Daniel Kegel

Web: http://www.kegel.com/
Email: dank@kegel.com
Mail: 901 S. Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: 323 931-6717

Status

I'm employed at Ixia; please don't send any job offers. Thanks!

Education

BS, Engineering and Applied Science and Biology, 1986, Caltech

Specialized Skills

C, C++, Java Programming
Linux, Unix, Win32, MS-DOS system programming
Socket programming; internet server software design, benchmarking, and optimization
High Availability server programming
GNU Autoconf/Automake
x86, 68k, Z80, 6502, TMS320x0 Assembly
UDP peer-to-peer software design
Internet and Unix security
Perl, portable shell scripting
Build procedure and regression test automation
Peer review of software design and implementation
HTML/CGI/Perl/Java/Javascript web programming
Digital Signal Processing
Technical recruiting and hiring
Proficient in German, can read French

My brainbench.com transcript is online (see here and here) for those who care about such things.

Experience

2001-present: Senior Engineer, Ixia Communications, Calabasas, CA

Developed the Ixia Linux SDK, a simple embedded Linux with GNU cross-development tools. This involved turning the initial rough environment into a GPL-compliant product, setting up a nightly build and regression test environment, and supporting non-Ixia developers using the SDK.

Minor contributions to open source in course of working on Ixia Linux:

1999-2001: Senior Developer, Disappearing, Inc. / Omniva Policy Systems, San Francisco, CA

Designed and implemented secure, high-performance, highly available email server software using C++, Java, SSL, SNMP, JDBC, and Sybase on Linux and Solaris.

I designed and implemented the following aspects of the Omniva server:

Nonblocking queued architecture capable of handling thousands of simultaneous clients using only a handful of threads; the queued design ensures that deadlocks cannot occur.
Crashproof stable queues providing stable storage within a single keyserver, and serving as the basis for crashproof mirroring of keyserver contents to hot remote servers.
Stackable protocol code allowing HTTP tunnelling and/or SSL encryption (using OpenSSL) of client sessions.
A custom SNMP agent (using UCD-SNMP) providing keyserver and mirror health monitoring.
An SNMP subagent library and a custom MIB compiler generating C++ wrapper objects to make SNMP coding easier. Released as open source; see www.kegel.com/snmp.

My supervisor wrote:

Dan is one of Disappearing Inc.'s key assets. He has a deep commitment to our product and a sense of ownership over its technology. His ability to create a full keyserver from a clean sheet of paper is a testimony to his value to our organization.

1995-1999: Senior Programmer, Activision, Santa Monica, CA

Designed and implemented portable multiplayer networking code for games on the Win95, Linux, MS-DOS, and MacOS platforms, and game servers on the Linux and Solaris platforms. About fourteen games have been shipped using this code.

Responsible for much of the multiplayer programming in the Mechwarrior 2 series of games
Led the last month of work on Mechwarrior 2: Titanium
Developed technique for lag avoidance in multiplayer code for Interstate '76
Developed standard multiplayer API, set up automated build system and regression tests to help ensure its quality
Set up a network of game servers based on the API
Developed method of logging stack tracebacks from crashes on end-user machines; data feeds into central crash tracking internal web site for use by developers
Developed technique for transparent gameplay through firewalls and Internet connection sharing devices; worked with NAT vendors (Nevod, Nat32, Arescom, Viacom, Microsoft, Cisco, the Linux group) to add support for this technique to their products
Interviewed, hired, and managed numerous assistant programmers
Assisted MIS department from time to time with technical issues, and interviewed candidate system administrators and webmasters

My supervisor wrote:

Dan has been responsible for most of Activision's technical innovation during [1996].

1993-1995: Programmer, Knowledge Adventure, Glendale, CA

Worked on multimedia engine, installer tools, and game scripting; helped develop techniques for internationalization; also responsible for getting OEM versions working and out the door. Interviewed and helped hire numerous programmers. Installed and administered Unix system for mail and web services, was initial Webmaster. Credits include Jumpstart Preschool, 3D Dinosaur Adventure, Undersea Adventure, Aviation Adventure, Space Adventure and many others.

1992-1993: Electrical Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

Wrote software to control data-collection equipment, helped design data processing hardware, administered Unix systems, and acted as security advisor for 50 Unix workstations. Released popular enhancement to Clyde Hoover's security tool npasswd.

1989-1991: Electrical Engineer, Mars Observer Project, Caltech, Pasadena, CA.

Installed Unix systems, CAD tools, and version control tools, wrote data conversion tools, set up system simulations using Verilog, and verified basic functionality of the gate arrays being designed. Performed margin and noise testing of actual chips and systems.

1986-1989: Software Engineer, Speech Recognition Systems, Rochester, NY.

Designed and implemented software managment, data handling, signal processing, and pattern recognition software for the Sun workstation and TMS-320xx DSP. Sought out and implemented algorithms from the literature.

1986: Freelance programmer

Coded high-performance console driver NANSI.SYS for MS-DOS, released as shareware. Licensed in 1999 to Datalight for use as the ANSI.SYS driver in their ROM-DOS product. Re-released under the GPL in 2000 as my contribution to the FreeDOS project.

1985-1986: Hardware and Software Engineer, K & S Systems, Redmond, Wa.

Designed a computer system to control the motion of a pressure transducer in three axes and relay data to a host computer. Implemented control software in 8086 assembly and C for both the system and the host.

1982-1986: Student, Caltech

Designed and built a 6803-based EPROM programmer; delegated analog electronics and serial i/o routines to a second engineering student.

Designed hardware, software, and packaging for an 8086-based remote control system for a stadium scoreboard and audio system; managed its implementation and installation. Recruited and supervised a software engineer to help implement parts of the control software. Also gained experience in press relations and physical security techniques.

Helped design and build a 6502-based 64-line telephone exchange; responsible for design, layout, and fabrication of 16 subscriber line interface cards. Updated the system software to add support for a Touchtone decoder card. Wrote a 6502 development system in C for the PC based on the MS-DOS link.exe and an existing 6809 assembler.

Summer 1981: Programmer, Perspective, Mercer Island, WA

Coded interrupt-driven serial and parallel I/O routines and a segmented storage allocator for a commercial drafting package for the IBM PC in C and Pascal.

Other Activities

2000: Expert Witness

Served as a minor expert witness in litigation related to ISDN.

2000-2001: JSR-51

Serving on Sun's JSR-51 committee which is developing new I/O API's for the Java platform. We're mostly wrapped up as of June 2001, and a subset of the API we helped develop is available in Sun's JDK 1.4 beta.

Professional Associations

Publications

The C10K Problem - notes on how to serve lots of clients with a single server
Los Angeles Linux User Groups - I maintain this umbrella site as a service to the local Linux community.
Dan Kegel's ISDN Page - a popular reference site during ISDN's heyday

Citizenship

I am a US citizen.

Last update: 17 July 2002
Copyright 1996-2002 Dan Kegel
This document may not be copied, sent to any prospective employer, or placed in any online job bank without the author's explicit permission. It lives at www.kegel.com/resume.html.