My goal is the Singularity, and the means of achieving that goal is openness on the web and in our code. If that's too bombastic then my goal is the improvement of technology, and open source is the way to do that. Of course, this is a long term goal, and a pretty abstract one at that. However, it is my passion, and I've found that Mozilla related projects are probably the best way to engage that passion.
Most of my work on Mozilla has involved the user interface code - my first major contribution was to rewrite the Page Info window from scratch. I did some work on some of the toolkit and xpfe widgets (XBL bindings), and corrected the UI code that used them. I've also had some experience in content code, and in writing both C++ and JS XPCOM components. With my latest job at MozDev Group, I expanded on this to build entire xul apps, extensions and even an old-style NPAPI plugin.
June ’08 – January '09 Software Engineer — Mozilla is the force behind Firefox, Thunderbird, and several other open source apps that have entered the limelight in the past few years. My job focused on Mozilla's new browser for mobile devices, Fennec. In addition to the typical tasks of finding and fixing bugs, I created the preference and shortcut user interfaces and assisted in implementing the Fennec side of a data-sync extension called Weave to allow users to sync their bookmarks, history and open tabs between their PCs running Firefox and their mobile devies running Fennec.
March ’06 – May ’08 Software Engineer — MDG contracts for many companies who use Firefox or XulRunner as a platform for their own apps, or who wish to create extensions for apps such as Firefox and Thunderbird. Among the projects I worked on are a xul app for McDougal-Littell (bundled with their science and math textbooks), a plugin for Microsoft (essentially just an xpcom wrapper around the activex interfaces to one of their apps), Nokia (performance improvements for their MicroB browser which runs on the N810) and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (I helped update their kiosk extension
April ’05 – March ’06 Software Engineer — Vivid Minds is a programming contractor, and I worked on the two main projects. One is a web browser derived from Firefox. The other is a billing and inventory system for Nexus Communications, which is for telephone service, cell-phone service, etc.
January ’00 – present Self Employed — Volunteer contributor to Mozilla web browser project and other open source applications. C++ and JavaScript programming, as well as XUL/XBL. Also gained experience with bug reporting/triage, debugging, code review, and large scale application development in general.
July ’00 – April ’05 Self Employed — Programming contracts for companies/individuals, and for the public good. Has included a variety of tasks, ranging from simple web server maintenance, to database conversions, to maintaining, extending, and building web based database systems. Mostly in Perl using PostgreSQL/MySQL databases for the backend.
June ’02 – February ’04 Manager/Tech — In many ways the same duties as I had at Computers Unlimited, but here we focused on networking and business clients, in addition to the residential clients. On the network side we installed Wireless networks, LANs, webservers, email and so on, largely in a corporate environment.
October ’01 – June ’02 Front End Clerk — Had the glorious task of operating a register for 8 hours a day. The only consolation was that they said I picked it up remarkably fast, and that I got very high marks for effeciency and accuracy on the register. Yay. Left for a better job at RavenWerkes.
April ’00 – July ’01 Manager/Tech — Managed the Land O' Lakes location, worked as lead tech at the Zephyrhills location. Duties included everything from PC assembly and repair to training customers. I left this job because the owner was shutting it down.
June ’98 – January ’01 Stock/Produce Clerk — Stocked/leveled shelves, cleaned the store. Graduated(!) to produce, where I cut and packaged the produce, etc.
Programming is my personal favorite, because there's always some interesting problem to work on. I know Common Lisp, Scheme, Erlang, Javascript, Perl, Python, C/C++, and a few other languages. I've worked extensively with XML, SQL and HTML. A few good examples of my work are for Mozilla, an open source web browser. I also enjoy programming that isn't work related, such as the projects in my Mercurial repository.
Real Time Strategy, First Person Shooter, MMORPG, pretty much everything. Planescape: Torment, Nethack, Starcraft, Civilization II, Alpha Centauri, Ceasar III, Counter Strike, A Tale in the Desert, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Battlefield 1942, Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress 2, Portal, nethack, Dungeons & Dragons, Guild Wars, Psychonauts (to list a few.) I have played many games, but strategy and RPG games are my favorite. On the other hand, lately when I've needed a break from work I've frequently choosen to do a little work on Mozilla instead.
I'm really into mathematics. Things like calculus interest me, as well as graph theory, game theory, etc. I'd like to be able to fiddle with with applications of math such as AI, neural nets, that sort of thing. I've written programs that used matrix/vector algebra, trig, etc — a good example would be my Space Elevator simulator. I even wrote a very simple 3D polygon renderer in C++ once.
Classical music is my favorite. I learned to play the French Horn in high school, and I'd like to buy my own horn so that I can take it up again. In the mean time I content myself with listening to as much music as I can. A few of my personal favorites are Shostakovich's "The Second Waltz" and symphonies, "The Ring" by Wagner, Mozart's horn and piano concertos, the "Peer Gynt Suite" by Edvard Grieg, and Dvorak's symphony "From the New World". I guess that's not really 'a few' after all.
I seem to always have liked reading, so I always try and find a good book. I'm mostly into science fiction, though there are plenty of other good books out there. I would have to say that my favorite books are Tolkien's stories of Middle Earth: "The Silmarillion," and "The Fellowship of the Ring." The way he constantly weaves references to the huge body of mythology and history he made for his world into the storyline is what makes these stories great; you really feel that the characters are embedded in a world that is much larger than themselves. Vernor Vinge is also a favorite of mine, particularly "Fast Times at Fairmont High" and "A Deepness in the Sky." Charles Stross has also writen some excellent books, such as "Accelerando."
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