkscape, JavaScript, Google Apps Script, Google Sheets, Salesforce Einstein, LaTeX, MathJax, Slack, Trello, kramdown, Google Docs
Senior Back-end Developer - Node.js
2017 - 2018
Mllnnl
- Maintained, extended, and scaled the back end and database.
- Managed DevOps processes.
- Did code reviews.
- Coordinated with front-end developers on back-end API changes.
- Implemented the back-end test suite.
Technologies: pgAdmin, REST APIs, PL/pgSQL, SQL, Back-end, Flyway, Docker, Bash, Amazon EC2, OpenShift, Apiary API, PostGIS, Chai, Mocha, JavaScript, ReactiveX, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Node.js
Indie Developer
2015 - 2016
In the Beginning was the Word Game
- Created two very basic Android apps.
- Built two games for Ludum Dare game jams (i.e., very rapid development).
- Designed, developed, blogged and tweeted about, directed, tested, published, and promoted a commercial video game while contributing bug and feature patches back to the open source technologies being used.
- Open-sourced my own library, FlxScrollableArea.
Technologies: Back-end, Shotcut, Godot, Inkscape, Audacity, Blender, Linux, OS X, Windows, FlashDevelop, HaxeFlixel, HaXe
Linux Server Administrator/Automation Developer
2015 - 2015
Stepping Stone GmbH
- Provisioned KVM server (Linux and Windows) for various client projects, each involving setting up servers from cloned VMs, updating the internal wiki, configuring Zabbix host monitoring, and customizing Iptables-based firewall scripts. Some projects also involved database and application back-end setup, creating simplified/prettified documentation for clients, and VM template maintenance.
- Provisioned web hosting, mail accounts, backup accounts, and ownCloud servers—set up and administered when requested by various clients.
- Helped install new RAID drives in rack servers and remove old ones.
- Automated DNS settings and firewall change for 200+ servers by writing bash scripts to extract server data from MediaWiki pages and to automate execution of DNS and firewall update scripts on every running Linux-based physical server, vServer, and KVM server.
- Optimized maintenance window notifiers and developed features—optimized and extended a Perl script using data from LDAP for exporting and for sending scheduled reminder emails.
- Helped prepare for colocation migration by taking physical inventory of rack servers and switches and updating firmware on newly purchased switches as well as provisioning a web server from ancient hardware to display a message during migration.
- Helped with physical colocation migration by uninstalling rack hardware, moving it, organizing it for most efficient reinstall, reinstalling it, and reconnecting cables.
Technologies: Back-end, LibreOffice, SSH, Templates, MediaWiki, PHP, Windows Server, Remote Desktop, OwnCloud, Iptables, Bash, Vi, Terminal, GitHub, Subversion (SVN), Spiceworks, SugarCRM, Alfresco, DNS, LDAP, GlusterFS, NFS, Ubuntu, Gentoo, CentOS, Quick EMUlator (QEMU), KVM
Project Manager and Full-stack Software Engineer
1996 - 2015
Brant Aero
- Added a number of features, including a drag-n-drop image uploader, a "pending" feature for group request submissions, a history search feature with full text indexing and fuzzy text search for stock items, Facebook-style homepage notifications, and more, to a purchase request system.
- Created a government extranet for inspectors to approve policy manual revisions.
- Enabled cache support for hangar floor parts, requiring fewer trips to the stockroom while maintaining government traceability requirements and supply-level monitoring.
- Fixed, cleaned up, and provided data recovery and performance tuning for ad-hoc databases. Generated a network attack tracker graph that automatically imports data from the router.
- Implemented several features, including a document hierarchy editor with drag-n-drop added to the CMS, a third-party issue tracker solution hosted with Docker, and cronjobs to help catch vendor errors and notify the relevant manager using an integrated permissions hierarchy.
- Made the core functionality of an intranet app robust against outages of the main third-party system.
- Ported PartTake from VB to mod_perl, including barcode and address printing (with provisions for just-in-time auto-switching printers on Windows via URL scheme and rundll32 workaround).
