Chapter 26

Ten Cool Programming Careers

In This Chapter

Programming computer games

Animating with computers

Encrypting data

Programming for the Internet

Fighting computer viruses

Hacking for hire

Working on an open-source project

Programming for a specialized market

Sharing your skills with others

Selling your own software

Ask most high school or college guidance counselors what you can do with your programming skills, and they’re likely to steer you in the

direction of sterile job titles such as programmer analyst or data-entry operator. To help stimulate your imagination so that you can get a really cool job playing around with computers all day, this chapter lists some unusual programming jobs that you may want to consider so that you can actually have fun with your life and your job at the same time.

Programming Computer Games for Fun and Profit

Of all the programming topics in the world, none is more popular than game programming. Besides the obvious job of designing computer games (and getting paid to do it), game programming offers a wide variety of related jobs that can prove just as much fun as game designing but don’t get as much publicity.

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Most computer games are team designs. One team may design the game rules; another team does the actual programming; another creates the graphic backgrounds and animation; and still another gets paid to play the latest games to look for bugs and offer suggestions for making the games more exciting (and, hence, more profitable for the publisher).

If you want to write computer games, you need to learn C/C++ and a little bit of assembly language because games need to be as small and as fast as possible. Metrowerks (at www.metrowerks.com) sells special versions of its CodeWarrior compiler for writing computer games in C/C++ for Sony PlayStation and Nintendo game consoles.

If you’d rather exercise your graphic skills, you need to learn animation, which means studying a lot of math (which you use to calculate the best ways to make objects move around the screen).

To start writing your own games, consider using a game engine — a special program that provides instructions to tell the computer how to move animated objects around on-screen. You then spend your time designing your game, not worrying about the details of controlling animated characters on-screen.

For a free game engine that runs on Windows, Linux, and the Macintosh, download the Crystal Space game engine from the official Crystal Space Web site (at http://crystal.sourceforge.net/drupal). Using Crystal Space (and other game engines), you can create 3D triangle mesh sprites with frame animation or transparent and semitransparent textures for creating seethrough water surfaces and windows.

If none of this stuff makes any sense to you, imagine trying to create a game and, at the same time, needing to learn all these technical terms and how to program them yourself. That’s why many people use game engines to help them make new games. Without a game engine, making a game can prove as complicated as making your own word processor just so that you can write a letter.

To find out more about game programming, visit one of the following Web sites (and start on your new career as a professional game programmer today!):

International Game Developer’s Association (at www.igda.org) is the granddaddy of computer-gaming organizations that promotes and protects the computer-gaming industry as well as provides conferences to bring computer gaming professionals together.

Game Developer (at www.gdmag.com) is a special online magazine devoted exclusively to covering the latest game-programming techniques and game-programming industry news.

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Game Programmer (at gameprogrammer.com) is a Web site that provides information and links to the multitude of game programming resources all across the Internet.

DigiPen (at www.digipen.edu) is the site of one of the first schools (with close ties to Nintendo) devoted to training game-programming professionals and awarding them with real college degrees.

GameJobs (at www.gamejobs.com) is a site that provides information, tips, and contacts to help you find a job in the computer-gaming industry.

Creating Computer Animation

Computer animation isn’t just for creating animated characters to shoot or blow up in video games. Programmers also use computer animation in virtual reality, training simulators, and Hollywood special effects (because blowing up a computer-animated building is easier than building a mock-up of an existing building to blow up).

Computer animation can range from creating lifelike images for TV and movies to creating multimedia presentations for business, to making cartoons and animated films. If you like to draw but want to become more than just an artist, combine your knowledge of graphics with programming and help design new graphics-animation programs, create virtual-reality simulators, or work on the next Hollywood blockbuster’s special effects.

To learn more about the wonderfully weird world of computer animation, browse through these Web sites and see what sparks your imagination:

Pixar Animation Studios (at www.pixar.com) is a leading Hollywood animation studio responsible for animating movies such as Toy Story,

Finding Nemo, and A Bug’s Life.

MIT Computer Graphics Society (at www.mit.edu/activities/cgs/ mitcgs.html) is an MIT club dedicated to studying computer graphics as an artistic medium.

International Animated Film Society (at www.asifa-hollywood.org) grants awards (similar to the Academy Awards) for the best computeranimation short films.

Animation Magazine (at www.animationmagazine.net) provides news and information for the entire animation industry.

National Centre for Computer Animation (at ncca.bournemouth. ac.uk) is the United Kingdom’s leading research and training institution for computer animation and digital media.

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Computer Graphics World Online (at http://cgw.pennnet.com/ home/home.cfm) is a magazine covering all the tools, news, and conferences that professional computer graphics artists may need to know about.

Making (And Breaking) Encryption

Ever since nations decided to play the game of war and send their people into battle for their own political reasons, armies have used secret codes to communicate with their commanders without revealing information to their enemies.

Because war isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon, every country in the world continues to develop encryption techniques for creating codes and breaking the codes of others. If the world of James Bond, espionage, and cloak-and-dagger spies appeals to your sense of adventure, consider a career in encryption.

Encryption is the art of converting plain-text information into unreadable garbage (which often resembles tax forms or legal documents) so that no one but your intended recipient can read it. Then, by using a secret password or code phrase, the recipient of your encrypted message can unscramble and read it.

The art of encrypting data involves plenty of math (usually focusing on prime numbers). If you plan to pursue a career in encryption, earn some graduate degrees in advanced mathematics and practice your C/C++ programming skills. Then get a job working for the military, a defense contractor, a software encryption publisher, or a security agency such as the National Security Agency (at www.nsa.gov).

The National Security Agency (open to U.S. citizens only) is the premier codemaking and code-breaking agency in the world, housing the most supercomputers in one location. If you know programming, advanced math, or any foreign language, you can use your abilities to read intercepted messages, track enemy submarine acoustic signatures in the Atlantic Ocean, or search through databases to spot the movements and operations of international terrorists.

If you find encryption fascinating but you’d rather not help your country prepare for war, consider putting your encryption skills to use in the international banking and financial world, where encryption protects electronic transactions worth billions of dollars every day.