Black Pixel
Why I would be a great addition to the Black Pixel team
Creativity
I am creative. I believe in balancing both sides of my brain. My abstract artwork helps balance out my passion for writing code. I have started to venture into the waters of UI design and graphic design. I have used tools such as Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, and Pixelmator for multiple projects. I designed BoxDot entirely using Pixelmator. My senior project, designing a live wallpaper for Intel, introduced me to Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop. I designed an Arabic Alphabet Soundboard/Whiteboard iPad app while working as an iOS developer at OSU, using Pixelmator and Photoshop. I still have quite a bit to learn about UI/UX and graphic design but I think I have a decent amount of potential.
Ingenuity
I am smart. It's easy to feel dumb when looking at computer science as a whole. I have made it my goal to be as well rounded as possible. I have gotten close to the iron, programming in assembly. I cut my teeth with Java early on in my education and again as the lead developer for my senior project, designing a live wallpaper for Intel. I taught myself Objective-C and have successfully submitted BoxDot, an iPhone app that I built in my spare time between classes and internships, to the Appstore. I continued my iOS development working for OSU to create an in-house iPad app for one of their online courses. I have had experience designing mySQL databases and backend API's in PHP. I have a good amount of experience with C having used it throughout most of my courses, at Intel, and at Mentor Graphics. I have dabbled in Perl, Tcl, and Haskell, and I know my way around any unix-based OS quite well. I can whip up a Bash script in a flash and know how to throughly test/debug using DDD and other debugging tools.
Motivation
I am motivated. I am task oriented, efficient and know how to work effectively in any group. I've taken online classes and explored Spain while staying on top my school work and teaching myself Objective-C and Cocoa. I have interned at two major corporations, first at Intel as part of their Validation Tools Group and then at Mentor Graphics as part of their ModelSim GUI team. At both internships I received high praise for my dedication and hard work. I love design, I love software, and I love the Apple community. The reason I taught myself Objective-C was because I love Mac/iOS software. I've always admired the work of Brent Simmons, Omni Group, Panic, and many others. I would love to work with people that are passionate about the same things, which is why it would be a privilege to be able to work for you.
Nick Alto
Website: nickalto.com
Location: Seattle, WA
Phone: 971-222-7468
Twitter: @nick_alto