- Staged a build system with unit testing, minification, performance testing, and integration testing with integrated QA.
- Upgraded a backup system to cross-platform multi-server usage.
- Added a website section powered by third-party bulletin board software and created an automatic image renaming and uploading tool for personal project management.
- Built a power outage tracker graph that automatically imports data from UPS. Added authenticated inspection tracking to the alternative UI for shop order updates.
- Created a couple of backup systems, including a solution for HyperV environment and a backup, verification, and restore solution to replace the old tapes-based system.
- Designed, wrote, and maintained the PartTake software system to streamline stockroom processes while meeting strict government traceability requirements and working with the exisitng inventory system and its timeclock, tool tracking, and purchase ordering integrations. Shipped with barcode and address label printers drawing relevant data from the existing system and configured the GUI tool.
- Enabled vendor purchase email templating for the purchase request system.
- Implemented honors-system workstation sharing, allowing different logins on separate tabs without confusing credentials (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/1133999/16777 – sometimes the rather unique business environment involved required unorthodox solutions).
- Oversaw and helped with the data migration of an accounting, inventory, and shop order system from DOS to SQL/Windows.
- Prototyped a new intranet menu system called DialAKneeThing (DaKT), an open-source single-page application in minimal JavaScript/CSS for presenting basic menu hierarchies on low-end hardware.
- Redesigned a number of websites, including a website and corresponding script to automatically update local pilot weather information, and vectorized its company logo; a website and wrote/edited material for the Save the Airport local political campaign; a website to be fast-loading and able to fit on a floppy disk; a website to feature a new aircraft sales section; a website with dynamic content and search functionality; and a website with featured past projects and auto-updated weather map overlayed onto the company's precise location.
- Wrote and implemented IT policy and analyzed and made improvements to the year-end processes as well as researched, revised, and helped implement, organize, and conduct the company process audit.
- Built an NS- and IE-compatible website and corresponding Windows GUI page-text updater utility.
- Created marketing materials to sell PartTake to other users of our third-party niche industry integrated accounting system.
- Developed a custom CMS—from scratch—automatically following government regulation updates, notifying only the relevant internal parties of the relevant internal documents (and their internal dependencies) that would need review. All regulatory links were kept in consistent auto-updated format, and review and audit policies were enforced by database triggers.
- Evaluated Andromeda as a potential platform to base the rest of the intranet app on.
- Implemented the UI for a SQL backup manager. Rewrote an intranet app with commonly used SQL reports from scratch to speed it up and cover functionality gaps.
- Migrated a domain from Windows 2003 AD to Samba 4.
- Oversaw the migration of a server and workstation system from Novell Netware to Windows 2000 AD.
- Refactored shop order workflow to streamline usage, testing, and maintenance; integrated a fast menu UI library (both keyboard and touchscreen friendly).
- Built database development tools: a PostgreSQL function body searcher for global renames, a GraphViz-based foreign key map generator, and more.
- Created server health metrics via statistical process control graphs and output comparison, with email notification.
- Developed a smart-sorting table view UI so that part numbers end up being sorted as they traditionally were physically, even in more complicated number-letter-number-etc. scenarios.
- Expanded the shop order UI to cover more features than offered by the third-party system, and added project wrap-up verification tools to avoid peak activity errors.
- Integrated government-supplied aircraft registration databases for easy client info updates.
- Migrated a purchase request system from paper to email, and then later from email to database, integrated with the existing intranet app. Wrote a VB5 utility to speed up the process of scanning old documents into the new paperless system.
- Built the Dogfooded task/project management feature integrated with an intranet app.
- Created Widgetissimo, an initially jQuery-based plugin side project for UX improvement with form autosave and keyboardability focus.
- Developed an alternative UI for shop order updates for user convenience/workflow speed, including time tracker UI replacement, with RTF to HTML (and back) conversion, and HTML editor UI (cross-database).
- Integrated a timed training bulletin system with a CMS to force a re-read of updated sections at a manager-specified interval.
