Larry Colen
home: 831-335-7505
cell: 831-818-7729
e-mail:
lrc@red4est.com
url: http://www.red4est.com/resume.html
EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW:
System design: |
Design of complete system, both hardware and software. |
Software: |
Design, writing, debugging, documentation and maintenance. |
Hardware: |
Design, construction, debugging, field service and component specification. |
Networking: |
Wide Area Networking at the packet and frame level. |
Real-time control: |
Wrote software to control industrial systems in real time. |
User interfaces: |
Designed and wrote user interfaces. |
Data acquisition: |
Realtime acquisition of data on industrial systems. |
Signal analysis: |
Realtime analysis of digitized analog signals. |
Technical writing: |
Wrote user manuals and a textbook on performance driving. |
Teaching: |
Programming, rock climbing and performance driving. |
Project management: |
Responsibility for the work of myself and others. |
Software quality: |
Training in techniques and methodology for improving software quality. |
Distributed computing: |
Multiprocessor systems where each processor performed different tasks. |
Inter-processor communication: |
Communication between processors in multiprocessor systems. |
Programming Languages: |
C (15 years), Pascal, FORTRAN, BASIC |
several Assembly Languages including: |
MIPS, Intel 8080, Zilog Z-80, Hitachi HD64180, Dec PDP-11 and TI TMS320. |
Linux: |
Have been using Linux since 1994 (0.99p13). Kernel modifications at CIS. |
EXPERIENCE:
Jan 2004 - May 2004 Contractor Digital Dynamics Inc
Duties:
Provided Linux expertise in the design and
implementation of an intelligent User Interface terminal for an
Industrial control system. Wrote user interface software in GTK+ and
glade.
Feb 2001 - Dec 2003 Sr. Engineer Recourse/Symantec
Duties:
Recourse was purchased by Symantec in August of
2002. My primary duties were on Mantrap, a network based honeypot.
In addition, I had various duties as needed including work on a
security appliance, and a network traffic generator used for in-house
testing.
Feb 2000 - Sept 2000 Sr. Engineer Olliance
Duties:
Olliance was a strategic consulting firm for
enterprises interested in using Open Source Software. As a Senior
Engineer, I was involved in all aspects of a project from initial
consultation to implementation.
Feb 2000 - Jul 2000 Contractor Counterpane Internet Security, San Jose
Duties:
Adding logging features to the Linux kernel.
Nov 1998 - Jan 2000 Sr. Engineer Internet Appliance, Fremont and Singapore
Duties:
Internet Appliance made a Linux based thin server aimed at the small to
medium sized business. As a Senior Engineer my duties covered any
engineering that needed to be done. I ran the engineering department
in Singapore for several months until the new department head
started, system administration, programming, engineering support,
technical and customer support.
Feb 1998 - Sept 1998 Engineer Packet Link Inc., San Jose CA
Duties:
Packet Link was a startup developing an intelligent
chip to be used in Wide Area Networking. As at most startups, my
duties were basically to do what needed to be done. As a member of
the Firmware and Architecture department most of my work involved
learning WAN protocols and writing experimental software to determine
how much time our chip would take to perform particular packet
handling tasks. I was also involved in writing Linux Device Drivers,
Technical writing (specifications, tutorials and presentations),
developing the company Software Quality Process and Software
Standards, and System architectural review.
Feb 1996 - Aug 1997 Sr. Software Engineer at Schlumberger ATE, San Jose CA
Duties:
Writing calibration and diagnostic software for a
SPARC based, mixed signal Integrated Circuit
Tester.
Projects:
Register test software. Rather than writing
several programs to test the read/write registers of various boards
in the mixed mode tester, I wrote a single engine, which would take
register definition files as input and automatically test the
appropriate registers.
Enhancements to Sysma, a System
Analysis tool. Basically each piece of hardware that Sysma addressed
had its own display screen, done in ASCII graphics. Rather than
continuing the practice of writing new brute force in-line code for
each new piece of hardware, I wrote an engine that would take a
register definition file from the register test program, a screen
definition file describing the layout of the display, and a file
defining the valid commands for the screen and would automatically
generate the code to read the status of the hardware, display it on
the screen, await a command and call the appropriate hardware
interface function. Once this engine was written, adding a new screen
was simplified to creating the three definition files, adding some
hooks in the main software and writing the few functions that would
interact directly with hardware.
