Computer Resume for Mills College Supplemental Application

Celeste Hutchins
Computer Resume

Skills:
Languages: Java, Perl, CGI scripting, C/C++, HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, MAX
Operating Systems: Linux, Solaris, MacOS, IRIX, NeXTSTEP

Experience:

AOL/Netscape Mountain View, CA
AOL Online Music
Product Manager
October 2000 – February 2001
  • Product design
  • Writing PRDs
  • Researching data sets
Open Directory Project
Software Engineer
February 1999 – October 2000
  • Wrote web-based tools for editors in perl
  • Apache Server configuration
  • Processed and pushed RDF and search data to http://search.netscape.com
 
Isadra Inc. Palo Alto, CA
Software Engineer August 1998 – February 1999
  • Java Servlet programming for JavaWebServer
  • Trouble-shooting cooperative commerce algorithms
  • Finding and fixing software bugs
  • Set up intranet
 
Whole Bean Software Oakland, CA
Founder December 1996 – October 1997
  • Attempted to start a software company to produce a real time java chat application for the web.
 
Multimedia Resources Inc. Portland, OR
Intern May – August 1996
  • Wrote Java applets
  • Wrote CGI Scripts in Perl / server parsed HTML
 
Tetherless Access Limited Sunnyvale, CA
Intern May – August 1995
  • Tested / fixed software for wireless routers
  • Implemented new features for the wireless router software
  • Documented router software and networking
  • Wrote man pages
 
Mills College Information Technical Services Oakland, CA
Student Worker August 1994 – November 1996
  • Maintained subnets of NeXT machines and Macintoshes
  • System administration including user support
  • HTML Authoring
  • Researched software for potential purchasing
  • Wrote user documentation

Education:
Mills College B.A. May 1998
Majors: Computer Science and Electronic Music

Informal Experience:

  • Belong to a co-location coop, where members share root responsibilities and keep the server up
  • Run and program for a MOO (similar to a MUD but object oriented)

Extra-Curricular Activities:

  • Expanding Your Horizons workshop leader (95 – 97)
  • (EYH is a math, science, and computer workshop for 6th – 12th grade girls)
  • Mills College Academic Board chair
  • ACM Programming Contest contestant (96-97)

PgP Chat

One of my old bosses, of whom I am fond, is off on another startup venture. I think startups are like chasing rainbows for gold. Anyway, I was asking another individual about it. Apparently, people work for no money in the hope of getting cash from venute capitalists. It’s nice to know that some thigns never change. I was so tickled by this, that I inquired further about what the company is doing.
They’re making software so that companies can spy on their employees instant messenger, ICQ, AIM, etc conversations.
Venture capitalists are very excited. Now, there is buisiness around in the valley, but it’s all like this. Everything profitable is related to homeland security somehow. Everybody wants to get rich by spying on everybody else. Obviously, this is no more sustainable than the last “new economy.” I think this iteration of struggling startips ought to be called the “big brother economy.” Partly because of all the spying. Partly because the economy stinks.
Well, this is far from the free-spirited adventurism I used to expect from this guy. You can’t go home again, as they say. Anyway, what is needed is PGP chat. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. It’s a form of encryption where things are encrypted with somebody’s public key, but they can only be decrypted wit that person’s private key. So you can share your public key with the world and people can use it to send message which only you can read. Don’t ask me how this works, I have no idea. But it’s well suited to chat applications, since you can have secure conversations with anybody else who has PGP. So either Yahoo, AOL and microsoft need to add PGP to their applications, or a third-party product, like Fire, needs to add it. Fire is cool because it can communicate with all of the popular chat networks. One application signs you into Yahoo, AOL, etc. this application could add a PGP encyption layer, so that other users f Fire could have secure chats over existing networks. If your boss wants to spy on your AIM conversations, obviously, the AIM port is open. So use the existing protocol for the existing port, but encrypt all the messages.
someone else gets to write this, but here’s an idea that will make you no money. VCs are not excited about non-big brother projects. Sorry. Maybe your boss would just shut down all AIM if you encrypt it. In my mind, it’s better to lose all AIM rather than be spyed on. My old boss’ product must obsoleted before it gets out in the world and makes trouble. Anyway, anyone who wonders why I would give up a career in programming to do music, here’s your answer. The hands that hold the computer purse strings are evil and I want none of it. Somebody come tell me when the anarchosocialist economy takes over.

