Welcome!

Photo of Max Shawabkeh

My name is Max Shawabkeh. This site is a centralized repository of all the works I have created over the years - programs, mods, extensions, and various other bit and pieces. The links at the top will take you to sections concerning a particular area, while the links on the right lead to my work info and profiles on other sites.

All code and artwork on this site can be used for free without attribution for any purpose whatsoever, unless stated otherwise.

A Little About Me

I'm a programmer currently living in Santa Clara, California. I have recently graduated from the Princess Sumaya University for Technology () with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and am currently working at Google as a Software Engineer.

Programming

I have been programming for fun since I was 13, and professionally since I was 16. My first foray into programming was via writing mods for Morrowind, most of which are available from this site. Afterwards I learned a few general purpose programming languages and started doing freelance work at Rent A Coder. There I eventually met the folks from Pipl for whom I worked until 2009. In the summer of 2009 I did an internship with Google at the Zürich office, and in 2010 another one, but this time at the main Mountain View office. In 2011 I finally returned to Google in Mountain View as a fulltime engineer.

Languages

I know a fair few programming languages, though some I have learned only superficially, to gain insight into their features and the paradigms they use. The computer languages (programming and otherwise) which I know well enough to write production code include Python, C, C++, C#, Java, Javascript, PHP, VB, Sawzall, SQL, HTML, CSS and Regex. The languages I've studied superficially include LISP, Scheme, Prolog, Haskell, Matlab, Ada, HLSL, UnrealScript and x86 Assembly.

I also happen to know a few natural languages: I speak Russian, English and Arabic fluently, and understand Ukrainian fairly well.

The Good Things in Life

Among the few topics on which I can talk your ears off are:

  • Makoto Shinkai's animated movies: if pure beauty could be given form, this is what it would look. Every frame drawn by Shinkai is worthy of being hanged on a wall, every line of dialogue captures the purest of emotions, every musical note fits like a glove. It is simply enchanting!
  • Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels: wit has a name, and it is Discworld.
  • Video games, including such masterpieces as Portal, Arcanum, Final Fantasies, Vampire: Bloodlines and hundreds of others.
  • Python: I've tried a lot of programming languages, both mainstream and academic, and while each of them shines at one role or another, none of them come close to Python in the amount of joy I get from writing everyday code. Concise, consistent, powerful and flexible - it's the one language that I found never to get in the way of solving problems.