Jim Leonard

Programmer with 8 years professional experience programming client/server software in C/C++ and Perl on Linux, VMS and Windows seeking a software development position, preferably in the Boston area.

Starbak Communications	Nov 2000 - Sep 2004
Senior Software Engineer

Senior programmer responsible for developing all aspects of Starbak's video streaming servers.

• Implemented video streaming servers used in Starbak's appliance servers and licensed to third parties. The servers were developed in C under Linux through reverse engineering (Windows Media) and in compliance with published protocols (RTSP/RTP/MPEG/Quicktime/HTTP).
• Led the redesign and implementation of Starbak's RTSP/RTP based video streaming server permitting usage to scale to thousands of clients on commodity hardware. Implementation was completed in C, Lex and Yacc and included conversion to asynchronous I/O and extensive caching of streaming data.
• Enabled Starbak's web interface and third party applications to control the streaming servers and update the SQL backend by coding XMLRPC interfaces.
• Improved presentation of recorded video conference streams in Quicktime and RealPlayer by creating modules to rewrite the RTP and h.261/h.263 framing to correct timing and audio/video synchronization issues and to compensate for lost packets.

H&R Block / Compuserve	Jul 1997 - Nov 2000
Software Engineer

Programmer for the group responsible for maintaining H&R Block's electronic filing servers.

• Updated efile server applications and hardware to comply with annual changes to tax law and business needs. The applications were written for VMS clusters and heavily used VMS system services and custom databases.
• Integrated TaxCut into Block's existing electronic filing system to remove dependency on a third party filing system. In the first year this system handled 1 million income tax returns saving $2 million. Preprocessing, reporting and tracking modules were coded in C and Perl for VMS and Win32.
• Supported real time operation of the electronic filing system during tax season, including on call duty, custom report generation and creation of one-off programs to fix larger scale problems.
• Improved reliability of Block's interface with the IRS, state departments of revenue and partner banks by coding a replacement communication system supporting IP and dialup protocols that annually handles over 15 million tax returns as well as their associated loan applications and check authorizations. The project was coded in C and DCL and included customizing transfer protocols to handle antiquated IRS systems.

Advanced Communications Services	1999
Consultant

• Enabled the replacement of the current voicemail system by writing high-level voice modem device drivers in Perl/Perl XS.
• Permitted expansion of core business functions by writing fax drivers and low-level call center functionality.

Ohio Federation for the Blind (non-profit)	1998
Donated coding skills

• Automated the process of parsing and marking up job listings for a text to speech program.