Test and characterization
software for a PLL controlled ADC clock circuit.
May - Sept 1995 Contract Programmer at Atalla Corp, San Jose
CA
Projects:
Point of Sale Terminal: Updated existing software
to work on new hardware platform.
Automated Teller Card
Programmer: Updated existing software to work on new hardware
platform. This system used cryptographic protocols to insure secure
transmission and confirmation of personal identification numbers.
1992 - 1995 Software Engineer at Edge Diagnostic Systems,
Sunnyvale CA
Projects:
Ignition analyzer: This system involved
an Intel based machine running the user interface that communicated
with a 32 bit processor which would collect, analyze and process the
data in real time.
Developed the software for collecting the data,
analyzing it for the location, frequency, magnitude and duration of
the ignition events as well as processing the data for display and
communicating with the front end machine.
Developed the software
for machine to communicate with the signal processor and maintained
the user interface.
1983 - 1992 Engineer at Digital Dynamics Inc., Scotts Valley CA.
Projects:
Controller for industrial glue machine.
Designed
user interface for controlling a fourteen channel Hot Melt Adhesive
Supply Unit via a twenty key keypad and a two line by sixteen
character display.
Developed a graphical method of explicitly
describing the user interface to a computer-naive customer. The
system had three levels of user access with separate passwords,
individually settable temperatures, time delays and standby
setpoints. Wrote the real-time executive and temperature control
software in assembly.
Wrote the user interface, calibration and
alarm software in Control Basic.
Helped bring up and debug the
new hardware.
Enhancement of controller for industrial glue
machine.
Converted the code from BASIC to C.
Wrote routines to
target commercial cross-compilers (one on CP/M one, on MS-DOS) to the
hardware.
Wrote code to implement timer control and scheduling.
Wrote code to emulate the hardware on a PC for debugging the user
interface. The system was also accessible via a serial port for
remote control by another computer.
On several Air-Flow Monitoring
systems I did project management, user interface design and
coding.
Gas pipeline leak detection software.
Improved an
algorithm for detecting leaks by analyzing the realtime signals from
a natural gas pipeline.
Temperature Data Loggers.
Wrote
the user manual for a temperature data logging system which used a PC
to read data out of data loggers which took temperature readings at
specified time periods.
Automated test system for a single
board embedded controller.
Designed the hardware, both mechanical
and electrical, for calibrating and testing both digital and analog
circuitry.
Designed, wrote and debugged the test and calibration
software for both the test system and the computer being tested.
Supervised the technician who built and debugged the hardware of
the test system.
Analysis showed that the automated test system
paid itself off in time saved over manual test after one hundred
units of a several hundred unit production run.
EDUCATION: B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering University of California at Davis, 1983
Emphasis: Software and signal processing.
Sr. Project:
Multi-processor operating system. University of California at Santa
Cruz, 1977-1978 Completed coursework while a senior in high school.
OTHER INTERESTS:
Owner and operator of Redforest, which
started out as a semi-public access UUCP site, originally running on
SCO Xenix, now running Linux.
In addition to my computer related skills, I have written the textbook used by the National Auto Sport Association in their performance driving school, taught performance driving for five years and have been active in road racing as driver, crew and flagger since 1988. my current racecar is a Spec Miata, though when time and money permits, I have a supercharged 1969 MGBGT.
I ran the team driving my racecar when we took fifth in class (thirteenth overall) in the 2004 25 hours of Thunderhill Enduro.
>I wrote an article on code reviews published in the January 2001 issue of the Linux Journal.
My Professional objectives, what I look for in a job.
One fun thing about interviews are the quizes to test what you know and how you think. If I were interviewing someone, I might give them this quiz. Answers to the quiz.
Writing Debuggable Software: A missive that I wrote discussing various techniques for writing software in such a way that it can be easily debugged and maintained.
I enjoy dancing, mostly Lindy Hop and Victorian, with forays into Contra, Argentine Tango, Medieval and other forms. And used my engineering skills to build the Pan Galactic Ghetto Blaster to use as a portable sound system.
Most recently modified by lrc at 050315 1630