Zack Booth Simpson

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Brief Professional History

Published Papers, Conferences, Patents

• Modelling Amporphous Computations with Transcription Networks, co-author
  2009, Royal Society Interface doi:10.1098/rsif.2009.0014.focus
• Fitspace Explorer, co-author
  2009, Analytical Biochemistry doi:10.1016/j.ab.2008.12.025
• Global Kinetic Explorer, co-author
  2009, Analytical Biochemistry doi:10.1016/j.ab.2008.12.024
• A synthetic genetic edge detection program, co-author
  2009, Cell doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.04.048
• The Tragedy of the Molecular Commons, Protocells, co-author
  2008. MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262182683
• Engineering stochasticity in gene expression, co-author
  2008, Molecular Bio Systems, doi:10.1039/b801245h
• SIGGRAPH 2006
  2006 Art Gallery ( Moderation )
• Engineering Escherichia Coli to see light, co-author
  2005. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature04405
  [Nature] , [New York Times ], [National Geographic ].
• The In-Game Economics of Ultima Online
  2000. The Computer Game Developer's Conference 2000, San Jose, CA
  2005. Game Creation Magazine, Vol 1, No 1. CMP Media, China
• SIGGRAPH 2004
  2004 Art Gallery ( Calder , Mondriaan , Interference )
• SIGGRAPH 2002
  2002 Art Gallery ( Sand , Butterfly , Flower Garden , Molecular Bubbles , Fish )
• Vented CMOS, co-author
  2002, US Patent 6,420,905
• A Stream-based Time Synchronization Technique For Networked Computer Games, co-author
  2002 Game Gems III ISBN: 978-1584502333
• Game Patterns & Idioms, co-author
  2000 - 2001. Column in Game Developer Magazine
• Energetics In Phonetics, co-author
  1999. Proceedings of the Speech Communication and Language Development Symposium

Other Work and Links of Interest

• "An Artist Develops a New Image -- With Aid of Bacteria" by Mitch Leslie
  2008. Science
  An article about me in Science Magazine.  See my blog response
• Global Parameter Fitting Lecture (PDF)
  2008. Unpublished talk
  A talk on the SVD fitter that will be part of Kintek Global Explorer 3.0 [PPT slides]
• Painting Bus Lines Directly onto Streets
  2007. Unpublished
  A proposal for improving bus lines by painting them onto streets.
• A Modest Proposal concerning Immigration
  2006. Unpublished
  A swift rant on the real immigration problem.
• Words for the wordless: Vocabulary for Software Engineers
  2002. Unpublished
  A collection of words for software engineers that I've adopted.  Either made up by me or overhead.
• Megabits Among The Homeless; A journey into the empty heart of a digital body.
  2000. Reprinted on www.kuro5hin.org, Oct 2000
  My fictionalized view of the surreal San Francisco dot com world.
• Word Frequency Analysis of Literature in Project Gutenberg
  2000. Unpublished
  A statistical analysis of about 2000 literary works from the Project Gutenberg. Compares book vocabulary densities and isolates anomalous word usage.
  [DOC format] Also, Presentation Slides from SIGGRAPH 2002 [PPT Slides]
• Rationalizations of Video Game Violence
  1999. The Computer Game Developer's Conference
  A letter to friends in the computer game business. Became the basis for a round-table at CGDC2000.
• Game Development Process Patterns (also available in PowerPoint97 format)
  1999. Origin/Electronic Arts Research Fellowship
  Describing patterns that frequently arise in the development of game software. Originally presented to Origin/Electronic Arts as part of my research fellowship.
• Game Patterns
  1999. The Computer Game Developer's Conference
  A list of computer game patterns based on the Design Patterns principle. Originally presented at CGDC1999 Austin, San Jose.
• Networking Techniques in NetStorm
  1999. The Computer Game Developer's Conference (Contributor)
  A presentation regarding the network synchronization techniques used in NetStorm by Jim Greer, based on work by him, me, Ken Demarest, and Tony Bratton while we were at Titanic Entertainment.
• Advocating the Elimination of Setup Programs
  1999. Origin/Electronic Arts Research Fellowship
  An enumeration of the reasons why developers still use setup programs; advocates simple techniques to eliminate them. Originally presented to Origin/Electronic Arts as part of my research fellowship.
• Improving Information Gained From Fatals
  1999. Origin/Electronic Arts Research Fellowship
  Proposes a technique to improve the trace information from fatals by parsing debug data in COFF executables. Includes a link to sample code. Originally presented to Origin/Electronic Arts as part of my research fellowship.
• Categorization of Code Reuse
  1999. Origin/Electronic Arts Research Fellowship
  Proposes terminology to describe common code-reuse techniques. Originally presented to Origin/Electronic Arts as part of my research fellowship.
• Simplifying Foreign Translation Using Hash-tables
  1999. Origin/Electronic Arts Research Fellowship
  Proposes a method to simplify translation of static strings using C macros and Perl scripts to manage run-time selected hash-tables. Includes link to sample code. Originally presented to Origin/Electronic Arts as part of my research fellowship.
• Understanding Transistors Through Pneumatic Analogy
  1999. College of Electrical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
  Lecture notes from a lesson I gave to an undergraduate circuit design class. Explains the function of transistors by drawing an analogy to pneumatics.
  [DOC format]
• A Technique for Simplifying State Machines in Games
  1998. The Computer Game Developer's Conference 1998, Austin TX
  Analyzes game state machines and proposes a method to simplify.
• The Endowment For Campaign Finance
  1998. Unpublished (Co-author)
  Proposes the creation of a private fund for campaign finance reform. Later, a similar proposal was made by Gore called the "Democracy Endowment".
• Results From Junior High Engineering Contest
  1998. St. Andrew's Episcopal School; Austin, TX.
  In 1998, my friend and I created an engineering contest for students at our former junior-high. It was great fun. This paper summarizes a few of the contests and the results.
• A Proposal To Stop Unwanted Commercial Solicitation
  1998. Unpublished
  Proposes a method to stop unwanted e-mail and phone solicitations using escrowed payments.
• Virtual Calder
  1998, Unpublished
  Java applet to create Calder-like mobiles. This was a prototype for the more sophisticated version.
  Reproduced with permission on mathcats.com.
• Converting DOS games to Windows (1996) (also available in Word format)
  1996. Microsoft Online Developer's Journal
  Explanations and techniques for converting DOS games to Windows. Originally written for Microsoft's online DirectX tutorials.
• Summary Papers, PC Joystick Interface Standards (also available in Word format)
  1995. PC Joystick Interface Standards
  Summary papers from a conference I hosted concerning PC joystick interface standards back in 1995 when DirectX new. Some of the channel mapping issues addressed in this conference have now been adopted into DirectInput 8.0.
• Engineering Stereotypes
  1998, Unpublished
  A humorour list of engineering stereotypes chronicling the good and bad characteristics of every engineer I've ever met including (especially) myself.
• Palette Viewer
  1998, Unpublished
  Palette Viewer is a color visualization tool that allows one to view an image in three-dimensional color space.
• PC Game Interview
  1997, PC Games Magazine
  An interview I gave for PC Games magazine.  Somehow, in their version answer number 6 was mysteriously cut!
• NetStorm: Islands at War
  1997, Activision
  A demo copy of the game that we built at the now defunct Titanic Entertainment. (Voted #1 Game That No One Bought by C-Net Game Center!) Also, download the optional music file.

