Deprecated: The each() function is deprecated. This message will be suppressed on further calls in /home/zhenxiangba/zhenxiangba.com/public_html/phproxy-improved-master/index.php on line 456 David Coffin's Resume David J. Coffin
2-B North Main Street, Apt. 215
Newmarket, NH 03857-1220
603-292-6398
603-502-0562 (cell)
dcoffin a cybercom o net
SUMMARY
Twelve years experience as a Software Engineer using a wide variety of
tools and techniques. Highly proficient user and author of open-source
software.
KEY ASSETS
Familiarity with several generations of PC hardware, with complete
mastery of assembly language in the x86 instruction set. Can debug
assembly code without ICE or debugger.
Proven ability to reverse-engineer Windows applications.
Command of many higher-level languages and tools: Bash, Python,
Perl, C, RCS, CVS, PHP3, Sed, Awk, Expect, 4DOS, HTML, PostScript,
Lout (similar to TeX), IDL, and Scheme.
Can learn a new language in about a week.
Twelve years experience with Open Source tools. Use Linux for
everything. Run legacy Microsoft applications in DOSemu or Wine.
Firmly believe that programming is an art, not a science, and that
beautiful code is more reliable and easier to maintain.
Good writing skills. Able to express ideas clearly and concisely
in English and Esperanto.
1997 - Present
Author of dcraw, an essential tool for digital photography.
Although raw digital photos provide better quality than JPEG,
many photographers do not use them for fear that computers will
someday be unable to read these undocumented file formats.
Dcraw is a free ANSI C program to decipher any raw photo from
any digital camera on any computer running any operating system.
It is my gift to programmers, photographers, and future generations
of historians.
Thanks to dcraw source code, Adobe Photoshop and dozens of
other image tools now have built-in support for raw photos, and
the popularity of raw photography has grown enormously.
2000 - 2001
Created an Esperanto language and voice for the
Festival Speech Synthesis System.
EMPLOYMENT
2000 - 2002
Wildfire Communications, Waltham MA Maker of an voice-based personal assistant
Release Engineer
Designed custom boot media to install Solaris, UnixWare, and
Linux with no questions asked.
Wrote scripts (mostly with shell and Expect) to automate the
creation, installation, removal, and configuration of Wildfire
software on these platforms.
Saved hundreds of man-hours by automating tedious sequences of
patch installs and config file changes across multiple machines.
1996 - 2000
Unicore Software, North Andover MA Maker of BIOS upgrades for PCs and embedded systems
BIOS Engineer
Built an Internet gateway from a 486/33 PC, a 28.8 modem, and a
Slackware CD. This provided all of Unicore's internet access for more
than two years, until the company upgraded to a T1 line in late 1999.
Created firmware and software Y2K products that grossed millions
of dollars for Unicore in 1998 and 1999.
Designed and implemented a system for building BIOS upgrades for
thousands of motherboards from poorly maintained Award source code.
Wrote a diagnostic tool for identifying a user's chipset, BIOS,
and super I/O, with the eventual goal of enabling the on-line purchase
of BIOS upgrades.
Contracted to Sun Microsystems to customize the BIOS for their
third-generation PC emulator board.
1995 - 1996
Lam Research Corporation, Wilmington MA Manufacturer of silicon wafer etch machines
Software System Administrator
Supported a network of UNIX (SunOS and NextStep) workstations used
by Lam's software developers.
Hands-on setup and debugging of etch machines on the factory floor.
Installed, tested, and used modems for dialup, Z-modem file transfer,
SLIP, and PPP connections.
Provided extensive (sometimes critical) support, via phone, E-mail,
and remote login, for Lam users in Fremont, CA while they searched for
their own sysadmin.
1993 - 1994
Phillips Lab Data Analysis Center, Hanscom AFB, MA Government research lab
General-purpose UNIX/C/IDL Guru
Provided hands-on support for a heterogeneous (Sun, HP, SGI, Alpha,
DEC MIPS, and NeXT) network of UNIX workstations, installing and
troubleshooting operating systems and applications.
Downloaded, compiled, and customized dozens of free software
packages to provide a uniform functionality across all UNIX platforms.
Offered skills to users at every opportunity. Created a PC-based
movie player for an astronomer to defend his PhD thesis. Used IDL, C,
and PostScript to explore new ways of turning raw numbers into plots,
images, and movies.
EDUCATION
B.S., Computer Science with Minor in Physics, University of
Massachusetts at Lowell, 1992. Cumulative GPA 3.8/4.0