Mills College Music Supplemental Application

1. Submit an annotated, representative list of your works, including both electronic and non-electronic works. List and describe your work in other media (i.e., film, video, theatre, dance, multi-media, etc)
In addition to the works in my CD portfolio, I

  • Worked on an installation in the Exploratorium as a part of their Second Wednesday Art Series. I worked with two other people to put contact microphones on three exhibits that had moving parts. We then amplified the sounds, unprocessed, and played them out of small speakers placed near the exhibits, so people could hear the quiet sounds of the machinery, which they might not otherwise hear. Also, for the same event, I wrote a MAX patch to create the kind of feedback loop that Alvin Lucier used in his piece I am Sitting in a Room.
  • I also wrote a Toy Piano Nonette in response to a call for scores for an installation by Trimpin. The piece was selected for inclusion. The score, the call for scores and an article about the installation are included in this mailing.
  • I wrote a duet for tuned percussion tubes. The piece uses differently lengthed loops set against each other, so, for instance, the first player plays a four-beat pattern three times and the second player plays a three beat pattern four times. The piece was premiered at an art opening, at a caf�, where a local artist was having an exhibition.

2. Which contemporary composers have been most influential in your own compositions? Why?
The most influential composers have been my teachers, especially Maggi Payne and John Bischoff. Maggi first introduced me to analog synthesis and modular synthesizers, which has been my medium of choice ever since. Her sound aesthetic has also greatly influenced my own. She has had a profound influence on how I think about sound and music.
Although I only took one class with Bischoff, it was my first class at CCM. He was fond of telling his students that the weaknesses of any musical system were also its strengths. Since then, I am constantly looking for artifacts of sound processing and ways to amplify them or use them in composition. One of the pieces in my CD portfolio, Breaking Waves, is based on the artifacts of mp3 conversion.
The most influential composer aside from my instructors is John Cage. I was listening to the radio when I was a freshman in high school and they started playing Lecture on Nothing. It was the version with a woman narrating. I had never heard of John Cage and I had no idea what I was listening to, but I stopped everything I was doing to listen. It was like nothing I had ever heard, but it seemed to be somehow related to the Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger that I had been reading for my English class when the piece started. The piece stayed in the back of my mind until I was at Mills I took a seminar class on John Cage, taught by David Bernstein. Since that class, I�ve read many books by and about John Cage. His thoughts have influenced me on questions such as, �what is art or music?� and issues, such as anarchism. My senior concert, a collaboration with Christi Denton, was modeled on a Musicircus. One day I hope to live in a society modeled on John Cage�s poem, Overpopulation and Art.
Alvin Lucier�s work has influenced my own, especially his piece I am Sitting in a Room. I wrote a MAX patch to create the kind of decay loop that he uses in that piece. This was written for an installation at the Exploratorium, but I�ve used it in pieces since. One of these, Drum Decay, is on my CD portfolio.
The music and writings of Pauline Oliveros have influenced me. I like her sound. I have a book of her sonic meditations that I like to use. I organized a percussion group to play my music and the music of some of my friends. Some members of the group were not always listening to each other. I found that starting rehearsals with Oliveros� Deep Listening exercises helped this a lot and that we were able to get more done as a result. I�ve talked to her and read her book Software for People and have tried to incorporate her ideas into my own thinking.
Another influence is Annea Lockwood. I�ve always liked her work, ever since Maggi Payne introduced me to it. Last year, I had the good fortune to be hired as the driver for the Other Minds festival. As a result, I had several conversations with Annea. We talked about electronic music and how sometimes it doesn�t seem to have �air� in it. This conversation inspired me to start writing a series of tape music pieces called Airwaves, the first three of which are included on my portfolio CD.
I�ve also been influenced by Phillip Glass, especially his operas. I like his style very much. I also read his writing on Einstein on the Beach. In that opera, he uses repeated phrases, but with notes added in the middle in different parts to create loops of different lengths. I�ve used this idea in some of my percussion music and also in other notated music, such as in the attached toy piano nonette, No No Nonette.
Steve Reich�s pieces that phase with each other have been a source of inspiration to me. One of the pieces in my CD portfolio, Phase, was inspired by this idea.
I�ve tried writing pieces based on the idea of Terry Riley�s In C, but so far have not met with success.

