If I knew that updating a .plan file was this entertaining, I would have
started doing semi-regular updates a long time ago. Oh well. My web space
is located at http://icculus.org/~hendersa and I can be reached via e-mail
at hendersa@icculus.org.
Archived .plan entries can be seen at http://icculus.org/~hendersa/finger.
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* 01 October 2005 - Fly those friendly skies *
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It's been about a year since I updated this thing, so I guess just about any
news is better than letting it sit quiet any longer. There have been a lot of
major things going on, but there's one thing in particular I wanted to mention.
Partly because it's been keeping me busy, but partly because this is the right
crowd to talk with about this.
The company I work for, eFlyte, Inc., is in the inflight entertainment
industry. I've been working with the company for a bit over two years now as
its product development manager. A quick explanation of what we do is "we put
games on airplanes". A slightly longer explanation of what we do is that we
develop and port software to embedded Linux-based platforms for use in the
in-seat entertainment systems of airlines all over the world. It's just about
the perfect spot for someone who wants to work with embedded systems, Linux,
porting games, R&D, cutting-edge hardware, trailing-edge hardware, and
squeezing just about every single cycle out of software.
A little while ago, the Jacksonville Financial News and Daily Record stopped by
eFlyte's Jacksonville office to take a look at what we do. You can check out
the article they wrote on us here, in case you want to see their perspective on
what it is we do. The poor reporter seemed rather overwhelmed when she walked
into our office and was shown all sorts of example software running on the
actual embedded systems within our test lab. Still, she got to play Bejeweled
for a little bit, so it had to be some of the more entertaining research she had
to do for an article.
eFlyte is growing. We've been steadily expanding our staff for some time now,
but we've got big stuff cooking. So, I'm always on the lookout for new
engineers that have the know-how and interest to work with us and help us get
to where we want to be. I've got Win32 source code here for game titles from
PopCap, Mumbo Jumbo, GameHouse, and a handful of other publishers and
developers. These games need to be ported to Linux and put on some airplanes.
I'm not talking about deals being worked and "maybe we'll have source code"...
I'm talking about source code sitting right here, looking for a better life on
a Linux system. The red tape is gone. We have license to port these guys.
We just need to port them!
So, if you'd like to work with source code from publishers and developers like
PopCap, Mumbo Jumbo, and GarageGames, and work with hardware manufacturers like
Panasonic, National Semiconductor, and nVidia, you need to send me your resume.
Right now. Send it to my icculus.org e-mail.
Professional game porting isn't a job for the weak of heart, though. If STL
makes you cringe and gdb is a mystery to you, you'll want to buff up your skills
a bit before you even consider trying a game development position. But, if
you've done some open source development for kicks and can easily dig through
newsgroups and google for answers to weird problems, you're on the right track.
Aside from our games software team, we also have teams working in the following
areas:
- Communications: Our Inflight Communicator software allows SMS and e-mail
messages to be sent from the aircraft to the ground and back. Our primary area
of expertise in this area is researching and inmplementing input mechanisms for
non-Latin character sets.
- Technical Services: We act as advisors and contractors to other organizations
seeking to place their products in the inflight market. We also serve as
advisors on software issues to the manufacturers of inflight entertainment
hardware. Custom application development for airlines also falls under this
area.
- Inflight Gambling: eFlyte provides software for inflight low-stakes gambling
for airlines whose routes fall within legal jurisdictions where gambling is
allowed. This is poised to be our fastest-growing segment of the company, and
the interest from airlines all over the world in our gambling product has been
nothing short of phenomenal.
eFlyte has been around since 1999, has established business relationships with
nearly three dozen airlines all over the world, is a privately-held company, and
has never been funded by venture capital. Its expenses as an ongoing concern
are paid for by the cash flows from operations. Our software is licensed to the
airlines in such a way that we receive recurring monthly cashflows for the
software that is installed. This is a bit different than the traditional
shrink-wrapped software model that involves selling a software title once and
then providing support to the customer from that point onward at the
developer's expense.
Think you'd be interested in working with us? Want to port some games? Send
me an e-mail at my icculus.org mail address and I'll fill you in on the details
and answer what questions I can. All positions are currently at our office in
Jacksonville, Florida, and we can sponsor H1B visas. We offer very competitive
salaries in an area of the country that has a very low cost of living, medical
benefits, a 401k plan, flexible work hours, and (if you are the travelling type)
opportunities to travel to both domestic and international destinations to work
with other eFlyte office locations, partners, and customers.
So send those resumes. You know you want to.