Brian Benzinger

ideas realized through programming

1 About Me
2 My Work
@ Contact

Drag

A little bit about myself...

Born in Connecticut 1986. I was adorable.
Did normal kid things
Welcomed to Windows 3.1
Played SkiFree
Turned 11 years old
Discovered AOL web page builder
Made joke websites
Raced go-karts
Made racing websites
Built and distributed guestbooks and news publishing software Age: 16
Bagged groceries
Hired as a developer at Web Services Corp Experience + 1
Graduated High School
Started a Web 2.0 blog, Solution Watch
Stopped bagging groceries.
Graduated from Gibbs College with a 3.77 GPA
Left Web Services Corp
Became member of Web 2.0 Workgroup alongside TechCrunch and R/W Web
Started a creative studio Lots learned
Got busy and hired friends
Reached 20,000 Solution Watch subscribers Wow!
Got very busy and stopped blogging
Worked with many talented people at various record labels
Produced hundreds of works with team
Turned 24 years old
...

Profile

Brian Benzinger
1(203) 788-5104
benzinger@gmail

Resume
PDF, TXT

Social
LinkedIn
Github
Stackoverflow
Pinboard

Languages

PHP: Custom application development, Custom CMSs, Cron Jobs, Object Oriented or Procedural Programming, CakePHP, CodeIgniter
C/C++/Objective-C: iOS Development, Core Data, Core Audio, Object Oriented Programming, Memory Management
SQL: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite. Strong understanding of SQL, Database Design, Normalization, Data Migration, Performance Optimization.
HTML/CSS/JavaScript: Web Standards, Cross Browser Compatibility, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5
ActionScript 3.0: Flash applications, websites, and general purpose Flash development. AMF Remoting with ZendAMF and AMFPHP
Python: Web Application Development using the Django Framework and general Python management scripts.
Miscellaneous: Experimental programming using Processing (Java) and OpenFrameworks (C++)

Clients

Capitol Records
Warner Bros Records
EMI
Universal Records
Epic Records
Virgin Records
Sony BMG
Columbia Records
Vagrant Records
Atlantic Records
Interscope Records
Kansas City Chiefs
Zorya Fine Art
Tire'd Watch Company
Stun Media
Hudson Jeans
ContentNext
IT|Redux

Know-How

Management: Co-Found Parallel in 2005 and managed a small team of talented designers and programmers working on projects of all shapes and sizes.
Writing/Blogging: Started Solution Watch early 2005 to survey the new generation of the web (Web 2.0) and provide in-depth coverage and reviews of the web's best products and services. Solution Watch quickly grew to 20,000+ subscribers within the first two years. Solution Watch has been inactive since late 2007 when focus changed to starting a design studio.
E-Commerce: Experience with Authorize.Net, PayPal, and PayPal Pro.
Content Management Systems: WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine, custom CMSs, theme building, custom plugin/module development.
Geolocation and Mapping: Geolocation using Google and Yahoo API's. Geocoding, Geodata aggregation, Google Maps enabled applications.
Usability/UI Planning: My work has a focus on usability and accessibility. Experience with video testing and persona development.
Version Control: I work with Subversion and Git.
Web Server Administration: Experience with server configuration and setup with Apache, Nginx, Python, PHP, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
Cloud Services: Experience with Amazon AWS (S3/CloudFront)
Internationalization (i18n) and Localization (L10n): Experience with multilingual application development using custom dictionaries and Gettext modules. POT file translation with poEdit. Familiar with unicode methods for multibyte strings and character encoding.
MySpace/Facebook: Facebook APIs and advanced MySpace theming.
Front End Development: Code using the latest standards in HTML5, XHTML, and CSS. Large understanding of cross browser compatibility issues and how to fix them. Experience with mobile websites and search engine optimization. JavaScript library of choice is jQuery.

Faces of Mars

Description:: An infinitely zoomable mosaic containing thousands of photos of 30 Seconds to Mars fans for Capitol Records. I researched mosaic building techniques and came up with a very efficient solution that can render a photo into a mosaic containing 3,000+ photos in milliseconds. Binary calculations, Euclidean theorem, and DisplayObject blitting made it happen. Fans could even share a small scale version of the mosaic on Facebook or any website. Give Faces of Mars a try.

Client:: Capitol Music

My Role:: Color Distance Research; Mosaic Data Generator; Webcam Interaction; Facebook and Twitter Integration

Technologies:: ActionScript 3.0; PHP; Python (thumbnail generation)

Katy Perry Gurls

Description:: I worked with Parallel and EMI to build an interactive map for Katy Perry that showcased video parodies created by fans around the country for her hit song, "California Gurls". The result was a fun feeling map that integrates with the Youtube API and enables sharing with Facebook and Twitter.

