Development Sales

Steve Sinai

*** *** ***** *******, ********, California, 94044

650-***-**** (Home) 650-***-**** (Cell) ******@*****.***

* UI Design and Development, primarily with Java Swing. Also Ajax,

HTML, Javascript, XML, CSS, GWT and JSP.

* 2-, 3-Dimensional Computer Graphics and Visualization

* Computer Language and Interpreter Development

* RDBMS/SQL with Oracle, MySQL, Sybase

* MATLAB

* Project Management

My interests and specialties revolve around graphics, UI programming,

modeling and simulation, and interface design. I'm very interested in ease-

of-use and learnability issues, so over the last few years, I've been

experimenting with creating domain-specific languages and natural language

interpreters. I think that for certain applications, interacting with

computers using text phrases can be faster and easier to learn than

traditional point-and-click GUIs.

I'm a big believer that you can excel at either front or back-end

development, but not both. Writing code that interacts with unstructured,

unpredictable humans is very different from writing code that interacts

with relatively structured, predictable software, and the approaches,

methodologies, and tools used for one type of development don't necessarily

work for the other. Having been hired onto many projects after the front-

end effort had gotten into deep trouble, almost invariably I've noticed a

major problem had been trying to force a common approach to both front-end

and back-end development.

QUICK TECHNICAL HISTORY

1996-present: Java desktop and web application development, mostly on the

client-side. Swing/AWT, Ajax, Javascript, HTML, CSS, XML, GWT, JSP, J2EE.

UIs to Oracle and MySQL RDBMS.

1989-1996: UI/graphics development and porting, primarily on systems

utilizing Unix, C, C++, X-Windows, Xlib, Motif. UIs to Sybase and Oracle

RDBMS.

1983-1988: 2,3-D graphics and image processing for aerospace and broadcast

digital effects applications. Unix, C, Pascal, Fortran, Assembly, Ada,

various proprietary graphics libraries.

PROJECTS

* Since 1989, almost all my work has been done as a contract programmer.

Elastra Corp San Francisco, CA...May 2010-Present : Helping Elastra

rewrite their GWT/GXT-based GUI in preparation for an important customer

evaluation.

Math Scribbler...Pacifica, CA...Feb. 2004-Present : This is my own little

killer-app, start-up idea that I've spent a fair amount of time on, and

hope to be able to turn into a product someday. It's worth mentioning since

it involves some very unusual use of Java Swing combined with natural

language-like interpreter development, which allows for anything from

quick, simple calculations, to iterative "what-if" analysis, to charting

and graphing.

Math Scribbler is a very atypical Java Swing/2D desktop application that's

a cross between an easy-to-use text editor like Notepad, and a numerical

computing environment like Matlab, Maple, and SAS. It can also be described

as a spreadsheet alternative. Users type a series of math statements into

the text editor, which are then collectively parsed and solved using a

custom-built, Javascript-like interpreter. Unlike other math interpreters,

where results are displayed in separate windows apart from each equation or

statement, thus making it difficult to connect the statements with their

answers, Math Scribbler displays results immediately next to each math

statement. My goal has been to make it as inexpensive, simple and non-

intimidating as possible, so that anyone can use it...not just those with

math or engineering degrees.

The architecture uses a plug-in model that allows custom-written or

publicly available Java packages to be easily integrated into the

application. For example, if you have Java classes that contain methods

dealing with statistics or financial modeling, you can simply copy the

classes to a plug-in directory, and via Java reflection, the methods are

immediately available for use. There's no need to do any UI programming -

you just type the method names and their parameters into the worksheet. Non-

programmers can also create their own worksheets containing user-defined

equations and functions, and then save these for reuse whenever new numbers

need to be run.

Examples of unusual, advanced Swing functionality in Math Scribbler include

embedding custom Swing and JFreeCharts components directly into Swing text

documents; word-oriented undo/redo; phrase highlighting based on context;

print and print preview (very difficult to do in Java if you have text and

graphics embedded in the same document); and converting Swing documents to

PDF using iText.

Barclay's Global Investors...San Francisco, CA...Aug. 2008-Feb. 2009 : Java

Swing w/Jide client; Spring/Hibernate to Oracle middle-tier development for

Barclay's APEX portfolio management system.

