Difference between revisions of "User:ThePlaz"

Revision as of 18:51, 21 October 2006

I'm Michael Plasmeier, otherwise known as ThePlaz. Welcome to my page. I know it is boring now, but I don't have the time now to imporve it. I am constantly doing work and adding stuff to my site.

YOU can help: Edit my page

About Me

My name is Michael Plasmeier, but almost everyone calls me Plaz. I am a Associate Product Manager at Yahoo - working on the Membership and Geo-related platforms teams. I graduated from MIT in 2013 in Computer Science and Management. I am halfway between the tech and the business world, doing both web development and product development. My interest in doing both started while I was working on GridView, an app I built after 10th Grade that reached 1.3 million users on Facebook.

Internships

Last IAP, I was a Software Development Extern doing testing in Ruby on the back end at CardSpring. Last summer, I was Product Manager at Disney Parks and Resorts Online where I worked on a project for Disney Cruise Line. Last January, I worked in management/strategy consulting at Altman Vilandrie & Company. The previous summer, I was a web developer at NextJump, an online affiliate advertising firm in New York. Prior to that, I was an extern in the Office of the Chief Scientist at State Street. My freshman summer I worked at Deutsche Bahn, the German national railroad, where I designed the smartphone version Touch&Travel, an app that lets you pay for the train with your phone.

MIT

At MIT I was heavily involved in classes, usually taking 7 classes a term, while being involved in student government. (I wrote about how I do it in Working out a System.) senior was dedicated to wrapping up requirements. Junior year at MIT I focused on EECS classes, as well as being elected president of Baker House. My second year at MIT focused on management classes. I was also involved in the vendor selection and implementation of the new dining plan. Freshman year, I took core classes and served on the Athena and Printing Committee. (I wrote about just hanging on freshmen year in Learning to Learn.)

Websites

I built a lot of web projects in high school. My most popular project, was GridView [1], an app for Facebook which lets you add the profile pics of all of you're friends to your Facebook profile. GridView had over 1.3 million users and made me some money.

I hosted and produced the video podcast Tecker 911 [2] along with some of my friends. Tecker 911 was a series of 100 5-15 minute shows each which covers a technology topic in a way which is relevant for ordinary people, with a focus towards students and our community. Tecker 911 was also shown on our local public access channel Channel 11.

I started SeniorQuoter, [3] an open-source web application for senior quotes collections for high school yearbooks. In 11th Grade, I lead a Dynamic Website Building Instruction and Practical Experience Group Study at my high school. I helped 4 other students learn PHP and MySQL and then I project managed version 2 of SeniorQuoter, the administration interface.

Tecker and Conflicter were question and answer services I built in 10th Grade. They never really caught on, but they were the perfect way to learn PHP. Dictionary Robot is something I tarted last year, but abandoned later. In 10th Grade, I was a member of Team 484 and in 11th Grade I was their webmaster.

In 8th and 9th Grades I wrote bunch of programs for the TI-83+.

Tech

My first two years at MIT, I was a regular on The Weekly Spin, a weekly take on tech stories and tech policy.

On my Tech page I have had a few pages about Devices I own and other small things that I have built. For example, I also made some improvements for MediaWiki, the software that runs ThePlaz.com and Wikipedia. I made a new skin for MediaWiki and a few MediaWiki extensions

Other Accounts

I also tag a lot of stories on Delicious. I also have over 70,000 photos on Flickr. I Tweet kinda regularly. I also post things to YouTube. And of course I have a Facebook. It all comes together on my FriendFeed.

Personal Info

Activities

• H-Vision (sound and anchor)
• Robotics Club
• volunteer in People's Light lighting department
• develop Tecker, run ThePlaz.com

Interests

• Computers (GUI, coding, PHP, MySQL)
• Technical Theater
• Academics
• Leadership

Favorite Music

• Soundtracks Mostly
• Some Pop
• Some classical (while working)

Favorite TV Shows

Involved In

• H-Vision
• Tecker 911

TV Mainstream

• The Amazing Race
• Survivor
• Avatar
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide

TV Niche

• How it's Made
• Beyond Tomorrow
• The Screen Savers

Computer

• tWiT
• DL.tv
• Cranky Geeks

Favorite Movies

(Don't get to watch too many movies)

• The Incredibles and all other Pixar movies except Finding Nemo
• The Harry Potter Series

Favorite Books

Fiction

Branded Nation (& others by James Twitchell)

• Fast Food Nation

Non Fiction

• Harry Potter Series
• Alex Rider Adventures

... and more

Favorite Quotes

See Quotes

Accounts on other sites

• wp:User:Michael180 on Wikipedia (and some other wikimedia sites)
• ThePlaz on Digg!
• michael180 on 43 Things
• michael180 on43 Places
• theplaz on Flickr (don't use it much)
• theplaz on Bookmooch
• Facebook

My ThePlaz.com Userboxes

See also my wikipedia user boxes.

This user is a member of the MCM Club.

484	This user is a member of the Haverford High School Robotics Club!

This user goes to Haverford High School.

This user is an employee of Tecker.

Contact Me

Leave Plaz a (public) message or send me a (private) e-mail.

	Skype Me @ ThePlaz
http://skype.com	For a FREE download