Michael Kidd is a Principal Software Engineer with 11 years of focused experience in large-scale storage systems, currently ensuring Ceph meets the needs of the global storage community at IBM. He has deep operational and troubleshooting roots—from nuclear reactor operator to senior escalation engineer—bringing rare discipline in diagnostics, automation, and long-running incident resolution. At Red Hat and Inktank he led support and training for petabyte-scale Ceph deployments and created tooling in Python and awk to accelerate problem resolution. Michael contributes to open-source projects like the popular Allsky all-sky camera, where he refactored core imaging code and implemented a new exposure algorithm, demonstrating practical image-processing and embedded-system chops. Based in Las Vegas, he blends systems-level engineering with eclectic passions—Nikola Tesla, astronomy, and full-time RV travel—that feed a polymath approach to solving complex infrastructure problems.
11 years of coding experience
18 years of employment as a software developer
Naval Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, IL
Math and Computer Programming, Math and Computer Programming at Morehead State University, Morehead, KY
Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Physics at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, Charleston, SC
Nuclear Physics / Electronics, Nuclear Physics / Electronics at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, Orlando, FL
Contributions:74 reviews, 280 commits, 105 PRs in 3 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily focused on refactoring and enhancing the `capture.cpp` file within the allsky camera project. Their contributions include refactoring imaging code, adding text and time overlays to images, and implementing a new exposure algorithm controlled by the `-newexposure` flag. They also updated the installer script (`install.sh`) to improve robustness and incorporate camera selection, while correcting some file paths. The user demonstrates a strong understanding of the camera's core functionality and image processing logic.
Contributions:2 releases, 10 pushes, 1 branch in 3 years 1 month
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Michael Kidd - Principal Software Engineer - Ceph at IBM