A web developer who "knows his stuff."


Brian J. Cohen is 29 years old and is the principal web developer for, and founder of Intercarve Networks. He grew up in Pleasantville, New York, about 30 miles outside "the city". Here in Boise, he averages 40 days of skiing per year, including downhill racing with the Bogus Basin Masters Team. He is an avid traveler (4 continents and 43 US states), trail hiker and vegetable gardener.

Brian graduated in 2003 from the Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Computer Science) and moved to Boise, Idaho in 2004. From 2004 to 2007 he worked as a web developer for Foerstel Design, a leading Boise graphics design firm.

Search Engine Optimization

We are proud to work exclusively with Joshua J. Laughtland at JTree for search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click (PPC) services for our client base.



EDUCATION

Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland
Whiting School of Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Sept, 1999 - May, 2003


WORK EXPERIENCE

Intercarve Networks, LLC - Boise, Idaho
Managing Member and Website Programmer
July 1999 - Present

  • Chief project manager for client website development projects: direct creative development, functional requirements, implementation. Communicate regularly with clients to ensure their needs are being met.
  • Deploy advanced webhosting platform.
  • Author of comprehensive content management system (CMS) website development framework based on open source technologies (PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, AJAX / AHAH / jQuery) that includes ecommerce (shopping cart) functionality.
  • Supervise all billing, financial accounting, sales, marketing, business management and technical support
  • Deploy and administer operating system, web, mail, firewall, intrusion detection and security policy.
  • Author and maintainer of top-to-bottom ISP business management software. Author of online customer control panel. Both written in secure PHP with MySQL back-end
  • Code various systems administration programs in Perl, PHP, bash shell script and C.
  • Maintain Apache 1.3, Apache 2.0, Postfix 1.x, mod_perl, Apache Tomcat, mod_ssl, large virtual hosting environment.
  • Perform PHP and SQL website programming services for contract clients, including small shops and large startups.


Foerstel Design, Inc. - Boise, Idaho
Web Programmer and Technologist
Oct, 2004 - Sept, 2007

  • Program dynamic website for clients of largest design firm in Idaho.
  • Use PHP and MySQL to build customized content management systems for rapidly deploying dynamic websites, including a complete shopping cart (e-commerce) system and automatic generation of content administration modules so clients can modify their own sites in real-time.
  • Wrote and maintain comprehensive company management, job/budget management, cost estimating/proposal and time-tracking system using PHP, MySQL, Ajax (DHTML+Javascript) methodologies, Smarty templating system. Interfaces with MYOB accounting software. Drastically improves worker productivity.
  • Work with clients to determine website requirements and options for achieving them.
  • Develop in-house software engineering guidelines to establish best practices for code quality and separating development of design/layout and backend logic.
  • Improve internal networking infrastructure by rackmounting all servers and telecom equipment.
  • Establish stable development platform on Debian Linux and Apache 2.0 platform.


BareWeb, Inc. and Corset Shop, Inc. -  Newark, New Jersey
Web Programmer and Network Administrator
Sept, 2003 - Feb, 2004

  • Implemented modifications and improvements to BareNecessities.com website, a leading online retailer of intimate apparel, using ASP, Perl, and PHP.
  • Provided 24/7 support of enterprise servers and applications, network hardware / infrastructure, and Internet (web, email) servers.
  • Managed and supported 12 Windows 2000 servers, 50 Windows 2000 workstations, 2 FreeBSD Unix servers, 11 Windows NT 4.0 web servers, 20 networked printers, and a diverse Wireless LAN environment. Technologies included Microsoft IIS, Microsoft Site Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Apache httpd, MySQL, sshd, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Office 2000/XP.
  • Responsible for monitoring and troubleshooting backup and disaster-recovery systems with Veritas Backup Exec 9.0.
  • Advised senior staff on security vulnerabilities and policy for all facets of technical operations.

