I build across the stack, from C# game server mods and custom Discord bots to Perl-based ETL pipelines and SQL architect

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Derek Gembus  • Peerlist

Engineered a robust automation solution to overcome the limitations of manual SSL maintenance on Namecheap shared hosting. Implemented a "set-and-forget" infrastructure using shell scripting and API hooks to guarantee continuous security compliance and 100% HTTPS uptime. Technical Execution & Key Features Shell Scripting & SSH: Accessed the remote server environment via a restricted shell to install and configure the acme.sh protocol client. API-Driven Deployment: Leveraged the cPanel UAPI deployment hook (cpanel_uapi) to bridge the gap between the certificate authority and the hosting backend. This allows the system to programmatically inject new keys into the server configuration, bypassing manual GUI interactions. Zero-Touch Automation: Established a persistent background schedule (cron) that autonomously performs domain validation, certificate re-issuance, and deployment without human intervention. Multi-Domain Security: Configured webroot authentication to verify and secure both root domains and subdomains (www) simultaneously. Technologies Used: Bash/Shell Scripting, SSH, cPanel API (UAPI), acme.sh, SSL/TLS, Linux Administration.

Automated SSL Lifecycle Management | Namechea

Executed a complete digital overhaul, migrating a legacy system to a dynamic, self-hosted WordPress environment. Managed the full development lifecycle, from UI/UX prototyping in Figma to backend PHP engineering and ongoing Linux server administration. Technical Execution & Deliverables UI/UX Design & Prototyping (Figma): Conducted a comprehensive brand redesign, utilizing Figma to create high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes. Focused on user-centered design principles to optimize navigation flows and visual hierarchy prior to development. Bespoke Theme Development: Engineered a custom WordPress theme from scratch using PHP, bypassing pre-made templates. This ensured a lightweight, high-performance codebase tailored strictly to the client's business logic. Frontend Engineering: Implemented advanced custom CSS3 to translate designs into a pixel-perfect, fully responsive live environment. Guaranteed cross-browser compatibility across mobile, tablet, and desktop viewports without relying on heavy frameworks. Backend Architecture: Optimized the LAMP stack environment and managed MySQL database integration. Wrote custom PHP functions to handle dynamic content storage and extend core capabilities beyond standard features. CMS Strategy: Configured the WordPress Admin interface to serve as an intuitive Content Management System. This empowered the client to independently manage media and text, significantly reducing long-term maintenance costs and reliance on external developer support. Infrastructure & Hosting: Provided end-to-end hosting solutions, managing DNS configurations, SSL certification, and server environments to guarantee high availability, security, and fast load times.

Custom WordPress Theme Development & Full-Cyc

Developed a robust, self-hosted music bot for Discord communities, engineered to provide low-latency audio streaming. Updated the core infrastructure to align with Discord.js v14 standards, ensuring long-term stability and compatibility with the latest API gateway intents. Technical Execution & Key Features Modern Voice Architecture: Implemented the @discordjs/voice library to manage complex voice connection states (Signaling, Connecting, Ready). This decoupled approach allows for greater reliability during channel switching and network instability. Resilient Stream Pipeline: Integrated @distube/ytdl-core to resolve widely reported 403 Forbidden errors associated with standard YouTube extractors. This ensures consistent uptime and successful audio resource creation where other bots fail. Audio Transcoding: Configured an FFmpeg pipeline to handle real-time audio processing, converting raw streams into optimized Opus packets for delivery via UDP to Discord's voice servers. Gateway Intent Management: Configured specific GatewayIntentBits (GuildVoiceStates, GuildMessages) to minimize API overhead while maintaining necessary permissions for command parsing and voice state tracking. Event-Driven Error Handling: Wrote comprehensive error listeners for the AudioPlayer and VoiceConnection interfaces to gracefully handle stream interruptions and automatically clean up resources (disconnect) when idle. Technologies Used: Node.js, Discord.js v14, @discordjs/voice, @distube/ytdl-core, FFmpeg, WebSocket Gateway API.