- Migrated a major accounting system version, including all required changes, to homegrown add-ons.
- Developed disaster recovery for SQL and filesystem data from a HyperV environment.
- Integrated a website with Blogger.com to allow a stockroom manager to update the special offers page herself.
- Researched, built, set up, and administered a new Linux server and dial-up connection sharing. Migrated the intranet app and scheduled scripts from Windows to Linux.
- Developed draggable sort-preserved multiselect for quick composition of complex selections for a purchasing request system (close emulation of Windows Explorer's behavior for easiest user learning curve).
- Integrated an avionics storage bin tracking and replacing paper system with the project management UI and vendor database.
- Mitigated potential disaster using commit hooks integrated with paper procedures to keep a plan for dealing effectively with IT service outages up to date. Wrote an intro paper telling how to access multiple automatic backups of electronic documentation.
- Researched, designed, and implemented autogenerated database views from a smart normalized database design with integrated benchmarking. The database features manager, employee, and personalized database views (where applicable) with auto-generated UI and tables that automatically link to the editing page for each row and the editing page for any referenced foreign key in the row. The editing pages saves partially filled-out forms to pre-emptively protect against data loss in the case of client, server, or connection problems.
- Developed full text search indexing for a third-party app via smart synchronization for vast speed improvements on zero budget.
- Integrated company role hierarchy with the CMS for training so that document updates trigger a notification to exactly the right employee to read changes; an automatic org chart generator is based on this data to fulfill a requirement for maintaining the policy manual.
- Integrated Selenium IDE into the QA process for most common tasks to prevent regressions.
Technologies: Apache HTTP Server, pgAdmin, REST APIs, HTML5 APIs, SQL, Back-end, Front-end, Full-stack, DocBook, Windows, Linux, XSLT, Cygwin, SSH, Rsnapshot, CentOS, Selenium, Mercurial, Subversion (SVN), pgTAP, PL/pgSQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, VBScript, Visual Basic, JavaScript, Regex, Perl, Apache, Bash
National Operations and Accounts Administrator
2011 - 2012
Global Youth Volunteer Network
- Migrated a website to a new provider and content to WordPress.
- Maintained and extended a web-based accounting system—home-grown and undocumented (PHP, MySQL).
- Migrated Core Data to CiviCRM.
Technologies: SQL, Back-end, Front-end, Full-stack, Windows, WordPress, CiviCRM, MacOS, Python, PHP, MySQL
Intern
2002 - 2002
Storeimage
- Rebuilt Windows workstations, wrote technical documentation and procedures, organized documents and spare hardware, troubleshot Windows desktop and server issues, and managed desktop virus scanner updates.
- Reorganized 200 network cables' worth of spaghetti after hours to avoid service disruption.
- Wrote a simple info service generator in PHP on my last day.
Technologies: PHP, HTML, MacOS, Linux, Windows
Experience
Willy and Mathilda's Houseboat Adventure: The Game
https://ibwwg.itch.io/mathildagameWrote all code (Haxe, plus helper scripts in CMD and Bash), processed audio and art, directed voice recordings, and tested, published, and marketed the game. Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
PartTake (Streamlined Stockroom Process)
http://codingthat.com/cv/portfolio/parttake/PartTake is a small, zero-learning-curve, yet very handy open-stockroom program for companies that use Horizon Business Concepts' TotalFBO® (versions 4, 5, or 6).
Wrote in 2004 (in VB5) and maintained it until 2014, when I ported it to be part of Brant Aero's main intranet app in Perl/HTML/JS/CSS.
Wrote in 2004 (in VB5) and maintained it until 2014, when I ported it to be part of Brant Aero's main intranet app in Perl/HTML/JS/CSS.
CheaterMind
https://github.com/IBwWG/cheatermindA MasterMind clone I developed more or less from scratch, with AI that guarantees the player is always as unlucky as possible.
(MasterMind is an old board game where you are trying to guess a code sequence. Each guess is met with partial feedback, helping the player deduce the code.)
