Thomas Smith

Chief Technology Officer

Upward Thought•  February 2023 - Present•  Montana

Implemented a user-friendly search system to query over 700GB of text and video data stored in AWS S3 and give a relevant text paragraph with timestamp/page number data. This search engine supports: Case-insensitive and case-sensitive searches Multi-term queries Negation using a minus sign Symbol-specific searches (e.g., periods, question marks) using quotes SQL-based pagination for efficient result delivery Filtering options for videos, blog posts, and books Result sorting by best match or recency Implemented cost-saving measures on AWS, reducing monthly expenses by 90%. This optimization included migrating the database from a PostgreSQL RDS instance to a SQLite database directly on the EC2 instance. Regular backups to S3 maintain data integrity while minimizing storage costs. This optimization resulted in a monthly cost reduction from roughly $120 to $2. Developed a robust user authentication system with the following features: Email and password-based user registration Email verification process with confirmation link Password reset functionality Resend confirmation email option Integration with site content notification system Created a dynamic blog application that allows for scheduled publishing of assorted content, including videos, blog posts, and PDF books. The admin interface facilitates easy content upload, and users receive timely email notifications with direct links to the published content. Implemented a YouTube-style comment section, enabling interactive discussions. This system includes admin approval, user profile pictures, and comment editing, deletion, and reply features. Developed a quote system allowing admins to curate and share impactful quotes from their content. The system enables social media sharing, messaging app integration, and personalized email delivery of daily or weekly quotes. Created a YouTube data scraper using Ruby and Puppeteer-Ruby to extract titles, dates, comments, and view counts for comprehensive channel analysis. Developed a rich text editor for efficient blog post creation, enabling admins to format content with bold, italics, strikethroughs, images, and links. The editor also includes a publish button for seamless content deployment.