I am not looking for work at the moment, but I am always interested in startup, pro bono and public service projects.

Curriculum Vitae

Name: Kristo Vaher

Born: 07.04.1984

Location: Tallinn, Estonia

Profession: Software Developer

Languages: Estonian and English

Contact:

  • kristo@waher.net (E-mail)
  • kristovaher (Skype, Facebook, Twitter)
  • waher.net@gmail.com (Google)

Education:

  • 2010-present
    Tallinn University (Tallinna Ülikool)
    Additional information: Working on international curriculum Interactive Media and Knowledge environments (software design, user experience and usability based on modern internet and social media applications)
  • 2004-2008
    Tallinn University (Tallinna Ülikool)
    Additional information: Successfully graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science (major) and Multimedia Systems (minor).
  • 1991-2003
    Tallinn Grammar School (Tallinna Üldgümnaasium)
    Additional information: Successfully graduated, participated in olympiads, participation in choir, writing and directing school plays.

Programs and Additional Education:

  • 2010-2011
    Garage48
    Additional information: Attended and participated in Garage48 events as a developer, including that of Public Services during which a project wuppie.org was launched. Won 2011 Tallinn Garage48 Best Prototype award for challengo.me social game service.
  • 2003-2004
    Estonian Defence Forces – Single Guard Battalion
    Additional information: Basic infantry training, basic squad and platoon training, participation in Estonian Defence Forces training operations Kevadtorm ’05 and Siil ’08.

Employers:

  • 06/2008-present
    Mikare Baltic Llc. (MIKARE NET)
    www.mikare.net
    Description: Web based infosystems development and internet marketing company.
    Size: Small
    Position: Web Based Infosystems Developer (full time)
    Primary duties: Web applications development and programming, quality assurance and testing, standards compliancy, systems architectural design, software analyst.
    Secondary duties: Technical documentation, technical support
  • 01/2006 – 05/2008
    ELI Llc. (ELI Military Simulations)
    www.eli.ee
    Description: Military simulations and avionics R&D company.
    Size: Small
    Position: Software Developer (full-time)
    Primary duties: Software and web solutions developer, software analyst, digital media content creation and editing.
    Secondary duties: Web administration, technical documentation and translations, client relations and support, basic hardware maintenance.

Notable Independent Projects:

  • 02/2011 – present
    NixyNet
    www.nixynet.com (in development)
    Description: Web based social intranet solution for small to medium businesses.
    Position: Project owner, lead technical director, lead developer. Original concept design, architecture, back-end, user interface and API development. User interface and graphics design. Technical documentation and support.
  • 03/2011 – present
    myDogNotes
    www.mydognotes.com (in development)
    Description: Web based infosystem for managing dog owner activities, for kennels and private users
    Position: Lead Developer. Architecture, back-end, user-interface programming. Technical documentation.

Selection of notable achievements:

  • Intranet solutions and expansive high-traffic website to a government health organization
  • Dynamic and modern special campaign websites and social interaction solutions for marketing companies
  • Successful e-marketing and client database management and statistics software
  • Questionnaire and statistics gathering software
  • Easily extendable and customizable search-engine optimized content management framework
  • Small scale encyclopedia software for an online community
  • Prototype for lost and found pet service project Wuppie (currently discontinued)
  • Prototype for web based and mobile crowd-sourced social game Challengo (currently discontinued)
  • Innovative AJAX/JSON solution for interactive web based social environments, from games to collaboration sites
    Released as open source here
  • Open source e-payment solution for use in Estonian e-commerce websites
    Released as open source here
  • Open source Android application for web service based applications.
    Released as open source here

Computer software experience

Basic:

  • Sony Vegas Pro, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Dreamweaver, SPSS, Adobe Flash, Paint.NET, GIMP

Skilled:

  • Adobe After Effects, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Apple Safari, VioletUML, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, Tortoise SVN (Subversion), Tortoise HG (Mercurial), Tortoise GIT (GIT), NetBeans, WinSCP, OpenSSL, Eclipse

Expert:

  • Autodesk 3ds Max, mental ray®, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, EasyPHP, Notepad++, FileZilla

Additional computer skills information:

Daily use of Windows operating systems, basic knowledge and experience with Unix-based systems (Ubuntu and Android OS). Daily use of digital media software. Programming experience using various portable text editors and IDE solutions, supported by repository software such as Subversion and Mercurial.

Programming knowledge

Familiar:

  • C, C++, Pascal, Java, ActionScript, Python

Specialist:

  • Web Developer – XHTML/HTML, CSS, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, JavaScript and jQuery
  • Knowledge with all modern desktop web browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer) and most common WebKit based mobile browsers
  • Mobile Developer – Android OS platform (Android 2.2+), based on Java
  • Experienced in advanced client-server communication methods such as AJAX and WebSocket
  • Experienced with data formats such as JSON and XML (including standards such as RSS) and Unicode data encoding
  • Experienced with modern HTML 5 and CSS 3 technologies

Server Software:

  • Apache, nginx

Additional programming information:

Specialized in web-related technologies and applications. Experienced in developing extensive info-systems, back- and front-end solutions for websites as well as developed a number of communication layers for interactive web based software. Good understanding and use of object- oriented programming principles. Use of Model View Controller architecture concepts. Some experience documenting applications with Unified Modeling Language. Experience with bug trackers. Knowledge of many external open source applications and libraries for end-users benefit, such as WYSIWYG editors, frameworks and libraries.

Personal description

I consider myself a friendly and a good social communicator. I have a natural passion for digital media and new media solutions and I am very methodic, determined and organized in lifestyle. I prefer to take part in team-based software development projects and I have confidence in my ability to lead. I am also enthusiastic and resourceful in brainstorming, with a desire to always create something new and innovative. I often find myself working after-hours on personal projects, which are often fueled by my creativity. I use both my first language as well as English daily in social and technical use. I have found myself to be a passionate and quick learner and often apply myself to research on my own initiative, self-motivated by the fields I am interested in. I am devoted to my profession.

I have contributed to open source software development, releasing both my own software or updates to other open source software for use by other developers. I strongly believe that sharing, open standards and accessibility can drive development of all software, including proprietary.

My Russian language is weak for an Estonian and I have little experience with hardware and operating systems level programming. I am not interested in Adobe Flash applications, considering Flash based media as a necessary-evil until the next generation of web technologies becomes a standard.

I am proud to work as a software developer, “creating castles in the air, from air, by exertion of imagination” (quote from The Mythical Man-Month, by Fred Books).

Interests

Professional
Interested in software development, web development, mobile development and digital media fields. Interest in developing community orientated Web 2.0 solutions (social networking, browser based games, web based desktop applications and info-systems). Interest in an academic career in the future to share knowledge and experience with others.

Personal
Interests in film, digital entertainment and behind the scenes material of said subjects. Interested in psychology, music, advancements in artificial intelligence and its applications. Future plans to travel and expand cultural perspective.