Client:: EMI

My Role:: SVG Parsing; Youtube Video API; Administration; Facebook and Twitter Integration

Technologies:: ActionScript 3.0; PHP (CodeIgniter Framework); MySQL Database

EMI Tour Tracker

Description:: I worked with Parallel to develop an interactive tour mapping platform for EMI where fans can find their favorite artist, view tour routes, share photos, and more. Artists can signup for their own sub-domain/domain and a hosted interactive tour map.

Client:: EMI

My Role:: Custom Application Development; Apache Configuration; Cron scripts; Messaging Queue; Facebook and Twitter integration; Mapping and Geolocation; Data Aggregation; Database Design and Optimization; i18n and L10n

Technologies:: PHP; MySQL; HTML/CSS/JavaScript; Google Maps API; ActionScript 3.0

Place Your Bets

Description:: Place Your Bets brings the thrill of horse racing to the iPhone. Players bet on a horse based on odds and hope they strike big. Features achievements and race statistics. Place Your Bets was developed with Objective-C and primarily UIKit.

My Role:: iPhone Development; UI Planning; Horse Racing Research; Odds calculations and random probabilities; Gambling

Technologies:: Objective-C; X-Code

Zorya Fine Art

Description:: Zorya Fine Art needed a website overhaul and a custom built CMS to showcase work in their contemporary art gallery.

Client:: Zorya Fine Art

My Role:: Custom CMS

Technologies:: PHP (CakePHP Framework); MySQL Database

Kansas City Chiefs

Description:: I was tasked to help develop a new website experience for pro football team, Kansas City Chiefs. The website, built on top of an existing ASP.NET based CMS, got a whole slew of new social features including photo and video uploading, user profiles, and message boards.

Client:: Kansas City Chiefs

My Role:: Frontend Development; Integration with ASP.NET CMS; KickApps Integration

Technologies:: ASP.NET

Sgmnt

Description:: A personal project to create a unique code sharing service using the Django Python framework. The idea was to not only allow the sharing and storage of code snippets, but to also act as a social bookmarking service for developers. This way all code snippets and links are together.

Technologies:: Python (Django Framework); HTML, CSS, JavaScript; MySQL Database

Teatro

Description:: A website for the musical group Teatro developed at Parallel. Teatro needed a system to manage their tours, music, galleries, and message boards. To us, the obvious answer was the ExpressionEngine CMS. The website also featured custom media players and an interactive album.

Client:: Sony BMG (UK)

My Role:: Frontend Development; ExpressionEngine Development

Technologies:: PHP (ExpressionEngine CMS); ActionScript 3.0; HTML, CSS, JavaScript

PaidContent.org

Description:: I worked with Parallel to deliver a network-wide redesign for ContentNext and their web properties, including paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, contentSutra.com, and paidContent:UK. We ran usability tests using video analysis and persona studies to provide the best possible browsing experience for their readers. The redesign was deployed using the ExpressionEngine CMS with the help of the ContentNext team.

Client:: ContentNext Media

My Role:: Frontend Development; ExpressionEngine Development; Usability Testing; HTML Email Templating

Technologies:: PHP (ExpressionEngine CMS); HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Rockdex

Description:: Rockdex

Client:: Rockdex

My Role:: Frontend Development

Technologies:: HTML, CSS, JavaScript

The White Tie Affair

Description:: I worked with Parallel to build a Drupal based system for Sony BMG that deploys social-enabled websites for recording artists. The system featured user profiles, photo sharing, blogging, commenting, event attendance, album listings, and twitter feeds.

Client:: Sony BMG

My Role:: Frontend Development; Drupal Integration; Custom Drupal Modules

Technologies:: PHP (Drupal CMS); HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Lauren Cooper Racing

Description:: Lauren Cooper Racing needed a website with a content management system to easily publish news, photo galleries, sponsorship deals, and upcoming events for fans and sponsors. I decided to use WordPress as the CMS for its user-friendly administrative interface, automated maintenance, plugin options.

Client:: Lauren Cooper Racing

My Role:: Frontend Development; WordPress Integration

Technologies:: PHP (WordPress); HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Tire'd Watch Company

Description:: Helped developed an E-Commerce website for the Tire'd Watch Company that can maintain inventory of watches, take pre-orders, and handle shopping cart checkouts.