Andy McLaughlin
9 Rushleigh,
32 Thurleigh Road,
London, UK SW12 8UE

home: 020 8772 3236   mobile: 079 5254 7091
andy@visopsys.org

 

An experienced software engineer specializing in systems software, operating systems, and utility applications.  In addition to 10 years’ industry experience, an accomplished open-source developer, having written a fully-functional, graphical operating system from the ground up.  An avid and passionate programmer, equally comfortable coding (for example) device drivers, filesystem kernel modules, image decompression routines, or GUI-based applications programs.

 

KEY SKILLS

·         Languages: Strongest in C, Java, and Intel x86 assembly language.  Commercial experience in C++, shell scripting, and SQL among others.  Additional experience in Miranda, SML, Basic, Tcl/Tk, Verilog, Pascal (see open source projects, below), and Sparc and Motorola 6x000 assembly languages.

·         Tools: Extensive experience with a range of development tools, largely in Linux/UNIX environments, particularly GNU tools (GCC, GDB, gmake, etc.), KDB, CVS, Sun’s Java SDK, etc.

·         Operating systems/environments:  In-depth knowledge of Linux and Solaris (including kernel-level development), and good working knowledge of the various Microsoft Windows platforms. Familiar with the following additional platforms: IRIX, HP-UX, Digital Unix (Tru64), and AIX.

 

EDUCATION

University of Calgary, Canada, 1994-1998, 2000.  Major in Computer Science, minor in Classical Studies.
  - 3.0 GPA (roughly 80-90%)
Certified Lotus Professional (Notes R4 - System Administration).


RECENT WORK HISTORY


Symantec Corp [formerly Veritas Software]
Watford, UK
July 2003 – January 2008, Senior Software Engineer

·         At Symantec's "Linux center of excellence" office, was a key member of the Linux Volume Manager (VxVM) group.

·         Responsible for ongoing development of a popular and technically challenging feature known as "root disk encapsulation", allowing the system's root disk to be under Volume Manager control so that it can be mirrored for data redundancy.

·         Involved in a number of porting efforts including IA-64 (Itanium), x86_64 (Opteron), and PowerPC, as well as to various new releases of Red Hat 'RHEL' Linux and SuSE 'SLES' Linux.

·         Was the Linux VxVM group's disk labeling and partitioning expert, implementing native methods for managing MS-DOS and EFI/GPT disk labels.

·         Other projects included moving Volume Manager userspace components to pure 64-bit and adding support for >2 terabyte LUNs.

 

Hollinger Telegraph New Media (the Telegraph online), London, UK
April 2003 – July 2003, System Administrator

 

Blackstone Technology Group, Worcester Massachusetts, USA
April 2000 – January 2003, Software Engineer

·         Small startup company based in Worcester near Boston, Massachusetts, providing grid computing (compute farm) solutions for the Life Sciences (biotech) and EDA markets.

·         Developed a C kernel filesystem module named CFFS, used for comprehensive privacy and security between groups of users by ‘wrapping’ around all other filesystems (including /proc, /dev, etc.) and changing their default behaviours.

·         Co-developed the initial Linux version of CFFS, and was solely responsible for the Solaris implementation.

·         Developed an enterprise Java GUI front end report generator/viewer with an Oracle back end for compute farm analysis and management.

·         Contributed to a CORBA/Java/C “Distributed Resource Management” agent for compute farm client nodes (as a replacement for products included with Sun's Grid Engine and Platform Computing's LSF).

·         Worked remotely from home in Calgary, Canada, and later at the Blackstone offices in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts.

 

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. [formerly Design Acceleration, Inc.], San Jose California, USA
May 1998 – March 2000, Member of Technical Staff (Software Developer, Test Engineer)

·         Largest provider of development tools to the EDA industry.

·         Solely responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining a suite of regression tests for the Affirma Testbuilder line of products using a combination of Makefiles, shell scripting, C++ and simple Verilog.

·         Responsible for porting Affirma Signalscan to the AIX 4.1 and 4.3 (64-bit) platforms.

·         Ported the entire Testbuilder product from GCC (G++) to the SunWorks C++ compiler.

·         Provided informal systems administration support to my group.

·         In 1999, I was awarded the Bravo Award, Cadence’s second-highest R&D award, for "performance that has an impact on the bigger picture".

·         In 1998 I was awarded DAI’s "Rookie of the Year Award", one of three yearly achievement awards presented to employees.

 

OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS

·         “Visopsys”: For the past 10 years, I have been designing and implementing this 32- bit, graphical, multitasking, virtual-memory operating system for PC compatibles.  This has proven to be a very valuable and intensive learning experience in a number of subject areas; from high level operating system theory to low level device driver programming, and nearly everything in between. See http://visopsys.org for more information.  (Ask for a demo)

·         “Partition Logic”: A variant of Visopsys, specially configured as a disk partitioning tool.  Partition Logic has been very popular, with downloads in excess of 200,000 per month.  It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes.  It allows the user to cut, copy, and paste partitions, and duplicate disks.  See http://partitionlogic.org.uk for more information.

·         Babylon Chat”: A popular network chat/drawing/collaboration program, with multiple language support.  This is a Java client/server application which can be embedded in WWW documents as an applet; Features include text chat, instant messaging, and whiteboard drawing capabilities. See http://babylonchat.org.uk for screenshots, downloads, and a web-enabled demo.

·         “Wayup” (Why Are You Using Pascal?):  A Level 0 Pascal compiler. This compiler translates Pascal code to Sparc assembly language.  See http://www.visopsys.org/andy/wayup for downloads and information.

 

OTHER AREAS OF INTEREST

·         Travel, particularly in the Mediterranean and Middle East.  I would like to see more of Southeast Asia.

·         Perform as a singer in the rock band “She Hit Me First.  (http://shehitmefirst.com)

·         Play regularly in recreational Ice Hockey leagues.

·         Hold private pilot certificates in Canada and the USA

·        Enjoy riding and maintaining motorcycles.