Status: I am generally available to do consulting and contract work. I prefer short-term projects but longer term projects are negotiable. I am primarily interested in doing C# WinForm and ASP.NET applications, but I am also willing to do C++.

Areas of Expertise: C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, C++, SQL Server (and other SQL variants), COM, COM+, XML, XSL, JScript, VBScript, ActiveX

Experience:

January 2003 – Present: Independent Consultant

Writing a multi-language (Spanish and English) property management system for use by hotels. The system handles front desk operations as well as back-office accounting. It integrates with several PBX systems for billing of phone calls as well as integration with online reservation systems to allow reservations from web sites to be automatically downloaded into the system. The user-interface can be switched on the fly between Spanish and English (this is primarily for resort hotels with both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking employees) The system is written in C# using Windows Forms with a possible ASP.NET interface to be added.

Created two online tour reservation systems for independent tour operators. Site allows management of the tour information (text, rates, images, schedules, etc) and a dynamic front-end for tour information and reservations.

Created a web interface into a real estate database for a real-estate web site that allows users to view information and pictures of available properties for rent and for sale. Also created an access database and forms for managing the data.

Created an online reservation system for hotels. The system is geared to handle multiple hotels and allow individual hotel owners to manage the pricing and booking availability for their hotels.

Currently managing two open source projects: DotNet DAL Lib and World Wide Knowledge Base.

Developing a voice recognition add-in for Visual Studio.NET to allow developers to code entirely by voice. The initial version will support only C#, but VB.NET and C++ plugins will be added in the future. Using a combination of code syntax and macro type commands (phrases which expand into larger code chunks) one can create the code. The system also allows control of the IDE for building and debugging, among other things.

Wrote a stock market analysis tool that uses a variety of technical indicators in unconventional ways to predict equity and market changes. I am unfortunately unable to go into much detail about how the tool work. The tool was developed in C# using Windows Forms. Uses a custom candle-stick chart component also written in C#.

Wrote a stock trading simulation tool that allowed the client to test several trading systems using historical data, to gauge performance of different strategies and systems. The tool was a console application written in C#.

Wrote documentation and did extensive testing of CodeSmith, a .NET template-based code generator, and CodeSmith Studio, both created by Eric J. Smith.

Created a Localizable HelpProvider component for .NET since the HelpProvider component included with Visual Studio .NET generated uncompilable code.

Beta tester for the SyncFusion Essential Suite of .NET windows forms controls

June 2000 – December 2002: Senior Developer, QueTel Corporation, Herndon, VA

Original software architect of the TraQ Enterprise line of products. TraQ Enterprise is a scalable customized application generator. It allows the user to create completely customized database applications for clients. Implemented a number of the core systems features. Responsible for ongoing development of new features. Work includes development of ActiveX controls, COM and COM+ components, use of the Crystal Reports API and various other development tools. TraQ Enterprise uses COM+ as middle tier layer and is scalable to thousands of users. The form builder is similar to a VC++ or VB form builder except controls placed on the form can be automatically tied to database fields, similar to Access forms. In addition, it supports VB Script and JScript which can be attached to forms or controls and respond to events (such as entering a value in one field will calculate a value in another field). TraQ Enterprise also has a “plug-in” architecture similar to Photoshop and other applications that support plug-ins, in that entirely new functionality can be added to the core via a plug-in. The plug-in can add commands to the menu, respond to events that occur within the system and so forth. With TraQ Enterprise, one can create an enterprise scalable database application in a matter of days, instead of months or years. The core system is written in C++ with plugins and other satellite components written in C#, VB, and VB.NET

May 1998 – June 2000: Independent Consultant

Wrote a custom PDF viewer (Adobe Acrobat format) for Windows, based on the freeware XPDF code. Handling fonts, graphics, masks, lines and beziers. Utilized commercial font rendering software. Used Panose font matching. Viewer was derived from an ATL window to be used later as part of an ActiveX control.

Wrote various utilities and tools for an ISP and several Internet cafes. Several tools are WinSock based, including custom ping and traceroute-type utilities. Others are heavily database oriented utilities for maintaining operational data. Jobs have included the development of several Active X controls. Developed online hotel and tour booking system using Perl and HTML. Allowed for automatic booking of tours or hotel rooms as well as credit card validation and charging.

April 1995 - May 1998: Systems Architect, MLJ, Inc - Arlington, VA

Developed and maintained large system for designing wireless RF systems (cellular, digital PCS and CDMA, broadcast, etc). The system allows engineers design wireless networks (place antennas on a map) and predict and manipulate vital information such as propagation, interference, traffic capacity, frequency planning and so on. This was a team project where the team ranged in size from as small as 2 developers to as large as 16. Required learning the basics and in some cases, advanced areas of RF engineering. The project was entirely C++ based with a MS-SQL back-end. The application was very graphically oriented and included everything from graphing, reporting, and mapping, to custom controls and even 3D rendering of terrain data. Additional job requirements included: Discussing requirements and interfaces with engineers that used the tool. Interviewing candidate programmers for technical skills as well as ability to work with the existing team. Teaching SQL classes to programmers and engineers.

June 1994 - April 1995: Independent Consultant - Fairfax, VA

Worked primarily for WexTech, Inc. Makers of the commercial product, "Doc-To-Help" (no longer available, apparently). Wrote a WinHelp plug-in to support watermarks in .HLP files as well as 256 color bitmaps (before they were supported by WinHelp). Keep in mind also that this was before the Web was popular.

Also developed a custom utility for resizing images using anti-aliasing to allow for minimal distortion of the details. All of this is fairly commonly available today but at the time was only available in higher-end graphics packages.

Previous experience available upon request.

Language Skills:

Fluency in Spanish. Read, written, and spoken
Some fluency in French and Italian as well
Currently learning Norwegian.

Other Work:

Co-author of "Windows Undocumented File Formats", published by Miller Freeman's R&D Books.

"Examining Microsoft's Speech SDK," Dr. Dobb's Journal, July, 1999.

Author of a dozen or so other articles for Windows Developer's Journal, Dr. Dobbs Journal, and PC Magazine.