Source Code Archive

• Assert Wrapper - An improved assert handler that includes stack tracing and emailing
  zassert.cpp zassert.h
• Fiber wrapper - A wrapper aound win32 fiber API
  zfiber.cpp zfiber.h
• File spec parser - A portable file name & path parser / encoder
  zfilespec.cpp zfilespec.h
• Win32 OpenGL Window Toolkit (!GLUT) - A GLUT-like window toolkit for OpenGL written because GLUT had an unclear license status
  zglwin.cpp zglwin.h
• Simple Hash - A simple stand-alone hashtable
  zhashtable.cpp zhashtable.h
• Network Message Dispatcher - A simple hash-based method of passing messages over sockets
  zmsg.cpp zmsg.h
• Socket wrapper - A portable socket wrapper
  zocket.cpp zocket.h
• Perl Compatible Regular Expression Wrapper - A wrapper for the PCRE lib
  zregexp.cpp zregexp.h
• RGB to HSV converter
  zrgbhsv.cpp zrgbhsv.h
• Serial Port wrapper
  zserial.cpp zserial.h
• DirectSound wrapper - A fascade for DirectSound providing caching.
  zsound.cpp zsound.h
• Win32 Stack tracing and Symbol Decoder - used COFF parsing in MSDEV 6.0, I don't know if this still works in newer versions
  zstacktrace.cpp zstacktrace.h
• Perl-like string functions - a class to provide Perl-like string handling
  zstr.cpp zstr.h
• Telnet server - a simple telnet server
  ztelnetserver.cpp ztelnetserver.h
• Full-scale timer - A portable high-precision timer
  ztime.cpp ztime.h
• Inline Strings - A simple sprintf-like inline string generator
  ztmpstr.cpp ztmpstr.h
• DirectShow Video Capture without the Horrible Grief - A DirectShow wrapper for one of the most unpleasent APIs I've ever had the misfortune to use
  zvidcap.cpp zvidcap.h zvidcapdirectx.cpp
• Wildcard enumerator
  zwildcard.cpp zwildcard.h