Projects

External Links

Introduction

This page supplements my resume and details the various web and desktop based applications I have created or contributed to over the last 2 years. For a copy of my full resume, please contact me at sdoster[at]tpg.com.au.

Projects

I have been involved in the development of several applications and web sites, using a variety of languages and platforms.

Preach It!

Preach It! is an application I wrote for my church for the purpose of recording the sermons each week. The user is able to input details concerning the speaker, topic, and other information before recording. It has an 'Administrators Only' section (simple password) offering a graphical audio editor (for trimming the file) and converts the recorded wave file to an MP3 file using the LAME encoder. The supplied metadata is then used to 'tag' the MP3 file for use in Podcasting.

• Platform(s): Windows XP
• Language(s): C# .NET 2.0
• Compiler: Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Features / Toolsets: Multithreading

Video APL Capture

I was asked to produce an application to interface with a frame capture card (the ImperX VCE Pro PCMCIA card) and calculate, graph, log and analyse the Average Picture Level (APL) of incoming video. This data will be used to develop information concerning power usage characteristics of various television display technologies (CRT, Plasma, LCD), and it is hoped that the application will eventually be accepted by the Australian Greenhouse Office as part of their official test suite.

• Platform(s): Windows
• Language(s): C# .NET 2.0
• Compiler: Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Features / Toolsets: Multithreading

Darwin Camera Club

Replacing the current site which I designed using PHP and MySQL (darwincameraclub.org.au), I decided to develop the new site using ASP.NET 2.0. While the site is yet to go live and still needs some aesthetic work (colour schemes, etc), the new application is more stable and easier to administer than previously.

• Platform(s): IIS 6.0, ASP.NET 2.0
• Language(s): ASP.NET 2.0, C# .NET, MS SQL 2005 (hosted using MS SQL 2000)
• Compiler: Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
• Features / Toolsets: Features online PDF and graphic creation (only with login access)
• Web URL: http://web2.entity1.com/dcc-asp/

DVB Decoder

During my time at Panasonic it was sometimes necessary to analyse Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) transport streams at quite a detailed level. Existing software for this purpose was either too limited or too expensive, so I wrote this program to fill the void. DVB Decoder allows the user to analyse a DVB transport stream down to the individual descriptor level, although provides no MPEG decoding (not deemed necessary for our purposes). I have placed the project on Sourceforge and intend to create a second version, perhaps using an open source toolset such as wxWidgets.

• Platform(s): Windows (perhaps adding Linux for future versions)
• Language(s): C++
• Compiler: Visual C++ .NET 2003
• Features / Toolsets: MFC. Features live analysis if a Nebula DigiTV tuner is connected.
• Web URL: http://dvbdecoder.sourceforge.net/

openlp.org

openlp.org (formally Open LP) is a presentation package similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, but more specifically tailored for use by churches (in conjunction with a video projector). The first version was written (not by me) in Borland Delphi and is currently released for Beta testing. I have, in agreement with the original authors, designed a new version in C++ from the ground up. Cross-platform compatibility was of utmost importance with my code (version 3), hence a GCC compatible compiler was used, as was a cross-platform toolset for graphics. Some features (such as live video output from a DV camera) are only available in the Windows version due to the use of DirectX for such features.

• Platform(s): Windows, Linux
• Language(s): C++
• Compiler: MinGW (Windows), GCC (Linux)
• Features / Toolsets: wxWidgets, DirectX, SQLite
• Web URL: http://www.openlp.org/

FreeRTOS for SDA6000

FreeRTOS is a free real-time operating system written in C, available for several small microprocessors. At Panasonic, we played with the idea of modifying the code of FreeRTOS to work on a Micronas SDA6000 (M2) processor. While this work was ultimately abandoned, I was able to get to the stage where simple tasks would multitask (pre-emptively), and statistics could be kept during the idle cycles that could then be downloaded via RS232 and the X-modem protocol. The project had the outcome of providing me a wonderful insight into the workings and design of real-time operating systems in embedded devices.

• Platform(s): Micronas SDA6000
• Language(s): C
• Compiler: Tasking
• Web URL: http://www.freertos.org/

Webstats

Webstats was another application (or suite of applications) designed to fill a void. While working at eNTITy1 (pronounced Entity-One), we needed a system to provide clients with statistics concerning visits to their websites. This was my first project using C#, although several other languages were used for various purposes.

• Platform(s): Apache or IIS. Data analysis performed on Windows or Linux using Mono.
• Language(s): ColdFusion, PHP, C#
• Features / Toolsets: Database used was MySQL.

Network Sniffer

I wrote a simple program while at eNTITy1 to keep track of web access per employee (done with their full knowledge, of course). This was necessary as we were running without any sort of proxy server, via a Cisco router and firewall. Network Sniffer allowed us to keep track of which employees were using the most traffic. Unfortunately, it was me...

• Platform(s): Windows
• Language(s): C++
• Compiler: Visual Studio 6 Professional

Digital Radio Interface

The ABC Newsroom in Darwin used to keep track of many newsworthy events by monitoring the Police and Emergency Services radio frequencies using a scanner (similar to most newsrooms across the world). While I was employed by the ABC, the Emergency Services in the Northern Territory shifted their radio communications to a digital platform, effectively disabling the use of scanners for 'Event Monitoring'. I was asked to write a program to take digital data from receiver supplied by the Emergency Services and to massage this data to be input into our computer system.

• Platform(s): Windows
• Language(s): C++
• Compiler: Visual C++ 5 Standard
• Features / Toolsets: Multithreading

Tape Driver for Linux

While working at Territory Television (Channel 9 Darwin), I was asked to write a Linux driver for a rather old and obselete tape drive. The tape drive had previously been the backup device for our Basys news computer system, which had recently been replaced by a Windows based solution. The driver enabled us to extract data from the backup tapes (the only method of getting data from the old system), which was then imported into the new system.

• Platform(s): Linux
• Language(s): C++
• Compiler: GCC
• Features / Toolsets: Driver development

More Information

I am currently in the process of studying for the Microsoft Certified System Developer certification (MCSD) and would like to extend my skills both in C++ and C#, whether in Windows development or Web-based applications.

If you have any questions concerning any of the above, or wish to obtain a full copy of my resume, please email me at sdoster[at]tpg.com.au.