Dave Polaschek’s Resume

Overview

I have over twenty years experience in software development, working for companies ranging from Fortune 500 leaders, to small, privately-held companies. Since 1990, I have concentrated on programming within the Desktop Publishing industry, working with companies to make products suited to the everyday needs of publishing, prepress, and graphic-design professionals. I have worked on teams ranging in size from two-dozen programmers to a one-man team.

My primary focus since 1990 has been Macintosh software development, but most of my employers and clients have had cross-platform requirements, and I have developed software which works on Mac, Windows and Unix operating systems during that time.

I have developed complete applications, starting from nothing more than a nebulous idea, but I find I prefer maintenance programming, adapting and enhancing existing solutions to changing needs. Since the introduction of Mac OS X, the vast majority of my work has been updating existing applications to use Mac OS X more effectively. My most rewarding work has resulted in “negative lines of code” where modern operating systems have allowed removal of large amounts of special-case code, replacing it with smaller, simpler, faster, and more maintainable code for clients.

And while it is easy for a maintenance programmer to focus on fixing existing problems, I try to use my experience in software development to help improve quality even after I have left a project. I want to make software better, not only for users, but for future developers. I don’t take the name of my business “Better Nerds” lightly. I would like to see an entire industry of Better Nerds, making better software.

Employment Experience

• Better Nerds® / Polaschek Computing, Inc. (1998-present)
  President.
  Polaschek Computing, Inc. is the formal business name, and the name under which we did contract Macintosh programming until the Better Nerds trademark was approved in 2005. All work is now being performed under the Better Nerds name.
  • Led a company with a maximum of four employees and three sub-contractors, working on multiple concurrent projects. Was in charge of sales, development, operations, and served as the “public face” of the company.
  • Contract Macintosh programming. Worked with multiple clients, concentrating on updating “Classic” Mac OS applications to use Carbon. Specialties include printing, text, font, and graphic APIs. Developed Printing Dialog Extensions for use in helping to port applications to Carbon/Mac OS X. Worked extensively on optimization and performance tuning, selecting from multiple system APIs to get the best performance possible from our customers’ applications.
  • Website development and hosting. Focusing on PHP/MySQL development, primarily focused on small businesses and non-profits who may be intimidated by the idea of getting on the web.
• WAM!NET (1997-1999)
  Senior Software Engineer.
  • Led the US Macintosh team in developing a C++/PowerPlant-based easy-to-use front-end to send and receive files using WAM!NET’s proprietary networking software and hardware.
  • WAM!NET US internationalization lead.
  • Set up and administered departmental source-code control, web and file server, and maintained departmental web pages.
• LaserMaster Corporation (1996-1997)
  Mac Guy.
  • Developed ColorSync 2.1 (ICC) profile for LM printers.
  • Continued support of LaserMaster’s Macintosh software.
  • Worked on design team for html printer interface.
  • Developed and maintained internal web-pages.
• Apple Computer, Inc. (1995-1996)
  Developer Technical Support Engineer.
  • Primary support engineer for Printing Manager.
  • Backup engineer for fonts, Font Manager, Unicode, QuickDraw GX, QuickDraw 3D, PAP network protocol and MPW.
  • DTS member of LaserWriter 8 development team.
• LaserMaster Corporation (1990-1995)
  Engineer: LaserMAX, Macintosh, Typesetting & Big Color Products Divisions.
  • Team Leader, Printing Tools Group (May-August 1995). Responsible for client-side printing tools.
  • Lead Macintosh Programmer (1993-1995). Responsible for all Macintosh development.
  • Programmer for LM Enhanced TrueImage and Pipeline PowerPage PostScript interpreter teams (1990-1994).
  • Lead Unix programmer (1991-1993).
  • Software support technician (1990-1991), including serving as liaison to other departments.
  • Technical Support Technician (1990). Specialized in working with customers with cross-platform configurations and other difficult issues.

Independent Experience

• Independent Author/Publisher, 1994-present
  • Published a daily weblog based on custom weblogging software, Dave’s Picks beginning in 1997.
  • Wrote and published a book about making mead (a fermented honey beverage), both in paper and online formats.
  • Print Hints author in develop Magazine in issue 29.
  • Presented talk on QuickDraw GX printing without GX Printing at MacHack 0x0C.
• Independent Computer Consultant, 1994-1998 (until the founding of Polaschek Computing, Inc.)
  • Developed customized versions of the LaserWriter 7 print driver, PPDs for use with the LaserWriter 8 driver and custom print drivers for both Printing Manager and QuickDraw GX printing architectures.
  • Developed shareware and freeware utilities.
  • Assisted clients in developing QuickDraw GX to PostScript translation facilities when Apple cancelled QuickDraw GX.