This section features my work on commercial software applications during the past sixteen years. I've been involved in the release of twelve commercial products and two major online projects. The highlights include work for Activision, Digital Domain, Disney Interactive, IBM, Netscape, Symantec and The Software Toolworks / Mindscape.

2007-present ZoeyBot

Inspired by my ten year old daughter Kaitlyn I've turned my sights to creating an educational site for kids. In many ways, ZoeyBot is a culmination of much of my past work. ZoeyBot is still in development but I've launched a beta version ZoeyBot.com

2002-2005 ChessBrain

In the summer of 2002 I began work on a distributed computing experiment to create the world's largest chess supercomputer. A few months into the project I was joined by Colin Frayn. The project grew to hundreds of contributors from several dozen different countries.

Essentially, ChessBrain works like other distributed computing projects where thousands of computers work together to solve a problem.

On January 30th 2004, ChessBrain played a match game against Danish Chess Grandmaster, Peter Heine Nielsen, at a live event during the 6th annual NordU USENIX 2004 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. This was the first time in history that a distributed network of machines played a game against a highly ranked International Chess Grandmaster. A total of 2070 computers from 50 different countries formed a distributed network under ChessBrain's control. The match resulted in a draw on move 34, and ChessBrain went on to recieve a 2005 Guinness World Record as "The World's Largest Networked Chess Computer".

2001-2002 Industrial Network Solution

After my time with Karunga Technologies, I went to work for American MSI, a manufacturer of temperature controllers for Injection molding equipment.

As the Chief Systems Architect for the their Industrial Networks group I lead a small group of developers to create a device called a Digital Integrator. The DI was essentially an internet appliance on a single board computer running embedded Linux. The DI communicated with Injection molding machines via serial interface (RS232) and relayed protocal data via TCP/IP to enterprise servers. I created the embedded web server which allowed for the remote configuration of the device.

My work on both Linux and Internet server design lead to my work on ChessBrain.

2000 ICS Instant Messenger

In 2000 I sold my company, Section34 to Karunga Technology Corp. and joined as the Director of Software Development. At Karunga, I lead a small group of developers working on a secure Instant Messaging platform that was targeted at vertical markets. My time at Karunga marked a turning point in my software development career as my focus slowly shifted to Internet based programming. The ICS Instant Messenger featured Section34 technology, including a web browser component (ActiveX Control) I developed called "SWIFT (Soft Ware Internet File Transfer)" which supported seemless product installation.

While my time with Karunga was indeed tumultuous, the stressful times did help forge a life long friendship with CEO, Cedric Griss, who later became a key supporter and colaborator on the ChessBrain project.

1999 Section34 Inc.

1999 saw my first attempt at starting my own business. I formed a company called Section34 to develop technology designed to enable the creation of CD quality multimedia titles for delivery via dial-up modems.

I self funded Section34 by contracting for large to mid-size companies. I successfully completed the technology and sold Section34 to Internet start-up, Karunga Technologies in Utah.

During this time I consulted for Disney Interactive, Girl Games and a number of small start-ups including an early competitor to Napster called Scour.net. Interestingly, Scour.net (a peer-to-peer file trading service) was funded in part by Michael Ovitz, a former President of Disney.

Below are screen shots for for an asset creation tool, a level editor and a demo of a web based iso-metric engine:

1999 Teen Digital Diva

I served as a technical consultant for Teen Digital Diva which as created under licence from Teen Magazine. I worked with the development team to resolve technical issues relating to performance. Just prior to the initial release I was later contracted to develop demo version of the product for download from Activision's website.

1998 Enfish Tracker

The Enfish Tracker was a product that was well ahead of its time. Essentially the product was an early precursor to Google's Desktop Search and was labeled at The Worlds First Information Tracker. I served as a Senior Programmer and member of 12 person team where I focused on the product's graphical user interface. This was a welcomed opportunity to work with former Symantec - Peter Norton Group colleagues.

1997 Engineering Animation

I joined EAI as the Chief Software Architect for their core technology group within their interactive entertainment division. While at EAI, my team and I worked on a number of products for Activision, Mattel, Sir Tech and GT Interactive. The product shown on the left was an early prototype called X-Fire.

I lead a team of four developers working on E.A.G.L.E - the Engineering Animation Game Library and Engine, which was used in numerious game titles and later licenced to Activision.

EAI programmers used the engine on an Activision project which was similar to Diablo, and based on the Legend of the Five Rings universe which was owned by Wizards of the Coast. The game was well recieved at E3, but saidly never shipped.

1996 IBM's Ted Shred Screen Saver

I helped develop the Ted Shred Screen Saver which IBM released at E3 1996. The screen saver was designed to be a promotional item for an IBM/Digital Domain animated movie which was sadly never released.

1995 Netscape Power Pack

I worked with a small start-up called First Floor Software in Mountain View California as a senior programmer. We developed a product called Smart Bookmarks which was licensed to Netscape for use in the Netscape Powerpack. The technology was also licensed to IBM.

1994-1995 The Software Toolworks / Mindscape

During my time with The Software Toolworks (later renamed to Mindscape) I worked on three products, Mario's Time Machine for Windows, Metal Marines and ChessMaster.

When I first joined, the Mario product was a bit behind schedule. I spent several weeks with the team and helped complete and ship the title. Metal Marines involved one of the tightest schedules ever! We had three months (and three developers and an artist) to complete a game title from beginning to end with nothing more than a licence from Namco. I developed the head-to-head serial communication code for use under Windows 3.1

On ChessMaster I served as the Project Manager and senior developer on a five man team. My exposure to chess products later played a role on the ChessBrain project.

1993 3DI Productions

Co-developer on two game titles, Earth Invasion and MagnaFlux Runner. Both titles were early Windows arcade games. Earth Invasion holds the distinction of being the first Windows 3.1 title to feature true color graphics and joystick support.

While I don't know this for certain... I suspect that MagnaFlux runner may be amoung the first commercial games to use C++ and Microsoft's MFC version 1.0.

1992 Symantec - Peter Norton Group

Initially a senior QA Analyst on the Norton Desktop for Windows, I later transitioned into the software development group where I was part of a new product prototyping group exploring emerging technologies in multimedia and imaging. I was exposed to fractal image compression and windows 3.0 with multimedia extensions. I created a multimedia animation viewer for use in the second edition of the Norton Desktop.