My generic Cover Letter.

Alan J. Stewart 7469 19th Avenue
Burnaby BC, V3N 1E5
604-551-6985
alanjstewart@shaw.ca

Career Objective
To use and enhance my existing skills in locating problems, analyzing possibilities, and implementing solutions for interesting and entertaining computer products in a fun and productive work environment.


Qualifications

  • 15+ years of industry programming experience
  • Languages: Java, C/C++, Visual Basic, HTML, LUA, BASIC, Pascal, Perl, PeopleCode, 80x86, 65816, 6502
  • Tools: Visual C++, Visual SourceSafe, CVS, Subversion, Tortoise, Zeus / Brief text editors, Doxygen, Word, Excel, Open Office, SQL, Crystal Reports, Mantis
  • APIs: J2ME (JavaME), Win32, ACCPAC, MFC, MIDP, CLDC, DirectX, AWT, Applets, Threads, Sockets
  • Operating Systems: Windows XP / 2000 / 98 / 95 / 3.1, UNIX / Linux, MS-DOS, Mac O/S
  • Game Consoles: Playstation (PSX), SuperNintendo (SNES)
  • Great team player
  • Able to accomplish individual tasks
  • Highly effective written and verbal communication skills
  • Excellent organizational abilities
  • Extremely capable and imaginative


What Others Are Saying

  • He pays attention to detail, has a consistent coding style, performs careful unit testing, deploys appropriate in-line code documentation, and works effectively without supervision. (R.Coates)
  • For the benefit of his co-workers and end-users he is a stickler about writing easy to understand documentation about his work. (B.Khan)
  • His work is well written and thoroughly documented. (M.Nemeth)
  • I am pleased to say that Alan is a professional that takes pride in the quality of his work and is a hard worker. (E.Chang)
  • He is a good problem solver and always finished work on schedule. (I.Deng)
  • High-quality programmer with a high level of product and development knowledge. (J.Jarvis)
  • He is helpful and approachable, and never has any problems getting on with his coworkers or managers. (F.Clarke)


