User:Dlau10

About Me

My name is Dixon Lau, I am a software developer, a piano teacher, and a gamer. On the left hand menu, you'll find detailed information about my projects and hobbies, as well as my multiple resumes that I use for different fields of expertise.

Software Developer

As a software developer, I am known to many people as the "person to go to for testing". During my four month co-op at RBC, I was given the nickname of "Program Murderer" simply because I was able to find a massive amount of errors in one program. Because of this a majority of my time at RBC was spent testing various applications and noticing errors outside of the normal testing phase. I will not disclose the number of errors, nor what program I found the errors in due to security reasons. In other fields of software development, I have worked on the Kanji Learner, a solo project developed for apple touch devices; The Metropass POS System, worked in a team of two; and the 3D Asteroids Game, a program written in DirectX9 which included my first research project of collision detection.

Piano Teacher

As a piano teacher, I teach children the basics of playing piano in an unorthodox way compared to most piano teachers. I believe that children like to play songs they like and want to play, and so my method of teaching is to strictly teach children techniques of piano playing and teaching the children why they should learn these techniques. Many believe that children are extremely curious, asking their parents "Why?" or "What's this?". Many teachers don't like these questions, however because I went through a similar experience when I was a child, I welcome these questions and clearly explain the reasons behind why children are learning this. Of course, I'm also a Pianist. I play piano for fun. I wouldn't be a good teacher if I didn't follow my own guidelines. I've played piano for nearly 17 years now, and have been going to lessons for about 11 years. I've achieved the Grade 9 Royal Conservatory of Music Certificate, and I play piano at a Grade 10 RCM level. Some of the songs I play may be found on YouTube here.

Gamer

I included gaming in the about me section because it is strictly one of my hobbies and I do believe games improve the sharpness of the mind and improves dedication to a company as a skill. Games nowadays involve a large amount of brain power, quick thinking skills, quick reflexes, and dedication. Each of these involvements that can come from games are useful skills in the workplace. That being said, games do have their own drawback. Many gamers become what is known as a "hardcore gamer", gamers who don't do anything except for playing games. These types generally play games that do not require all of the skills that I mentioned above. The games I play do, and the games I do play can be found in the hobbies section.

My Future

What do I plan to be? In five years I plan to do exactly what I'm doing now. Develop software, continue teaching piano and continue playing mind boggling games. Many of my friends and co-workers tell me that I have a very unique skill set, and that I am not "just another programmer " or "just another gamer". While my skills will increase in each of these fields in those five years, I very much enjoy where I'm headed, and where I am now.