The Internet2 Project - Armonk, New York
Intern - Unix Systems Programming
June, 2001 - August, 2001

  • Developed and implemented customized port and conversion from BSD/OS to FreeBSD for next-generation IP network performance metrics software for secure nationwide deployment on Internet2 backbone.
  • Ported Unix device drivers and modified existing FreeBSD ATM kernel code

Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland
Computational Neuroscience Laboratory
Linux Systems and Network Administrator
January, 2001 - December, 2002


  • Maintained and provided user support for 12 Linux servers, Windows 2000 workstations including multi-processor systems. Tuned Linux servers for high-performance computation, administered hardware RAID and peformed regular backups.
  • Installed and maintained Apache, Matlab, Sendmail, NFS, Samba, SSH, and various user applications.
  • Coded and maintained Perl administration scripts.


Excelsior Packaging Group - Yonkers, New York
IT Director, Systems Administrator
June 1994 - August 1999


  • Phased out aging Novell file server system; phased in Windows NT and FreeBSD.
  • Responsible for workstation deployment, management, and security. Setup and ran all network services including fileserving, application serving, in-house email, system backups, and Internet access via frame relay. Expanded network to include offices within and beyond the factory floor.
  • Maintained/installed Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server/Workstation, Microsoft Windows 9x, FreeBSD 2.x, Apache web server and proxy, Squid proxy.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

All skills are practiced from a security-first standpoint. Inclusion on this list implies expert knowledge of secure usage, installation, or implementation.


Overview - Dynamic and database-driven website application development, development of complex content management system, website application development and performance analysis/optimization, search engine optimization (SEO), Unix systems administration, security auditing, secure Unix programming and scripting, project management, database design and administration, natural language processing, information retrieval and data mining, client-server programming, secure network design, network analysis and troubleshooting, object-oriented design.


Programming and Scripting - Perl, Python, PHP (PHP4, PHP5), jQuery, Prototype / Scriptaculous, bash/sh shell script, tcsh/csh shell script, C, C++, Java, sed/awk, PL/SQL, XHTML, XML, HTML, CSS. Low-level Linux kernel programming and UNIX network programming. Working knowledge of Matlab. Expert in DHTML, Javascript, and Ajax methodologies. Familiar with Drupal, Joomla, and Magento.


Systems Administration - Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, Slackware, Gentoo, SuSE), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OSX, Mac OS9, Sun Solaris, SGI/IRIX, AIX, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP, MS Active Directory, Novell Netware. XFree86 and Xorg windowing systems, Beowulf clustering. Overall expertise in UNIX systems.


Security - Overall command of security concepts. Host-based and network-based intrusion detection, Tripwire, AIDE, secure web programming (data validation, prevention of SQL injection, analysis and anticipation of potential attacks), low-level understanding and ability to utilize cryptography and authentication techniques including SSL/TLS, hashing, and IPSec. Wireless authentication and encryption (WEP, WPA, EAP). Microsoft Windows domain security.


Network Services Administration - Apache httpd and proxy (including performance tuning and load-balancing), Apache Tomcat, Squid proxy, DNS (BIND, djbdns), SMTP, mailing lists and spam control (Sendmail, Postfix, qmail, Microsoft Exchange, Spamassassin, Mailman), POP3, IMAP (courier), Samba, Snort, Portsentry, iplog, SSH (OpenSSH), SCP and SFTP, FTP, SSL/TLS, Microsoft IIS, LDAP.


Networking - TCP/IP, RIP, IPX/SPX, Cisco IOS, TCP routing & subnetting, wiring, bridging, VPNs, ATM, Frame Relay, ISDN, T1, network testing and diagnostics. Can build firewalls with available tools, including ipf/pf, ipfw, iptables, and Cisco IOS. Wireless networking 802.11a/b/g, WEP, WPA, 802.1x.


Database Administration - Oracle, MySQL, PostgresSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLite. Advanced database design and optimization. Overall fluency in SQL and related relational database systems. Expert with transactional code, triggers, stored procedures, advanced indexing and referential integrity concepts.


Brian J. Cohen, Web Programmer, Boise Web Design
Brian J. Cohen
Founder • Web Developer