Sensage, Inc...San Francisco, CA...Aug. 2006-July 2008 : Client-side

dashboard and reporting tool development for Sensage's log management

application. Java Swing, Ajax (Javascript, XML,) Spring/Hibernate, iText

(for PDF,), GWT, JFreeCharts, Jide. Designed and implemented print-preview

and printing capability.

ePropose...San Francisco, CA...Aug. 2000-Feb. 2003 : Swing UI application

and HTML/Javascript/XML web development (before it was called Ajax) for

ePropose's auction and collaboration software. My main task was to rewrite

the confusing and unmaintainable original Swing UI, which had been

developed by at least a half-dozen people, all with different ideas about

UI development. After four months, they forced me to lead the UI group,

which consisted of about six programmers and testers. The final UI was

much easier to learn and use (at least as judged by me), and code-wise was

only about 15% of the size of the original. When not working on the UI, my

time was spent writing demonstration programs, and on custom application

development for the company's customers.

Charles Schwab...San Francisco, CA...Jan. 2000-Aug. 2000 : Client- and

server-side AWT/Swing GUI-development for Schwab's institutional web-

trading application. First converted the application from AWT to Swing.

Then developed real-time quote and dynamic charting capability using a Java

Bean/RMI messaging system to send financial data between server and client.

Charts were generated on the client using using Swing and Java 2D.

McKesson Corporation...San Francisco, CA...Jan. 1998-Oct. 1999 : Client-

and server-side development for a set of web and data-mining applications

that allowed McKesson's sales personnel and customers to drill-down into

McKesson's sales data warehouse. Reports could be generated detailing

everything from high-level sales summaries on a monthly basis, down to low-

level sales information on a per-invoice basis.

Sun Microsystems...Mountain View, CA...Oct. 1996-Sept. 1997 : Project

manager, Java applet developer, database administrator (I don't know how I

ended up doing that), and webmaster on several web projects. Acted as a

Sun liaison and troubleshooter for projects that were being implemented by

outside consulting groups, but were running into trouble.

NEC...San Jose, CA...March 1996-Sept. 1996 : GUI development for NEC's

PrivateNet firewall product.

Lehman Brothers (RIP New York, NY...Sept. 1993-Dec. 1995 : GUI and

Sybase design and development for Lehman's Fixed Income Analytics group.

Passed the Series 7 Securities Exam. Except for wearing a suit, this was

one of my favorite jobs.

IBM...Kingston, NY...June 1991-Aug. 1993 : Two separate projects. The

first was GUI development and administration; Oracle and Sybase RDBMS

development for IBM's Geographic Information System application. The

second was GUI development and systems-level programming for IBM's

Massively Parallel Processing Supercomputer, aka, 'Deep Blue', the fastest-

computer in the world at the time, and first chess-playing computer to beat

a world champion.

Sun Microsystems...Palo Alto, CA...March 1991-April 1991 : Port of AION

Corporation's expert system application from OS/2 to Sun's Unix

workstations; and design and development of a new X-Windows/Motif UI for

the Sun version.

U.S. Sprint...Burlingame, CA...July 1990-Feb. 1991 : GUI design and

development; Oracle RDBMS development for a telecommunications testing and

billing application.

SL Corporation...Corte Madera, CA...Sept. 1989-July 1990 : Initially ported

SL's Graphical Modeling product to X-Windows, then stayed on to do custom X-

Windows component/widget development and customer support.

Boeing...Seattle, WA...May 1987-Aug. 1989 : 2- and 3-dimensional graphics

and GUI development for complex computer models and simulations. Expert

system, geographic information system development. One week of every six

was spent at the Pentagon developing computer models for the Air Force

Center for Studies and Analysis. Top Secret clearance.

Island Graphics...San Rafael, CA...April 1986-May 1987 : Programming for

desktop publishing, medical imaging, digital paint applications, 2- and 3-D

broadcast animation systems.

Dalmo Victor...Belmont, CA...Aug. 1983-April 1986 : 2- and 3-D graphics

displays; database development for real-time military flight simulators.

Secret clearance.

EDUCATION

Master of Science in Systems Management, University of Southern California

1989

- similar to Operations Research or Industrial Engineering.

Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

1983

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