kirk.zurell.name | Profiles / Kirk Zurell

Hi, I'm Kirk.

I've been working with computers for 25 years, from the early 8-bit consumer machines on forward. I've developed software for computers at almost every level, from embedded systems to the web.

I specialize in automatic processing of information from logical to physical forms.

Profile

Equal parts creator and automator. Over twenty-five years’ experience with computers and communications.

Communications & Computing Experience

Communications Specialist, Byte Craft Limited, Waterloo, Ontario — 1998-2010

Created technical and marketing publications, online presence, and collateral materials. Evolved a cohesive visual corporate identity, designing a large variety of graphic resources for manual covers, illustrations, web graphics, and collateral.

Developed support software for integrating products into third party toolchains, from customization scripts to plugin modules.

Developed website CMS (Drupal) modules.

Authored “Byte Craft Limited’s eTPU_C Compiler” (Appendix A) of eTPU Programming Made Easy, Bannoura & Frances, AMT Publishing, 2004.

Wrote, edited, and developed embedded software for C Programming for Embedded Systems, R&D Books (CMP Media), 2000.

Technical Writer, MKS, Waterloo, Ontario — 1997-1998

Wrote, edited, formatted and delivered user guides and product references, print and online help, for source code management software products.

Volunteer Activities

Volunteer System Administrator, Guelph Humane Society, Guelph, Ontario — 2007-2009

Expanded a 10-seat Windows Server 2003/XP network using donated obsolete equipment. Administered file serving and automated backups.

Joint Task Force on Library expansion, City of Waterloo, Ontario — 2003-2004

Represented a city ward in committee deliberations on improved public library facilities. Contributed to production of the final report.

Contributor, Waterloo Region Record Community Editorial Board — 2009

Wrote Op-Ed pieces on topics of current local discussion, meeting publication deadline and word count.

Technology Specialties

Single source documentation toolchain development, using modular DocBook source materials and automatically generated intermediate forms to create multiple profiled publications in a variety of output formats.

Publication design & technical illustration: 2D and 3D graphics, presentations, animation.

Programming in C/C-like languages, UNIX environment and utilities, XSLT, PHP.

System administration of Ubuntu Server Edition, Mac OS X Server, Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server.

Software change management using CVS, Subversion. Installers using NSIS.

Rigorous software testing skills, a side-effect of documentation design.

Basic Japanese language proficiency (University of Waterloo continuing education, 2008).

References

Please write me at kirk@zurell.name for my references.