About
The Author
Hi. I’m Jim Cheng. I’m an aspiring polymath and this is my blog. Since before I can even remember, I have been interested in a great many things. I write about some of these here.
At present, I’m gainfully employed as a software engineer at a small start-up where I spend my days solving convoluted logic problems and thinking up ways to improve and refine the software development process. I started programming almost immediately after I discovered how to read, and have written software on computers ranging from a Commodore VIC-20 to today’s Intel Pentium 4s, with a few embedded systems tossed in between. I’m largely self-taught, though I do have to give credit to Caltech for giving me the chance to learn Assembly and C++ in between all of my other classes.
Though I’ve used roughly a half-dozen programming languages through my life, over the past few years I’ve been primarily developing in various flavors of Actionscript, a ECMA-232 language for Adobe’s Flash platform, with occasional forays into FLASM, an Assembly language targeting the Actionscript virtual machine, when I need to eke out the last bit of performance from Flash.
Although I currently work in software, I was originally trained as a chemist during my studies at Caltech. While an undergraduate, I conducted research in computer modeling of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra under Professor J.D. Roberts, the results of which were eventually published in a peer-reviewed journal. I also undertook significant coursework in biology and a smattering of courses in topics ranging from music to electrical engineering when the opportunities presented themselves. In 1999, I graduated with honors and received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.
Aside from the natural sciences and software, I also have a very strong interest in theology and ecclesiology, and as such, I spent several years working as an intern at an evangelical church where I had the chance to discern a possible vocation to the ordained ministry while continuing to further my knowledge of biblical interpretation and church history.
I’m married to the brilliant and all-around wonderful Jenelle Yturralde Cheng, and we share our home in Denver with two tomcats and one very long-lived goldfish.