Backend and data systems
Services and pipelines that take data in, validate it and keep it, with typed contracts between the parts.
RustC#TypeScriptMongoDB
Nathaniel E. Harris
Reliable software for complex systems.
I build backend services and data pipelines, and I work below them too: custom engines, machine code and legacy hardware.
Now at Space Interactions, on the services and pipelines behind satellite and orbital data.
What I do
Operational software
Software for work that runs on real rules: orbital data, field-service scheduling and mapping, and SMS compliance.
Orbital dataLogisticsSchedulingCompliance
Systems internals and legacy hardware
Custom engines, firmware, reverse engineering and machine code, down to 6502 and x86 assembly.
C++Firmware650265816x86
Where the three meet is the work I like best: understanding an unfamiliar system, keeping it reliable, and connecting it to modern software.
Work
Selected projects.
Backend platforms, operational software and systems internals, from a space-domain awareness platform to 6502 and 65816 assembly.
Forerunner
A space-domain awareness platform. I build the services and pipelines that bring in satellite and orbital data, and the views that show it.
I built Rust and MongoDB back-end services for the platform's data operations. I also develop and extend the TypeScript and Electron frontend that visualizes the data, and I design the 3D models that the orbital views are made of.
- Automated the retrieval, validation and archival of TLE (two-line element) orbital data.
- Custom HLSL shaders that made the orbital views render faster.
Field-service platform
Work orders, scheduling, job maps and dispatch, in one platform for a field-service team.
As software lead I automated the data integration behind it: work-order history and scheduling, GPS maps of jobs and company vehicles, and messages between field workers and dispatchers. I also pulled point-of-sale data into Google Calendar, so the whole company scheduled from one place.
- A C# application that designs and prints retail sale signs.
- Custom WordPress modules for the company website.
Relay and RelayPing
Data-integration and automation tools that small businesses run on every day, and a network monitor with its own iOS app.
The Relay suite is in daily production use at a regional appliance-service company. RelayPing watches networks and reports to an iOS app that is in production, and a custom data-compression scheme keeps the bandwidth it needs low.
- An interactive SMS texting platform, built to the carrier rules in the CTIA guidelines.
Retro Hardware Homebrew
Reverse engineering old software & hardware, then rebuilding and upgrading them.
I have built compression and decompression tools for 6502 and 65816 software, and a modding tool for graphics, palettes and 65816 assembly. Currently, my primary personal project is developing for the SFX-100, the SNES CD prototype also known as the "Nintendo PlayStation".
- An unofficial map editor for Warcraft I.
- Custom TMNT: Tournament Fighters build for state-wide tournaments.
- In development: IDE, clean room BIOS & programs for SNES CD.
Blockade Runner
A 3D voxel space sim, on a custom engine that I wrote and then moved from XNA to SharpDX.
As engine lead I built the engine's internals: the 2D and 3D rendering pipelines and their shaders, the font rendering, the asset loading, the netcode and the modding support.
- Also made Liquid Cubed, a real-time simulation of liquid in a voxel world.