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I am currently a software engineer working on the Macintosh computer, working at Intuit. I am designing, implementing, and maintaining multi-platform C++ class libraries, which can run on MacOS, MS Windows, and Sun Unix.
Previously I worked for a couple of years at Gryphon Software Corporation (suddenly shut down July 1998 after being acquired by its parent company Knowledge Adventure/Cendant.) Gryphon produced childrens entertainment software (e.g. ColorForms, Activity Centers, etc.) and graphics software (e.g. Morph, Bricks, Dynamic Effects, BatchIt.)
The Adventures of Superman Activity Center was a Macintosh/Windows CD-ROM childrens game suite that I helped produce at Gryphon Software in 1997, licensed and distributed by Gryphon/Knowledge Adventure. There are some great games in that product, and a few hilarious easter eggs of course... not that I would know of any, ahem :-)
The Adventures of Pinocchio Activity Center was a Macintosh/Windows CD-ROM childrens game suite that I helped produce at Gryphon Software in 1996, licensed and distributed by IBM Corp, again with an easter egg or two, including a 3-minute secret "Making of" movie starring the Gryphon development team, that I filmed & edited.
The founder of Gryphon and some of the engineers and managers have moved on to create other companies and web spots (PointCast/EntryPoint, Cinefiles, etc.)
Before that I worked at Microtac (which later got bought by Globalink, who then got bought by Lernout&Hauspie) doing natural language translation software, which was very interesting work. It is very funny to see how badly computer software translates German or French into English, or vice versa... until you sit down and try to write the grammar and translation rules yourself. Then you understand why some of the smartest minds in the world have been working on "machine translation" for over 30 years, and their best algorithms still often convert paragraphs into gibberish.
One company whose mission touched my heart was ESTC/Jostens Learning Corp./Compass Learning, where I helped write childrens reading/math curriculum software for elementary school computer labs, for 8 years.
I also wrote inventory control software for a factory automation company called White Data Systems (the software division of White Storage and Retrieval Systems), co=authored a couple of patents, ran a huge Xerox machine in the back of a local stationery store, was an electronics technician fixing broken stereos and TVs at a local TV repair shop, and was a paperboy for a few years. Before that I didn't need to make money for survival, and life was much easier.
