Resume
From RonWareWiki
Introduction
It has become impossible to put all my experience on a single or even double-sheet resumé. I have therefore split it into two parts: first, a PDF-format overview, presenting why you might be interested in me, and giving a synopsis of my skills. The second part is this page, which contains the details about work experience and history which you would normally expect of a resumé.
Please don't hesitate to provide me feedback.
Skills
Programming:
- Applications and systems programming in C, C++, Java, assembly language, Forth
- Client/server product development
- Database programming in SQL, Java, Perl and others
- Extensive "open-source" knowledge
- Good knowledge of Linux and Symbian (native and MIDP)
- Many years of Microsoft Windows experience (from drivers up through UI work)
- Secure coding techniques
- Unix/Linux programming and tools (vim, perl, TeX, bash and many others)
Managerial:
- Led small programming groups
- Led international teams of developers
- Coordinated international customer requirements with development teams
Languages:
- native level English
- almost native level Hebrew
- good conversational Spanish
Experience
April 17th (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog
Hi again!
Help feed the hungry in Israel!
It looks like the war against the ants has ended in an uneasy cease-fire, as most conflicts do in the middle-east. Plugging the electrical conduits does seem to have stopped their easy access, and we actually saw no ants over the holiday. However, this morning I noticed some ants around the dishwasher, and I assume they are coming in from the electrical outlet the dishwasher is plugged into. <grrr>! What I need is an "Antenator", made by the people who make the Rodenator!
The holiday itself was very relaxing. I think this was the most relaxing pesach on record (for us, anyway). But the last day of chol-hamo`ed (the day before the last actual yom-tov, there was a sharav -- and so we read with relief the forecast of cooler weather following. We sat down for the last holiday meal with some friends, and towards the end of the meal the wind picked up -- and the temperature dropped precipitously. Our guests walked home in 50kph winds, and the next day was nice and cool. Rain even fell... weird weather.
During chol-hamoed, we went to the kotel to see birkat hakohanim (the Kohanic blessing). The Jerusalem Post had almost no coverage of that event, but the Easter celebrations were front page press. <sarcasm> It makes sense. After all, the two events are not comparable in religious importance. On the one hand you have the idolaters celebrating their "god's" death and resurrection, and on the other hand you have the descendants of Aaron the High Priest continuing to perform a Biblical command to bless His people Israel. Obviously, we should give priority in our press to the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations.</sarcasm>
Dear American Jews: don't cry for us. The rabid left-wing keeps asserting that "without US aid and support, Israel would be finished". Let's examine that claim, shall we?
US aid to Israel in 2007 was $2.5 billion, of which 160 million was actual 'financial aid'. The other $2.34 billion was "military aid". Most of that aid consists of guarantees, such that Israel has to purchase US military goods with that money. That is to say, the money is "given" to Israel which must then turn around and support the US military industry.
The Israeli GDP for 2008 was almost $189 billion (at the official rate of exchange). Given that only 160 million of US aid was intended to help the economy of Israel, the loss of it would entail a mere 0.08% of Israel's GDP. I highly doubt that would affect Israeli's standard of living in any meaningful way. Even were the entire 2.5 billion all financial aid, it would still only constitute 1.3% of Israel's GDP. Yes, I realize I took aid numbers from 2007 and GDP from 2008, but that's what I had available. In fact, 2008 aid numbers are lower than 2007 numbers, so the percentages would be even smaller.
However, to the real point: US aid to Israel has nothing whatsoever to do with supporting Israel per se. The US started supporting Israel in a meaningful way only after the Yom Kippur War, when the Soviet empire's influence in the Arab world was growing very strong. America wanted a strong ally (e.g. pawn) to offset the Soviets and to project US power in the region.
And as a result of this relationship, while it gives Israel access to American military technology (at the whim of US leaders, of course), it also prevents Israel from developing its own industries and making such deals as are appropriate for its own sovereign interests. The US, for instance, vetoed a multi-billion dollar deal Israel had made with China for Israeli military technology, and Israel had to meekly cancel the deal (and anger the Chinese, who will not soon forget that slight).
The best thing that could happen to Israel would be to cut off all aid from the US immediately, so it could pursue such alliances as best benefit Israeli interests (with Turkey and India, trade deals with China and African countries). Of course, it is good to have US technologies...