3. List the musical instruments you play and give some indication of the degree of skill you have on each.

  • I play the analog modular synthesizer, sans keyboard, but only to tape.
  • I play punk rock on bass guitar with my friends.
  • I played the tuba in the Mills College CPE five years ago, but have not played it since.

4. What is your level of experience with the hardware of electronic media? Indicate whether you have a comprehension of or design experience with circuitry and describe your experience with electronic music instruments, audio, recording/or other related equipment.
I can read a schematic and have experience assembling kits. I also built a theremin from parts and a schematic (not a kit). I took a class in math and analog systems and so understand how different arrangements of resistors work and could use this knowledge to build a plug for a signal that is too hot, for example. I have never designed an analog circuit, but I took a digital circuit design class as a part of my Computer Science degree.
I make extensive use of an analog modular synthesizer and understand some of the math involved in the patches I make. I also know some obscure tricks, for example, analog chaos, which I use in a piece on my CD portfolio, called Chaos Patch. I also use non-patchable analog synthesizers. My experience with digital synthesizer hardware, excluding softsynths, is limited to John Bischoff�s class in computer music.
I took Maggi Payne�s recording class twice for credit and have confidence recording to tape, analog or digital. For my own work, I record direct to disk using pro-tools. I have experience using protools for editing and have produced or help produce several CDs for Other Minds, an arts nonprofit in the City, to use for grant or promotional purposes.
I also use programs like Sound Hack to process recordings and mp3 converters.
I know how to use a voltmeter and a soldering iron.

5. What computer languages and systems have you had experience with? Describe the level of involvement, i.e., designer, programmer, user, etc. Include computer music systems and/or computerized musical instruments you have worked with.
In addition to studying Electronic Music, I also majored in computer science. I have worked programming in C, C++, Java, Perl, Javascript and various markup languages, including HTML, PHP, NROFF and GROFF. I have worked on systems running DOS, Windows, Linux and OS9. My preferred environment for development is Linux. My preferred environment for music is OS9 or OSX. Since OSX is UNIX, I would just as happily program for it as Linux. My last several jobs were in web programming. I have also worked as a release engineer. I informally wrote the Product Requirements Document for ChefMoz, a user-generated online restaurant database. I�ve worked for a short time as the Product Manager for AOL�s Online Music Group.
I know basic system administration. I know how to configure a web server. I belong to a co-location cooperative, where members share administration duties and costs for a colo cage in the south bay.
I started programming when I was eight years old. As soon as I started playing music, in fifth grade, I became interested in how the computer could also make music. I wrote programs in BASIC in an attempt to computer-generate music using arpeggios. In this way, I learned the difference between equal temperament and just intonation.
I now do most of my music programming in MAX/MSP. The only softsynth I�ve used since graduating is ReBirth. I would rather write a custom MAX application, usually, than go looking for software to buy or download. This takes a lot of time, so most of my music is analog. I worked for several months writing an algorithmic techno generator written in MAX. It is unfinished.
Please see attached resume for more information.

7. Is your interest in electronic media primarily for composition or research and design or both?
Both. I would like to learn more compositional techniques. I am also interested, especially, in algorithmic composition. After graduation, I would like to work as a music researcher at a center such as STEIM, IRCAM or ZKM.

8. Why have you selected Mills College for graduate work in electronic media?
Mills has a reputation for being the best place to study electronic media. It is also located in an area with a thriving arts scene. I�ve learned a lot from Mills already, and there is certainly more to learn.
Obviously, the influeces section needs work. it’s really hard to write about.

