Isaac Rabinovitch

415-596-8665

Career Goals

• Participate in interesting projects in teamwork-oriented workplaces.
• Continue writing technical documentation.
• Broaden my technical skill base and academic qualifications.
• Help create products and content I can be proud of.

Technical Skill Highlights

Recent Employment and Experience

• With time out for various contracts and one stint as a support engineer (see "Hurricane Electric," below) I've been working on brief assignments as a computer consultant and administrative assistant. I've helped people resolve their word processor and spreadsheet problem, solved various small technical problems, and done some publication production work. I filled in my extra time with volunteer and academic work, some of which I still continue. My volunteer activities include tutoring work for the Marin Literacy Project, database design for various nonprofit agencies, and editorial/production work for Project Gutenberg and the Free Online Dictionary of Computing.

• Handled first-level technical and customer support via phone and email. Responded to technical and billing queries. Assisted hosting customers with web design, configuration, and scripting problems. Performed various tasks for remote collocation customers, including rebooting, running diagnostics, and changing cabling. Escorted and assisted collocation customers working onsite.

• Documented C++ user interface framework. Interviewed framework designer, read source code, analyzed previous online discussion. Helped design Doxygen workflow for ongoing document maintenance.

• Documented VCL and CLX application frameworks for Windows and Linux. These libraries are written in Object Pascal and C++, and are associated with Borland's Delphi, Kylix, and C++Builder products. Interviewed development engineers, researched source code, collaborated on specifications.
• Wrote release notes for early versions of Kylix, Borland RAD Linux product. Required collaboration with Integration and I20N engineers.
• Developed macros, scripts, and other software tools used in authoring and production processes. Programming languages used: Perl, Object Pascal, Visual Basic, and XSLT.
• Participated in team that planned and partially implemented re-engineering of document base using XML technology.
• Tracked source code changes and routed change reports to the appropriate writer.

• Researched and summarized over 3000 bug reports for SGI customer support web site.
• As member of Y2K readiness team, documented millennium preparedness issues and procedures.
• Collaborated with web development team on redesign of customer support web site.

• Wrote user manual for Fieldsight, diagnostic product embedded in telephone switches.

• Maintained release notes for two Java Development Kit release steams (Java 1 maintenance releases and Java 2 beta releases).
• Represented technical publications on both release teams, L18N team, and general product team.
• Received new Java 2 content from writers and engineers, and merged it into existing document base.
• Managed production of source-code-based API documentation using JavaDoc. Managed production of FrameMaker-based documentation using WebWorks. Managed release of document bundle via compressed TAR, Zip archive, and web push.
• Rewrote basic development tool documentation, including compiler reference.
• Restructured release notes and documentation bundle to make content more accessible

Prior Work Experience

Prior to 1998, I did end-user consulting, system development, and system integration as an employee of UC Santa Cruz and as an independent consultant. In the same period I completed various technical writing jobs, including work at Convergent Technologies and Zilog. In 1998 I decided to discontinue my other ventures and pursue technical writing full time.