And just to set the record straight, Israel has a powerful economy (thanks to high-tech, biotech, alternative energy research, agricultural industry, medical research etc...):
| Country | GDP (GUSD) | GDP per cap | Life expectancy |
| Israel | 189 | 28,800 | 80.7 |
| USA | 14,330 | 47,000 | 78.1 |
| EU | 18,850 | 33,400 | 78.7 |
| Jordan | 19 | 5,000 | 78.9 |
| Egypt | 158 | 5,400 | 72.1 |
| Lebanon | 28 | 11,100 | 73.6 |
As you can see, Israel has over twice the GDP per capita of its nearest neighbor in the region, and not far from the EU's. It also has the highest life-expectancy of any of the countries mentioned. Draw your own conclusions.
- Why can't Israel play the violin?
- A new park near us with purty flowers
Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!
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Life as a contractor
From 9/1993 - 7/2001, was one of three founding partners of "Moss Bay Engineering", a software services contracting firm. The majority of our work was done for Microsoft Corporation.
Projects on which I worked included:
- Linux and Windows modules for high-availability software system. Design and implementation of perl-based accessors for OEM APIs. gcc, VC++.
- Secure instant communication program. Design and implementation of new UI. Added features to client and server portions. Researched Linux components. Delphi, gcc.
- MS NetDocs. Implementation of POP and SMTP protocols; SQL to MAPI translation layer. Lightweight system DLLs. VC++, MFC, COM, etc.
- MS Outlook, multiple versions over three years. I18N, mainly for FE locales. BiDi and multibyte programming. Date and time parsing and formatting. VC++, MFC, COM, etc.
- MS Direct-X SDK, initial version. Device drivers for high-speed video access, multi-player networked sample games. MASM, VC++.
- MS Windows NT internals, fixed and enhanced USER and GDI modules. C, MASM.
- Design and implementation of a compressing MSDOS disk-driver for a hand-held device. Use PCMCIA RAM card as compressed hard disk. TASM, Borland C.
- Slide-show style screen-saver for Win16 using custom image compressor and user supplied photographs. Borland C++.
Other experience
| 12/2004 - present | Reva - a small, cross-platform Forth |
| Principal developer and project lead | |
| A personal project which grew out of my search for small and fast development environments. Programmers and enthusiasts from around the world contribute to this rapidly developing product.
FASM, Forth | |
| 9/1997 - present | VIM Development team (Internet) |
| Contributing programmer | |
| Ongoing contributor to the "vim" project - a "charity-ware", multi-platform programmer's editor. Work with developers across the globe on various parts of it: Windows port, GUI portions, I18N and UTF-8 work, many bug fixes and enhancements.
Visual C, Borland C, gcc. | |
| 9/2000 - 12/2006 | Congregation Beis Menachem (Bellevue, WA) |
| Past president, Principal developer | |
| Developed and supported custom-designed membership database for non-profit organization.
C++, Win32Forth, SQLite. |
Prior experience
| 9/1989 - 9/1993 | Traveling Software (Bothell, WA) |
| Principal Engineer | |
| Principal Engineer on Newton Connection for Windows product. Lead Engineer on Blackbird for Windows and Laplink for Slate. Responsible for Battery Watch Pro projects from proof-of-concept through design and implementation.
C, C++, MASM, TASM | |
| 10/1988 - 9/1989 | Softsel Computer Products (Inglewood, CA) |
| Sr. Programmer/Analyst | |
| Project lead, internal systems. Host-PC connectivity. Database and customer fulfillment applications programming.
C, Pascal, Btrieve, MASM. | |
| 5/1985 - 10/1988 | Mission Insurance Company (Los Angeles, CA) |
| Sr. Technician, Specialty Areas | |
| Worked for the Actuarial department; wrote data mining, consolidation and reconciliation programs.
Turbo Pascal | |
| early 1980s | Israeli Defense Forces (Israel) |
| Liason officer | |
| Liason between army and reserve soldiers. Responsible for organizing training and related matters. |
Other
- Education: Technion, Israel - mathematics/physics
- Writing: Technical editor, "Vi IMproved - Vim" (New Riders). Also wrote various articles for "PC Techniques"
- References available upon request