Hello, I am Oren
A quiet fellow who has worked professionally in mixed mobile and desktop software development for 19+ years. Applications include Health Care/tele-health, data collection/condition monitoring for off shore oil drilling, gambling, and ticketing. 7+ years experience developing in iOS. 30+ years general programming experience.
I also enjoy electronics, electronic music, building analog synthesizers, roller coasters and theme parks, and am a member of ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) aceonline.org
What I Currently Do
I currently work as an iOS developer with Odyssey Computing, Inc, based in San Diego, California. I have worked with Odyssey since 2000, starting with development of various Windows applications, Windows CE/Pocket PC mobile app development, a little web development, and currently iOS app development.
I have also worked at Bottle Rocket Studios in Dallas, Texas as an iOS software engineer. I collaborated on the team responsible for developing and maintaining their television-everywhere platform technology known as AWE – Anywhere. Watch. Experience.
You can also check out other stuff I do on my GitHub site.
Ray Tracing and Fractals
Two things that got me into computer programming – Ray Tracing and Fractals! Yes – Making pretty images appear magically out of nowhere on the computer is something I enjoy.
Back in the 1980s, my workhorse was an Apple //e. In the August 1985 issue of Scientific American there was a feature about this thing called the “Mandelbrot Set”. Seeing the sunning images that were rendered, and the deceptively simple algorithm for generating the Mandelbrot Set, I tried it out in AppleSoft BASIC on the Apple //e. After an “all nighter” I was excited the next morning to see the same “squished bug” on my green monochrome screen! The rest was history as I began exploring more of these fractal beasts – everything from Julia Sets, variants of the Mandelbrot Set, to L-Systems and more!
Some years later, armed with a more powerful 80386 based PC, I started exploring 3D graphics and ray tracing. It was the photorealism that can be achieved that really turned me on to ray tracing. I wrote a rather extensive ray tracer in C. This has evolved from a simple example to a fully fledged 3D renderer that supports all object primitives, arbitrary XYZ surfaces defined by a user-specified function, procedurally-generated textures… Well the whole nine yards – too much to go into here! I’ll just let this pretty picture do the rest of the talking!
A Few of My Favorite Quotes
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
Thomas Alva Edison
“What can you do that’s fantastic?”
Frank Zappa
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Things I Enjoy
- iOS and Mac app development
- Computers in general
- Computer Graphics
- Image Processing
- 3D Rendering
- Ray Tracing
- Fractal Geometry
- Electronics (The kind you solder!)
- Building stuff
- Audio/Amplifiers
- Building Synthesizers
- Electronic Music
- High Voltage stuff
- Solar
- Astronomy
- Organic Gardening
- Roller Coasters & Theme Parks
- Beard and Moustache Contests
- Wine & Beer!
All of the best,
