Kaj Nyström: Skills and experience

Skills and Experience

A CV is a good thing but I believe that it does not really tell the truth about what a person can do and what he can not do. This is a less formal way of presenting my skills and experience. Its intended audience is primarily a potential employer with some technical skills.

Things I have done

System administrator of the 40-node linux PC cluster Gonzo, named after the late Hunter S. Thompsons journalistic "style".
I am right now devloping two Modelica compilers. I designed one of them myself as a spare time project. The other is OpenModelica.
I have to some extent been the "emergency consultant" at MathCore Engineering whom you send for when dealine is approaching fast and you need results fast.
I have been the project leader for small to medium sized consultancy projects in the area of software development.
I have acted as technical sales person with a pretty good sales rate.
I have made significant contributions to more than ten different software project spanning more than 20KLOC.
I have written an integrated optimizer and debugger in C++ for the OpenModelicaCompiler.
I have built a distributed recipe system in Java. It contains both a server with multiple database connection capabilities, a client with a swing GUI and a web client built with servlets. I needed a way to keep track of all those pesky one-page recipies I seam to pick up everywhere.
I have since 1996 administrated a home network (sealbay.net) built on Gnu/Linux (Debian) which provides many different services for multiple users (>10), both external and internal.
My first real software project was an organ donor register, written in Pascal in the early 1990s.

Things I can do

Take initiatives
Manage projects
Think about projects and software development in economic terms
Be the driving force behind a project
Program pretty much anything
Software design
Teach programming, object oriented analysis and design, compiler construction and probably most other computer science related things as well at (university) college level.
I can talk to customers and marketing people, both technical and market lingua if necessary.
I can also talk to techies, even physicists and automotive engineers.
I speak and write English and Swedish. I understand some french, spoken and written but not very well I'm afraid.
Teach everything in the area of computers at Swedish gymnasium level (grade 10-12). I could probably teach mathemathics and perhaps even physics as well.

Things I know

Compilers: I have written an integrated optimizer and debugger for the Open Source Modelica Compiler. I am currently involved in the core development of this and other compilers, both pre- and post- optimizer part. Compilers in general is something of a special interest.
Programming: Preferred languages are Java and possibly C++. I have also the following languages (>10000 LOC): Java, C#, C, ADA, Pascal, Lisp, Perl, Modelica, Fortran and Scheme. Other languages I have used (>1000 LOC) include 68k-asm, x86-ASM, VB, Javascript, Matlab, Fortran and probably a few more I forgot to mention.
If I can choose, I prefer Java or C#.
Hardware: I can build small electronic gizmos, preferably with digital components but if you are looking for a pure hardware guy, I am most likely not your man.
Computer security: I read Bugtraq. I have administrated my own Linux/iptables-ipchains based firewall and linuxbased home network since 1998. I know the basics on some formal security measurement methods as well. I am currently the administrator for a 40-node PC cluster and a 20-something computers office network including 4 servers.
Databases: I can write moderately advanced SQL-queries, design databases with EER-diagrams and I am quite familiar even with Microsoft Access, although I prefer a real database if I can choose.
Computer networks: Basic knowledge of TCP/IP and related protocols although it was i while since I did anything in the area. I can probably still read an RFC on a protocol and understand it though.
The web: Quite familiar with HTML. I can also use CGIs, pph, javascript, ASP, servlets and various webdesign tools but I tend to prefer my trusted emacs.
Mathematics: Familiar with the basics of computational theory, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, transform theory, calculus, numerical and combinatorial methods, probability theory and statistics. Quite familiar with numerical methods for solving systems of equations.

Things I can learn

Almost anything computer related. For example: Give me a manual and a few days (1-3) and I will learn a new programming language well enough to write the algorithm of your choice in a few minutes. Perhaps a few minutes more if I shall also implement the target datastructure, depending on its specification.
Anything else too. Yes, my self confidence is pretty good.

kaj@lysator.liu.se