Email: resume@extractofmalt.com Phone: (503)771-0760
· My goal is to work collaboratively with a small cross-disciplinary creative design team to build elegant and usable designs for software and web products. I have a wide variety of software-related skills, from high-level to low-level, and I enjoy being versatile and doing whatever is needed to help the project.
· 14+ years with object oriented and component programming, especially using VB, Smalltalk, Python. I have written OO books and organized OO training seminars.
· 8+ years web programming on client and server. Technologies include: hand coded HTML, dynamic content (CGI/ASP), page design and templates (XML/XSLT, CSS), scripting (DHTML, VBScript, JavaScript, Python, Perl, PHP), servers (IIS, Apache), communication (HTML forms, FTP, SMTP/POP, SOAP), security and authentication (passwords, cookies, NTLM)
· 2+ years experience with .NET, including major projects in ASP.NET, ADO.NET, C#.NET and VB.NET.
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20+ years with relational and OO databases.
Experience with SQL-Server, Access, MySQL, ODBC,
· Very experienced with Microsoft platforms and tools: Visual Studio, Visual Basic, .NET, COM/Active-X, MAPI, SourceSafe, MS Office programming, and most development and design tools for Windows.
· 20+ years graphic design experience. Very experienced with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.
· Familiar and comfortable with good development practice, including design (UML), configuration management, unit tests (PyUnit and NUnit) code reviews/inspection, design documents, rapid prototyping, MS Project, etc.
·
Nov 2004
– Present. Architect/designer/developer
for Perfumenotes.com
Technologies used: Python/PyUnit/PHP,
MySql, Apache web server, XML/XSLT/CSS, DHTML, JavaScript
I built an application that integrates information from many perfume sites
into a single unified database (an IMDB for perfume) and provides a web front
end for searching by note, brand, etc.
Techniques used were: screen scraping from multiple sites (using regular
expressions); conversion of data from multiple sources into standard XML
format; integrating XML data into SQL database; web display from database using
XSLT/CSS.
·
Mar – Aug
2004. Hewlett-Packard contract.
Technologies used: ASP.NET, ADO.NET,
VB.NET, C#.NET, IIS web server, SQL Server, XML/XSLT/CSS, DHTML, JavaScript,
NUnit
For HP, I built an XML-based .NET application for integrating 50+ disparate
websites into a single unified CMS tool to create a consistent design and
information architecture, while allowing decentralized editing and ownership of
content. Backend and UI were separated
and all logic was unit tested with NUnit.
·
Aug 2003
– Feb 2004. Intel contract.
Technologies used: VB6, XML/XSLT/CSS,
DHTML, JavaScript.
For Intel, I built an XML/XSLT online application for asking usability
questions. I inherited a system with
hard-coded, inflexible user interface, and converted it into a generalized web
framework for building questionnaires in XML and displaying, retrieving, and
collating the results.
·
April
2000-mid 2003: Freelance information architect/web designer/developer,
Technologies used: VB6, XML/XSLT/CSS,
DHTML, JavaScript, Apache web server, MySQL, Python.
Designed and architected a number of small business database-driven
e-commerce sites. In addition to meeting the requirements of being a showcase
for the products, the sites were praised for their simplicity, clear navigation
and speed.
·
1993-April
2000: Co-founder and CTO, Enfish
Technology,
Technologies used: ASP, ADO, VB, IIS,
Access, SQL Server, XML/XSLT/CSS, DHTML, JavaScript, Python, Smalltalk, MS-Office
automation using COM, Active X.
Enfish Technology was a dotcom company that built a number of well-received
products for managing personal information. I was architect and designer of a
number of projects there. As part of management team, I played a key role in
business strategy and marketing discussions.
Also acted as consumer advocate and coached CEO and management team on
user-centered design issues.
As CTO at Enfish Technology, I was involved in these major projects:
· Designed and implemented a powerful CMS tool (1999) that allows non-techies to control the textual content for a web-site (DOC/XML files), while allowing the designer to control the look (via XSLT), and allowing the site manager to control releases (using version control).
· Architect for a complex back-office system that processes customer interactions (1998-1999). This includes programmatically interacting with multiple web sites using HTTP and FTP, receiving and sending emails (POP and MAPI), interacting with Access and SQL-Server databases, and finally generating nightly management reports and graphs for the Enfish intranet.
· Architect for Enfish Tracker (1997-1998), an ahead-of-its-time desktop search tool for tracking and organizing all your personal information. Wrote high and low-level specs. Led product-design process, including cross-functional team sessions for determining the requirement, and technical reviews.
· Architect and designer for Enfish Workspace (1995-1997), an easy to use free-form information database. For this system, I developed a new database architecture, which led to two patents in my name. I also developed and coded an innovative user-interface class library (similar to the Java Swing library -- but 2 years earlier). I also developed and coded a modular indexing system, based on the Harvest technology.
· I designed and architected the web site for Enfish Corp. The site had to be redesigned from scratch to incorporate three merged companies and their old sites, which now operated as one. This was over 150 pages of content that had to be digested, reorganized and integrated. I developed, designed and prototyped a new, more usable site architecture. I also wrote most of the new copy. I achieved all this all within 4 weeks.
·
1992-1993:
Freelance consultant and trainer, specializing in Smalltalk.
Wrote 4 Smalltalk books. Organized and ran Smalltalk training seminars.
Organized the L.A Smalltalk User Group and one of the first Smalltalk developer
conferences.
·
1991-1992:
Team lead, Nevis, Inc., Culver City, CA.
Responsible for 5 person team designing and creating interface-builder toolkit
for a modular development system (similar to PowerBuilder)
·
1988-1991:
Developer, then Project lead, Unique
Business Systems, Inc.,
Enhanced their main product (VideoTrace), which was the leading software for
video rental stores. Then became project lead and architect for a similar
system (PhotoTrace) for 1-hour photo/minilab stores.
Usability and User Experience skills
In all my projects, I have continuously pushed for understanding the psychology of the user, rather than concentrating on technology and features. But I can also speak software-developer-speak and have performed a valuable role in translating between different parts of the business.
· At Enfish, initiated rapid prototyping as design technique and took lead in developing prototypes in VB and Python. Initiated usability testing, did cost/benefit study to outweigh management resistance, and helped organize and analyze usability tests.
·
Have read and applied the classic UI/HCI books (
Writing/Research
· Wrote and self-published 4 successful books on object-oriented programming in Smalltalk.
· Have written numerous user interface, architecture, and design documents in my role as architect and designer.
· Researched and wrote digests of new technology issues and marketing issues for the CEO and other staff.
· Familiar with modern marketing practice (such as Crossing the Chasm, Permission Marketing)
Social
Skills
In all my positions, I have been rapidly promoted due to my ability to:
· Learn and digest new information quickly (both book knowledge and hands-on knowledge)
· Communicate with and train other team members.
· Work well with non-techie people (such as marketing execs and graphic artists) on business goals and product strategy.
· Take initiative to develop solutions to plug a hole or to improve a process.
Education
·
Masters
in Math from