Discord Music Bot | High-Fidelity Audio Strea

End-to-End Web Development & Digital Integration | Startup Restaurant (Parma, OH) Project Overview: Spearheaded the digital transformation and brand launch for a new dining establishment in Parma, Ohio. Architected and deployed a custom, feature-rich website from the ground up to establish the business's initial online presence and drive customer acquisition. Key Deliverables & Technical Details: Custom Frontend Engineering: Abandoned template-based solutions to engineer a bespoke website using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. This ensured a lightweight, high-performance codebase tailored specifically to the client's branding requirements. E-Commerce & POS Integration: Successfully integrated ToastTab, a third-party point-of-sale ecosystem, directly into the user interface. This bridge streamlined the transition from browsing to ordering, enabling seamless online revenue generation and synchronizing digital orders with kitchen operations. Responsive UI/UX Design: Implemented a mobile-first design philosophy, utilizing CSS media queries to guarantee a flawless user experience across all distinct viewports (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile). Digital Strategy & Optimization: Designed intuitive navigation structures to reduce bounce rates and ensure rapid access to high-value content (Menus, Hours, Location). Client Satisfaction: Delivered the project strictly to requirements, resulting in a polished final product that exceeded client expectations for visual fidelity and functional performance.

End-to-End Web Development & Digital Integrat

Designed and developed a responsive, single-page application (SPA) to serve as a centralized digital portfolio. Built with the React ecosystem, the site combines a highly visual, modern aesthetic with robust functional components to showcase technical proficiency and project history. Technical Execution & Key Features Modern React Architecture: Architected the application using functional components and React Hooks (useState, useEffect, useRef) to manage component lifecycle and state. Implemented React Router for seamless client-side routing, including dedicated paths for privacy policies and a "404 Not Found" catch-all handler. Serverless Communication: Integrated EmailJS to facilitate direct contact form submissions without requiring a dedicated backend server. Custom Security Logic: Engineered client-side anti-spam measures directly into the form handler. This includes a hidden Honeypot field to trap bots and a Time-of-Flight check that rejects submissions made faster than humanly possible (<2 seconds), effectively mitigating automated spam without CAPTCHAs. Advanced Styling System: Utilized Tailwind CSS to build a fully responsive, mobile-first interface. Implemented complex UI patterns such as Glassmorphism (backdrop blur effects), gradient text masking, and CSS transitions to enhance user engagement. Component-Driven UI: Leveraged Lucide React for lightweight, consistent iconography and structured data arrays to dynamically render content sections (Skills, Experience, Projects), ensuring the codebase remains clean and easily maintainable.

Interactive Personal Portfolio | Modern React

Developed a lightweight, highly customizable scrolling ticker widget designed for integration with OBS Studio via Browser Source. This tool enhances live stream production value by displaying dynamic custom messaging or real-time news headlines without requiring heavy plugins or external software. Technical Execution & Key Features Vanilla Web Architecture: Built using pure HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript (ES6+), ensuring zero runtime dependencies and minimal CPU/RAM impact during live broadcasts. Asynchronous Data Pipeline: Implemented an async/await fetch system to retrieve and parse external RSS/XML feeds in real-time. Utilized the browser's native DOMParser to transform XML streams into displayable DOM elements dynamically. Adaptive Animation Engine: Engineered a JavaScript-based calculation engine that adjusts CSS animation duration (animation-duration) based on character count and a configurable speed factor. This ensures consistent reading speeds regardless of message length. User-Centric Configuration: Designed a "Configuration-as-Code" system using CSS Custom Properties (Variables) and a centralized JSON-style JavaScript config object. This allows non-technical users to easily modify color schemes, fonts, and logic behaviors directly in the source files. Modern UI/UX: Created a responsive, high-contrast aesthetic utilizing CSS3 gradients, text shadows, and keyframe animations to maintain visual clarity against complex video backgrounds.