Employment History
C++/Java Programmer - Fireswirl Technologies, Inc.
1000 - 675 Granville St, Vancouver BC, V6B 1N2, 604-685-9555
Mar 3, 2006 - Present
Tony Lau, CTO
  • Added Multiplayer Blackjack to a Poker-specific system. Developed both the server- and client-side. Added many bells-and-whistles to make Blackjack as fully-functional as the existing Poker system.
  • Designed and developed cell phone lottery solutions, communicating through SMS.
  • Documented and built server-side Baccarat, Red Dog, Sic Bo, Craps, and Tequila Poker.
  • Designed and built all-in-one casino suite for cell phones, including three Slot machines, two Video Poker machines, Craps, and Roulette.
  • Designed and built a much fancier Crazy 7 Slots specific cell phone game for 176x208 screen size.
  • Technologies Used: Microsoft C/C++, J2ME (JavaME), Microsoft Visual Studio, TortoiseCVS, Zeus
Java Cell Phone Programmer (Contract) - Illuminated Technologies, Inc.
United Kingdom Building, 1588 - 409 Granville St, Vancouver BC, V6C 1T2, 604-488-0226
Oct 11, 2005 - Dec 1, 2005
Kevin Leduc, Team Lead
  • As part of a team of 6 programmers, completed development and maintenance of multiplayer Texas Hold'em for cell phones including Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 phones and Blackberry.
  • Added Tournament game play to the cell phone MIDlet, integrating with the existing login and game play functionality.
  • Tracked and fixed bugs using the Mantis bug-tracking system.
  • Documented the process for reducing the file size of .PNG files and thus reducing the size of the deliverable .JAR file.
  • Documented the process for converting the existing game .JAR and .JAD files for other affiliates by just changing the art and modifying the .JAD and manifest files.
  • Wrote a tool for modifying .PNG files to work with cell phones with reduced screen colours (4096 colours instead of 65,536 colours). This tool reduces the file size of the .PNG files and handles transparency.
  • Participated in code reviews.
  • Technologies Used: J2ME (JavaME), Threads, Eclipse, Subversion, Tortoise, Zeus, Open Office
Weekly Distributor - Terminal City Newspaper
300 - 211 Columbia St, Vancouver BC, V6A 2R5, 604-689-7559
Apr 6, 2005 - July 13, 2005
  • Delivered 5500 newspapers to various locations in the downtown main core including skytrain stations, bars, restaurants, Granville Street, and many other businesses and residences.
  • This was a weekly job, taking approximately 6 hours every Wednesday night.
  • Technologies Used: Excel, geographic knowledge
ACCPAC Software Engineer (Contract) - Cantatus Systems Group, Inc.
102 - 15375 102A Avenue, Surrey BC, V3R 7K1, 604-930-5300
Oct 25, 2004 - Mar 11, 2005
Arian Soheli, CEO
  • Developed and maintained the Cashiering and Account Billing ACCPAC module for Digital Dispatch Systems. This included 14 Views (C), 11 UIs (Visual Basic), 7 database tables, and 4 Crystal Reports.
  • Developed 3 other ACCPAC modules for handling ACCPAC tasks, all requiring Views, UIs, tables, and reports.
  • Technologies Used: Visual C/C++, Visual Basic, Oracle, SQL, Visual SourceSafe, Crystal Reports
Wireless Java Games Programmer (Self-Employment) - Everywhere Cell Phone Games, Inc.
7469 19th Avenue, Burnaby BC, V3N 1E5, 604-551-6985
Jan 27, 2003 - Mar 2, 2006
  • Completed Self-Employment Program through Douglas College.
  • Wrote and implemented the Business Plan for Everywhere Cell Phone Games.
  • Designed, developed, tested, maintained, and deployed 18 games and applications for cell phones and other small mobile devices, everything from the front-end UI down to the game logic.
  • Mastered J2ME, MIDP, CLDC, and Nokia's API for cell phones.
  • Maintained innumerable business contacts through various networks.
  • Used Java Swing UIs for in-house tool development.
  • Technologies Used: J2ME (JavaME), MIDP, Java, Threads, HTML, Zeus, Word, Excel, Windows XP
Senior Software Engineer - Goblin Studios, Inc. (now FutureBet)
311 Water Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver BC, V6B 1B8, 604-408-9737
Jan 2, 2001 - Aug 15, 2002
Michael Hiebert, CTO
  • Designed, developed and maintained casino client front-end Java applets for Video Poker (Jacks or Better, Joker's Wild, Deuces Wild), Slots (Classic, Progressive, Bonus Round), Blackjack (American and European), Roulette, Money Wheel, Baccarat, and the game loading screen. These applets ran on Internet Explorer as well as Netscape 4.6 and 6.1.
  • Developed and maintained Windows casino client front-ends and play-for-fun game logic modules in C++ for Money Wheel, Let It Ride, Caribbean Stud Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Casino War, Red Dog, Three Card Poker, and Sic Bo.
  • Designed, developed, documented and maintained an asynchronous, multiplayer, script-driven, automated test program (CasinoRobot) in Java for the casino server-side programmers to use for regression testing.
  • Improved my knowledge of Java, the class libraries, and client-server programming.
  • Technologies Used: Java, Visual C++, HTML, CVS, Zeus, Doxygen, Win32, MFC, Applets, Threads, Sockets
Software Engineer - ACCPAC Canada, Inc.
13700 International Place, Suite 300, Richmond BC, V6V 2X8, 604-207-9480
Dec 8, 1997 - Dec 22, 2000
Keith Schenkeveld, Project Manager
  • Ported (from COBOL to C), tested, upgraded, debugged and maintained 17 View components of ACCPAC for Windows Corporate Series Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable 4.1 and 4.2 using the ACCPAC Views template.
  • Created new Views for ACCPAC for Windows Corporate Series Accounts Receivable 4.2.
  • Converted the front-end 4.2 UIs from Realizer to Visual Basic using the in-house template.
  • Technologies Used: Visual C/C++, Visual Basic, Word, Excel, Visual SourceSafe, ACCPAC, Windows
Programmer - Radical Entertainment
8th Floor, 369 Terminal Avenue, Vancouver BC, V6A 4C4, 604-688-0606
Jul 17, 1995 - Nov 21, 1997
  • Used C++ to produce two action/adventure games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX) and Windows 95. This involved working on large development teams.
  • Developed, documented, and maintained a lex/yacc-based scripting AI system, a debug memory-tracking system, a debug in-game profiling system, and an instant replay feature.
  • Documented a large portion of the Tech Spec for "Tribal" which was eventually released as "Bloodlines" for the Sony PlayStation.
  • Technologies Used: C++, Visual SourceSafe, Brief, Windows 95, PSX, lex/yacc
Software Developer - Ghetto Elf Software
5290 Watling Street, Burnaby BC, V5J 1W9, 604-435-9720
Oct 1994 - Jun 1995
  • Started a computer game company with four other partners with the aim of producing high-quality, innovative, and fun role-playing games on CD-ROM, for the PC.
  • Learned about C++ and Windows programming, creating a business plan, scheduling, and resource planning.
  • Technologies Used: C++, Word, Excel, DOS, Windows
Advisory Software Engineer - Electronic Arts (Canada), Inc.
4330 Sanderson Way, Burnaby BC, V5G 4X1, 604-456-3600
Mar 15, 1989 - Sep 02, 1994
  • Ported CastleVania from 8-bit Nintendo to the Commodore 64 without access to the original source code. CastleVania C64 was written in 6502 on an Amiga then compiled and downloaded into the C64 where it was run, tested, and debugged.
  • Developed Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge IBM (front-end UIs) and Bart Simpson's House of Weirdness IBM (UI and game logic) using C with some 80x86 assembly.
  • Maintained and supported the tools used for building and scripting the game scenes for Dangerous Journeys IBM. The main editting tool (called XYZZY) supported VGA and monochrome monitors including mouse actions on both monitors.
  • Enhanced and maintained existing audio drivers and libraries for PC speaker, Adlib, SoundBlaster, and Gravis UltraSound for NHL Hockey '95 PC.
  • Designed, implemented and maintained a new SuperNintendo audio driver for FIFA International Soccer SNES running the 65816 CPU in parallel with the built-in audio CPU. This was a 2K audio driver, allowing the musicians a full 62K for digitized audio samples.
  • Wrote numerous tools and utilities for game development.
  • Technologies Used: 6502, 80x86, 65816, C, Brief, MS-DOS, Windows, SNES, Adlib, SoundBlaster