Banned Practice

We had practice today, despite some sporting event bruhaha. Mitch was talking about this chick he likes, and I suggested he try cooking for her. The drummer (same guy who wants to wrap Xena in a giant flour tortilla) says, “My advice is just go for the neck. Like right away.” Apparently, he means go for necking right away, not some sort of vampire thing.
We sounded pretty good today. Played a lot in E. A whole lot of E. We’ve decided to do a cover of the sesamea street counting song, the one that goes “One two thre four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twelve,” but we’re going to do it in esperanto. “Und du tri kvar, kvin ses sep ok naux dek, dek un’ dek du.” We also talked a bit about covering the song “There’s a place in France where the naked ladies dance.” We did not talk about insane clown music, but the spirit of it was hanging in the air.
Ok, so what’s this band like, you’re thinking. I play bass. I think I play a Fender P-bass, but I’m forgetful, so who knows. I suck. Ed plays guitar. Ed it really good and has a cool holoow body guitar. He also has the FX box of doom. It has several preset styles and a delay. Today Ed was sounding like heavy metal and had the dlay feeding back on it self, so he was echoing. Mitch also plays guitar. He has a pink paisley fender, just like the one in the band in the first Austin Powers movie. He was going toally clean through a very crappy amp. His guitar sounds kind of plinky sometimes and he plays most of his solo lines very high up,often using the pentatonic minor scale. Often this sounds great. Occasionally it sounds like dueling banjos. Very occasionally. Chand plays drums. He plays electronic drums. They’re digital. There’s an artfiact such that the symbols stop ringing when you hit another drum, since the decay of one seems to cut off the decay of the other. He plays quite well, but, since the drums are electronic, the drum sounds sound like a drum machine, even if his playing doesn’t. All of this together conspires on evil clown music and five-eight time, on the theory that five eight time will cause riots. Riots are desirable.
Estas Loko en Francio, kie nudaj inoj dancas.
How do you translate, I feel your purple vibes? Eble, Mi sentas vin purpure or Mi sentas viajn purpurajn vibrojn.

to do list
  • apply to mills college (due feb 1st)
  • Write woodwind octet, nonette or dectet for Bowling Green Call for Scores (due feb 3rd)
  • Research American Women Composers for the Women’s Philharmonic (due in three weeks)
  • Work with Christi writing backend database and php front end to be able to view infomration about composers, orchestras, priemeres, works and sponsorships for the Womens Philharmonic website (due monday… ahahahahahaha… their lone staff member does not understand what she asks. due, really, in three weeks)

This should keep me off the streets

Had dinner w/ Matthew and Jenny. They’re both looking good. Jenny looks like she could give birth at any moment, which I guess, actually she could. Matthew got something in the mail a couple of days ago from East Bay MUD. They want him to come in for an interview. Unfortunately, they scheduled him to come in today. So he has to call them on Monday and say he didn’t get the letter in time. I’ve had this sort of thing happen before. Rescheduling is never a problem. However, Christi is very upset and has decided that Matthew won’t get the job and it’s all her fault. He dad called to talk to her about it and made her feel even worse. I don’t understand her family at all. Have none of them ever had to reschedule anything before?

