Adam Patridge (Cheyenne, WY) – [LinkedIn]

What I do

I’m currently a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft (opinions are mine), working on internal programs that enable our data scientists and partners to guide content production and evaluate marketing efforts for Microsoft’s educational platform, Microsoft Learn Docs and Training.

Previously, I’ve managed the programs for handling content update and improvement systems as well as developing several of the processes that launched the Microsoft Learn Training platform, a free learning platform with a sandbox system allowing users to practice on the products they are learning without having to worry about Azure costs or resource clean-up.

While I am often buried in internal Python and Scala tooling, I still try to spend time writing code in C# and JavaScript regularly. I’ve developed browser extensions to make life easier for folks handling Microsoft content maintenance and streamlining GitHub discussions when they fill up with noise. I’ve written C# for iOS and Android app using Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.iOS, and Xamarin. I’ve written C#, HTML, and JavaScript for large-scale ASP.NET MVC sites and REST APIs, especially in the e-commerce sector.

You can find most of my development efforts represented on GitHub, whether it’s my own code or contributions and collaborations with others.

Microcontroller development

Since its launch, I’ve been spending a lot of time playing with Wilderness Lab’s Meadow microcontroller and IoT solutions. I contribute regularly to their documentation and build sensor-driven projects of all sorts. Many of these projects end up as samples to teach others, and some end up out in the real world, especially as silly electronic badges for conferences like DEF CON and Hackaday Superday.

Mobile and web development

One of my biggest mobile project was Sierra’s retail mobile apps (iPhone and iPad and Android), built using C# with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android, respectively. I also developed the Sierra Trading Post retail API using ASP.NET, used by both the mobile apps and third-party developers integrating with Sierra’s affiliate systems.

I will always have a soft spot for the Sierra Trading Post mobile site that started as an experiment on my living room couch after I got my first-gen iPod Touch. It was a great lesson in optimizing bandwidth usage and adaptive JavaScript.

Game development

When I can find the time, I also love to work on game development projects, from small self-produced projects to team “monthlies” where a small group of us would develop a game from start to finish in a month.

  • Smudges – A silly game mostly used to entertain toddlers, previously available on iPhone and iPad and Android (and Amazon Fire). I originally created Smudges to occupy my then-2-year-old child. I’ve written a bit about it on this blog, if you would like to learn more about some of the code that went into making Smudges.

  • Shiprekt – Second run through the world of video game development. This one-month project covered a ship vs. ship sea-battle game. I did a number of smaller environmental features around wind and wildlife.

  • TownRaiser – This was my first true foray into video game development (Sorry, Smudges). Victor Chelaru, who created the FlatRedBall game dev platform, asked if I wanted to do a one-month game project. At the end, we had TownRaiser, a town-building RTS-style game. I went from no game dev experience to building unit AI and animations at an incredible pace.

Fun projects

Occasionally, I make a tool or project that helps me do something silly or random. Here are a few of those projects.

  • StackGeography (source)- Started as a proof-of-concept mapping demo and evolved hastily into a StackApps app submission. This mapping site polls for recent Stack Exchange site questions (StackOverflow, SuperUser, etc.) and maps the user locations to map from the Google Maps API. [With changes to the Google Maps API over the years, it appears this project needs some updates to start working again.]
  • Kickstarterterest (source) – A proof-of-concept presentation of Kickstarter projects (via their RSS feed) in a masonry-style view (as made famous by Pinterest). Hosted on GitHub Pages after being hosted on AppHarbor for several years.
  • D3.js demo – First Day Hike Map (source) – A simple proof-of-concept system developed as a way to find and showcase First Day Hikes as part of a collaboration with Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources.
  • rss-to-jsonp – A silly proxy for requesting an RSS feed and returning JSON assembled from that feed, originally started as a tool needed for Kickstarterterest. Final product goes out to AppHarbor at https://rss-to-jsonp.apphb.com/{atom rss}/?url={feedUrlEncoded}.
  • zxingnetapi – An ASP.NET Web API that exposes various methods in the ZXing.NET library for generating and eventually creating barcodes.
  • MonoForAndroidFlashlight – A simple flashlight app that I put together in Mono for Android to use on my Galaxy Nexus.

Open source contributions

I always try to contribute to open source projects that make my life easier. It has been some great learning experiences. Check out my post on working with different coding styles in Visual Studio for a glimpse into how to work with code written by other teams.

You can check out most of my open source work on GitHub (patridge). I regularly contribute to project documentation as I learn new technologies, trying to make things better for the next person coming through to learn.

Achievements

I was a Xamarin MVP when Xamarin was still a separate company. I was eventually hired by Xamarin before the Microsoft acquisition.

Xamarin MVP

Until the Xamarin Certification was retired, I made sure to keep that certification current.

Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer

PatridgeDev elsewhere