Co-op Jobs
Computer Associates - Applications Programmer Jan - Apr 1988
  • Implemented programs to generate reports for Inventory Control 5.2 for ACCPAC-Plus using Access, an in-house C-like language, on the IBM PC computer.
  • Learned file-sharing techniques using PVCS while working on a Novell Local Area Network.
Dow Chemical - Development Programmer Jan - Apr 1987
  • Designed and implemented a small system to collect data from an ARC analyzer and generate six graphs and three reports for Research and Development at Dow Chemical. This system was written on a VAX/VMS mainframe using VAX Pascal and SAS/Graph.
Economic Development - Computer Operator Jan - Apr 1986
  • Collected and compiled data onto Wang microcomputers using Lotus 1-2-3.
  • Instructed others in the use of the computers and software being used. This included MS-DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, and the Wang word-processor.
C.P. Air - Maintenance Programmer Jan - Apr 1985
  • Updated the programs and documentation used in creating work cards for the maintenance of aircraft as well as creating other custom in-house software. These programs were written in BASIC-Plus on a PDP 11/70 mainframe.

Education

Douglas College, 2004
Self-Employment Program

Simon Fraser University, 1988
B.Sc. Computing Science, Mathematics minor
Concentration in Software Development
Completed Co-op practicum program

F.H. Collins Secondary High School
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
Graduated - Grade 12, 1983


Hobbies and Other Activities
Tai Chi, archery, reading, Shorin Ryu karate, gaming with friends, HirstArts plaster casting, painting miniatures, fencing.


References
Available upon request.