(MasterMind is an old board game where you are trying to guess a code sequence. Each guess is met with partial feedback, helping the player deduce the code.)
Codility Silver Award for the Vanadium 2016 Challenge
https://codility.com/cert/view/cert3NYNCC-5QSWERY5K8AQU7QW/Wrote the challenge in Perl.
Very Responsive Single-page Application Prototype
https://github.com/KevinField/DaKTDialAKneeThing is a lightning-fast, exploration-based hierarchy viewer, meant to scale from personal bookmarks all the way up to a replacement for large corporate websites' nav pages/site maps.
Initial code and idea author. JavaScript/CSS.
Initial code and idea author. JavaScript/CSS.
Programmer Mentorship on an Online Freelance Agency
https://www.codementor.io/@kev#reviewsIt's been my privilege to put my decades of experience to use mentoring other programmers on this platform. I only managed to connect with a few individuals this way before shifting my focus elsewhere, but it was great to help people debug their projects.
JavaScript L-System Interpreter
http://codingthat.com/cv/portfolio/pmath370/An L-System Interpreter written in JavaScript and making use of the then-new HTML5 Canvas technology.
Sole author. Unmaintained since inception, but still works as of 2019.
Sole author. Unmaintained since inception, but still works as of 2019.
Video Game Modding Framework
An unofficial, cross-platform interface for creating and installing mods for the game Word Realms by Asymmetric Publications.
Wrote it (in Bash) and maintained it so far.
Wrote it (in Bash) and maintained it so far.
TDD Practice Projects
https://github.com/KevinField/node-js-getting-startedYoseTheGame.com TDD practice projects.
Forked basic Node.js server, then developed several mini-projects using TDD.
Forked basic Node.js server, then developed several mini-projects using TDD.
Scrollbar Library for HaxeFlixel
https://github.com/IBwWG/FlxScrollableAreaProvides traditional visual scroll bars within the HaxeFlixel engine.
I'm the sole author at this point.
I'm the sole author at this point.
ActionScript3 Bytecode Hacks
https://bitbucket.org/kevin_field/profile/repositories?language=actionscriptThree mods for the game Word Realms by Asymmetric, with whom I am not associated in any way.
(Not all of the Bytecode shown in the source is my work—it's what the patched result looks like afterwards. But the hacks themselves I did without help.)
(Not all of the Bytecode shown in the source is my work—it's what the patched result looks like afterwards. But the hacks themselves I did without help.)
52-Card Pickup 2000 (Win/Mac/Linux, 3D, Open Source)
https://github.com/IBwWG/52cp2kJokingly paying homage to the classic trivia game "You Don't Know Jack," for Ludum Dare 37, I made this cross-platform 3D game in a single weekend using the Godot Engine and GDScript, which I had never used before, and released the source online.
Need Inspiration — Basic Android App
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blogspot.gimmickyapps.needinspirationThis app pairs random words (either a noun with an adjective, in "make" mode, or a verb with an adverb, in "do" mode) and presents them to you as a phrase, with the intention that you can use said random phrase as inspiration for a story, product, name, and more.
I'm the sole author.
I'm the sole author.
Anticolonias (HTML5, Flash)
https://bit.ly/3nmWDDoWrote the game in Haxe over the course of a few days, for Ludum Dare mini-jam #69. Has way too much strategic and story depth for a jam game, but I got it done. Art is, notably, procedurally generated.
Video Game Translation Framework
How to use Word Realms to help learn another language: an unofficial guide with helper scripts written in cross-platform Bash and Perl.
Wrote it and maintained it so far. Used it to create mods for word-realms-mods so that interested users have prepackaged translations and don't actually need to use this tool.
Wrote it and maintained it so far. Used it to create mods for word-realms-mods so that interested users have prepackaged translations and don't actually need to use this tool.
App Launcher for Alternative OS
https://github.com/KevinField/BeFullFull-screen app launcher I made in C++ for BeOS. Still worked on Haiku (the open source replacement for BeOS) as of 2014.
