Justin Farrell

Full-Stack Engineer

About Me

My Experience

My Skills

My journey in programming began at 13, sparked by a love for game development. I started with C++ (a bold choice, even for the time), then moved on to C# for the Unity Engine. Although I enrolled in a Computer Science program at Florida Polytechnic University, I left one year before completion due to difficult financial issues within my family. Shortly after and in response to changes in the game development industry, I learned Javascript and TypeScript, which led me into software engineering.

Currently, I am a Software Engineer at Lightcast on the Phantom Team (working on the new AI project, Ask Lightcast), where I explore and create new possibilities with AI. I am laser-focused on creating reliable software and am a massive proponent of almost all kinds of software testing.

Outside of work, I enjoy traveling and have visited over 15 states. Some of my favorite places include the Parthenon in Nashville, TN, the Savannah River Rapids Park in Augusta, GA and, as an amusement park enthusiast, Carowinds in Charlotte, NC!

Stay tuned - this site is still under construction! Still, feel free to reach out to me at my email here or my LinkedIn here!

This site is also open-source, so you can peek behind the curtains!

My Experience

August 2023 - Present

Full-Stack Software Engineer

Lightcast (Phantom Team - Ask Lightcast)

November 2022 - August 2023

Full-Stack Software Engineer

Lightcast (SkillFit Team - SkillFit)

November 2021 - July 2022

Software Engineer

Kalos Services, Inc.

My Skills

React.js

    React.js

  • Utilized React at Kalos Services, Inc. for the internal company front-end
  • Used React on the SkillFit Team at Lightcast to create the SkillFit product
  • Currently use React on the Phantom Team at Lightcast to create Ask Lightcast, our business-facing AI product
  • This site uses React.js with the Remix framework
  • Passed the LinkedIn Skills Assessment
Next.js

    Next.js

  • Currently use Next.js on the Phantom Team at Lightcast to create Ask Lightcast, our business-facing AI product
Node.js

    Node.js

  • Used Node.js in combination with React at Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Hosted an algorithmic trading bot created with Node.js on Fly.io
  • Have created multiple Express.js APIs using Node.js
  • Utilized Node.js in combination with React at Lightcast for both SkillFit and Ask Lightcast
  • This site uses Node.js with the Remix framework
  • Created a Trello organization Slack bot (hosted on AWS) for Kalos Services, Inc.
Typescript

    Typescript

  • Have used Typescript at Kalos Services, Inc. as well as both teams at Lightcast
  • Used Typescript extensively during the creation of an algorithmic trading bot
  • Typescript is used extensively for this site
Javascript

    Javascript

  • Javascript has been used throughout most of the projects I have worked on or created
  • I strongly prefer starting projects with Typescript rather than plain Javascript due to type-safety
Go

    Go

  • Go is the main backend language used at Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Extensive experience creating and maintaining a gRPC API using Go and protobuffers (protoc-gen-go) at Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Utilizing Go with protobuffers to write a custom game server for the Call to Power series of games
PostgreSQL

    PostgreSQL

  • Postgres is the main database choice for Ask Lightcast
  • Used Postgres on AWS RDS for blog posts on my old blog site, wayoftheweb.net
Remix

    Remix

  • Remix is the main framework used to create this website!
AWS

    AWS

  • Amazon Web Services was used as the cloud provider for Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Created an automatic prod -> dev DMS task for Kalos Services, Inc. which scrubbed out PII and provided us a close-to-production development environment every week
  • Created a new RDS cluster to help spin up the BeyondHQ project at Lightcast
  • Spun up an ECS Fargate cluster to help re-construct the BeyondHQ project at Lightcast
  • Created and managed multiple bastion-host EC2 instances for Kalos Services, Inc.
Fly.io

    Fly.io

  • Deployed a Node.js-based algorithmic trading bot to Fly.io
  • Set up Sentry on Fly.io for the algorithmic trading bot so that I could monitor uptime
Tailwind

    Tailwind

  • Tailwind is utilized extensively in this site (especially in this popup!)
  • DaisyUI is used for this site
  • Have used ShadCN UI at Lightcast for the initial prototypes of Ask Lightcast
Python

    Python

  • Made heavy use of Python and Django within the BeyondHQ Project at Lightcast
  • Created a speech-recognition-capable personal assistant for my Raspberry PI
GitHub Actions

    GitHub Actions

  • Created an algorithmic trading bot deployed to a Fly.io server via GitHub Actions for CI / CD
  • This site uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment!
GitLab CI

    GitLab CI

  • GitLab is used in all Lightcast apps for CI / CD and I have been hands-on with GitLab CI on both the SkillFit and Ask Lightcast projects
CircleCI

    CircleCI

  • CircleCI was utilized for CI / CD at Kalos Services, Inc., where I was involved extensively in crafting new deployments
.NET

    .NET

  • Utilized C# on the Unity Engine for game development to create multiple games
MySQL

    MySQL

  • MySQL is the main database query language used at Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Used Sequel Ace and DBeaver to access the database as well as SSH
  • I prefer to use PostgreSQL when possible as MySQL has a lot of pain points which Postgres mitigates
Electron

    Electron

  • In the process of creating a modification manager for the Call to Power series of games using Electron (specifically, Electron Forge
  • Familiar with the concepts behind Inter-Process Communication (IPC) as well as preloads and context bridges
Django

    Django

  • Made heavy use of Python and Django within the BeyondHQ Project at Lightcast
gRPC

    gRPC

  • Created and maintained endpoints for a gRPC backend at Kalos Services, Inc.
  • Currently working to create a Call to Power game server using gRPC, gRPC Gateway, protobuffers and Go
  • Make heavy use of gRPCurl for debugging
C++

    C++

  • Used C++ to create a very basic encryption algorithm in university
C

    C

  • Used C for university projects and got the basics down pat (and learned how to use Nano while I was at it)
Terraform

    Terraform

  • Wrote Terraform code for BeyondHQ at Lightcast