OBS Live News & Ticker | Real-Time Broadcast 

Developed a lightweight Lua automation script for OBS Studio to protect competitive integrity during live broadcasts of Rust. The tool dynamically obscures sensitive in-game UI elements (the map) in real-time based on input triggers, preventing "stream sniping" without requiring manual scene switching. Technical Execution & Key Features Event-Driven Input Handling: Engineered a low-latency hotkey listener using the obslua frontend API. This hooks into global input events (specifically G and Shift+G) to trigger overlay visibility instantly upon key press. State Management & Debouncing: Implemented a custom timer callback system to manage the "key release" event. This introduces a 250ms decay buffer, preventing the overlay from flickering during rapid input toggles and ensuring a smooth viewer experience. Resource Optimization: Wrote efficient visibility logic that retrieves source references on-demand and properly releases memory pointers (obs_source_release) to prevent resource leaks during long streaming sessions. Configuration Persistence: Built a serialization layer to save and load user-defined hotkey bindings and settings between sessions, utilizing the OBS data array API (obs_data_set_array, obs_hotkey_save). Error Handling: Integrated robust validation logic to check for source existence at runtime, providing descriptive debug logs to the OBS console for easier troubleshooting. Technologies Used: Lua 5.1, OBS Studio API (obslua), Event-Driven Programming, Automation Scripting.

OBS Map Cover Automation | Anti-Stream Snipin

Developed a custom server-side gameplay module for the Unity-based survival game Rust. Utilizing the Oxide/uMod framework, I engineered a "Bounty Hunter" quest loop that tracks player-versus-environment (PvE) interactions in real-time, rewarding specific behavioral patterns with high-value in-game items. Technical Execution & Key Features Event-Driven Architecture: Implemented performant listeners for global game events (OnEntityDeath) to intercept and validate specific entity kills (Bear NPCs). This eliminates the need for resource-intensive polling loops. State Management: Designed a robust tracking system using C# Dictionaries to manage concurrent quest states (Active, Expired, Completed) for multiple players simultaneously. Garbage Collection & Optimization: Engineered a cleanup routine hooked into the OnServerSave cycle. This automatically purges expired quest data from memory during scheduled server saves to prevent memory leaks and ensure long-term stability. Game API Integration: Leveraged internal game APIs (BaseCombatEntity, ItemManager, BasePlayer) to programmaticly identify targets, validate damage sources, and manipulate player inventories for reward distribution. Error Handling: Implemented graceful failure states that notify users when time limits are exceeded, ensuring a polished user experience without disrupting server operations. Technologies Used: C#, .NET Framework, Oxide/uMod API, Unity Engine (Backend Logic), Entity Component System (ECS) Concepts.

Rust Quest System | Custom Server-Side Plugin

Architected and managed a high-performance dedicated server environment for the game Rust. This project encompassed full-stack systems administration, backend database engineering, and custom software development (C#) to deliver a unique, monetized multiplayer experience. Key Technical Accomplishments Infrastructure & Security: Provisioned a dedicated server instance optimized for high player concurrency. Hardened the environment using Linux-based firewalls to mitigate unauthorized access and utilized RCON (Remote Console) for secure, remote administration. Data Engineering (SQL): Designed and integrated a MySQL relational database to manage persistent player data, Steam ID associations, and in-game statistics, ensuring seamless continuity for user progress. Custom C# Development: Developed custom game modifications using C# and the Harmony library. Successfully reverse-engineered game logic to inject new behaviors despite limited documentation. Additionally leveraged the Oxide framework for extended server functionality. Mod Management: Implemented the Carbon modding framework to streamline the loading and management of custom plugins, tailoring server settings to balance performance with gameplay features. Web Integration & Monetization: Built a custom e-commerce website to facilitate VIP membership sales. Integrated the web platform with the game server database to automate the delivery of exclusive in-game features and packages based on user tiers.

Rust Server Infrastructure & Custom Mod Devel

Developed a Node.js command-line interface (CLI) tool designed to aggregate and analyze compensation trends for Database Developers in the Cleveland aviation sector. The tool serves as a decision-support system, transforming raw market data into actionable negotiation strategies based on statistical baselines and candidate qualifications. Technical Execution & Key Features Data Aggregation Engine: Engineered a JavaScript-based normalization layer to ingest and standardize salary datasets from 6+ disparate sources (including BLS, Glassdoor, and Indeed) into a unified data structure. Statistical Analysis: Implemented algorithms to calculate weighted averages, identify hourly/annual variance ranges, and segment compensation tiers by experience level (Entry to Senior). Business Logic Implementation: Coded specific industry logic to account for aviation sector premiums (5-15% variance) and qualification-based multipliers, allowing for highly specific market valuations. Strategic Output Generation: Designed the system to output calculated negotiation bounds, differentiating between "Initial Ask" and "Minimum Acceptable" rates based on real-time market conditions and candidate certification matching.