buisiness Minded

so yesterday was the Home Owners Asscoiation meeting in my lil compound. Christi bravely went. She wanted me to stay home because she feared I would make trouble, so I stayed home. “Making trouble” refers to redirecting the conversation to more entertaining controversial subjects, such as removing the parking lot and using it to grow plants. anyway, clearly it was a mistake for me to stay home.
the problem with HOAs is that happy, easygoing people who want to let others be don’t go to these meetings, because the anal people cause them stress. then the anal people take over. Apparently one of my neighbors. An “artist”, who, though famous, hasn’t done anyhting in more than 20 years, apparently has enough fre time to stare out her window monitoring for wrongdoing. When I was a kid, the woman across the street did that. she would stare out her window, glaring at he kids, hands ready to dial the police should something ever slightly illegal occur. she made good cookies, but she kept calling the cops on my brother. anyway, that is surely the clearest sign of being an old lady. Once you have nothing better to do than make sure the nieghborhood kids or dogs or whatever are obeying all the laws, then you’re old. Probably sad and bitter too. Anyway, this old lady, who was incidentally, also the person who managed to chase away a Taiko Drumming school, goes to every single one of these meetings. the other folks are also anal, but not to such an advanced degree.
so nine people went to the meeting. nine people constitutes a simple majority of the association. christi was there as the lone member of the mellow contingent. Everything was agreed upon 8-1. this is the problem with politics. the majority doesn’t partcipate. Anal, annoying folks get to make all the rules. anyway, it was determined that out of “respect for or neighbors,” dogs should not run in the parking lot because it creates an un-buisiness-like atmosphere. The most vocal proponents of this also sugested that childrens toys do not belong outside, in front of doorways because that is also un-buiness-like. Those vocal proponents do not actually live here. they own two units, but the go home to someplace else. also, they have an enormous very dominant and somwhat agressive dog. the dogs weighs more than both of them put together. I’ve seen them struggling and failing to control the dog sometimes. some of those times, I used to thin were comical. Xena would be downstairs looking out the glass doors at the big dog. the big dog would then drag his owners over to our window and then the big dog qould urinate on the window, right at xena. It’s a dog thing. He wants to say that he outranks her. Her territory is his territory. I used to just think it was a stupid dog thing and was a good example of who hoses were invented. But these are the folks who are worried about off-leash dogs and professionalism. Their dog pees on my window. My dog runs in the middle of a parking lot. which is more unporfessional?
anyway, this is not a rule, it’s a suggestion, so that “we respect our neighbors.” Several words have changed meaning since I was a kid. One of those is “respect.” I never knew that respecting someone meant curtailing activites that have nothing to do with them. Shold we next “respect our neighbors” by refraining from having anal sex? If nobody is around and a dog runs in a large cement lot, who is disrespected exactly?
christi has decided to roll over and give in to this non-rule. Christi wonders why people take advantage of her and then talks about boundary issues. this is a boundary issue. The supreme court has said that a person’s freedom to swing their arms in the street ends at another person’s nose. fair enough. But all the noses are inside, even if they are in my buisiness.
I’m really quite angry. Dogs have been allowed to run around since I’ve moved here. a bunch of anal people want to make a bunch of rules. (they’ve also desiced that people should not be permitted to pur potted plasnts on their balcony, in case one should fall and hit somebody. the ironic thing of this idiotness is that if a pot should actually fall from a balcony and injure someone, now the HOA bears responcibility. if they had left well enough alone, it would be the potted plant owner’s problem.) christi warns me earnestly that if we don’t aceed to all of the demands of the increasingly conservative and meddlesome HOA, it will strain relations with our neighbors. Like maybe they’ll hate our dog. Or make rules about her. no, that already happened, through no fault of our own. maybe they’ll decide we’re out-of-control youth. nope too late. Maybe they’ll disrespect us as overly young, immature scruffy artists. no, too late again. maybe they’ll stop inviting us to dinner parties! ack! oh no! I really want to be invited to hang around people that hate my dog and think that i must “respect” them by being subservient. F— them. If nobody’s around, it doesn’t hurt a f—— thing to let her run around a bit. after a certain time, the big gate closes. That’s considered after buisiness hours. if the dog runs then, nobody’s stupid business will look unprofessional. The trees will still fall of the leaves in the winter. the plants in the planter boxes will die back. the sprinklers will break as people step on them and the suun degrades them. Property values will continue to fluctuate. But nobody’s buisiness will be harmed.
The moral to this story: if you want to live in a live/work thingee to do art, you need to move into a an arts live work thingee. stay far away from people who love capitalism so much that they want to take it home with them
I know I get along with others. I lived in a dorm for years and was popular among my neighbors. I rented for years with no problems. In one place, my landlord and i shared a yard and there was no problem. the problem here is not me and is not my dog. It’s conservative assholes who desperately need to get lives.