Mentor with an Online Freelance Agency
Mentored programmers with varying experience levels, working on projects of varying complexity. The part that did not change was how happy they were with the brief time spent troubleshooting together—even though, in some cases, I was also new to some of the particular technologies they were using.
Publication
Haxe: Cross-platform Development's Best-kept Secret
https://www.toptal.com/cross-platform/haxe-language-cross-platform
Publication
Code Optimization: The Optimal Way to Optimize
https://www.toptal.com/full-stack/code-optimization
Publication
SQL Database Performance Tuning for Developers
https://www.toptal.com/sql-server/sql-database-tuning-for-developers
Publication
Will JS Frameworks Spark a Front-end Revolution?
https://www.toptal.com/javascript/js-frameworks-front-end-comparison
Publication
Haxe Review: Haxe 4 Features and Strengths
https://www.toptal.com/haxe/haxe-review-haxe-4-strengths
Publication
Cabin Fever Coding: A Node.js Back-end Tutorial
https://www.toptal.com/express-js/remote-control-nodejs-back-end-tutorial
Publication
Finding a Better Framework than Vue.js, React, and Angular
https://www.toptal.com/front-end/tips-and-practices
Skills
Languages
JavaScript, Perl, HaXe, SQL, HTML5, PL/pgSQL, Markdown, TypeScript, REBOL, CSS3, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), Bash Script, Visual Basic, Regex, Bash, VBScript, XSLT, DocBook, HTML, Python, Google Apps Script, C, Objective-C, CoffeeScript, C++, Sass, PHP, Ruby, XML/XSLT, Flash ActionScript, Java
Frameworks
pgTAP, Mithril.js, FeathersJS, Svelte, Selenium, Android SDK, Express.js, Windows PowerShell, Ember.js, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Bootstrap, AngularJS, Django
Libraries/APIs
HTML5 APIs, REST APIs, Node.js, Mod_perl, React, jQuery, ReactiveX, Pure CSS, ImageMagick, Chai, Apiary API, MathJax, Backbone.js, OpenFL
Tools
Mercurial, Apache HTTP Server, Inkscape, GitHub, Audacity, Bitbucket, pgAdmin, Cygwin, Hyper-V, LibreOffice, Vagrant, Git, KVM/Qemu, Postman, PhpMyAdmin, Apache, Subversion (SVN), Rsnapshot, Alfresco, SugarCRM, Spiceworks, Terminal, FlashDevelop, Mocha, Flyway, Google Docs, Trello, Slack, Salesforce Einstein, Google Sheets, Flash, Asana, LaTeX, Blender, MediaWiki
Paradigms
Test-driven Development (TDD), Samba, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Testing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), DevOps
Platforms
Linux, Windows, HaxeFlixel, Linux Mint, CentOS, Docker, BeOS, LAMP, Godot, OpenShift, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, WordPress, KVM, Quick EMUlator (QEMU), Ubuntu, Windows Server, OS X, Amazon EC2, Android, CiviCRM, iOS
Storage
SQL Server Management Studio, Microsoft SQL Server, JSON, PostgreSQL, MySQL, PostGIS, GlusterFS, OwnCloud, MongoDB
Other
Full-stack, RSync, AS3 Bytecode, Selenium IDE, Front-end, Back-end, Data Extraction, Proofreading, Documentation, Writing & Editing, Objects, Statistical Quality Control (SQC), Microsoft 365, LDAP, HTTPS, SSH, Gentoo, NFS, DNS, Vi, Iptables, Remote Desktop, Templates, Shotcut, kramdown, Games, HubSpot
Education
2005 - 2008
Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics
University of Waterloo - Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
2003 - 2005
Progress towards a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Hons) in Global Studies and Mathematics (Minor subjects: Computer Science, Philosophy, Religion and Culture)
Wilfrid Laurier University - Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Certifications
JANUARY 2009 - PRESENT
Basic Principles of Quality Assurance
The DTI Training Consortium Inc.
JANUARY 2009 - PRESENT
Basic Auditing Principles
The DTI Training Consortium Inc.