▶ Life Experiencesℹ️
Life Experiences • [5 items]- My Bias (1974) - Everyone is biased, I'm open about mine, so that people can view my stuff through my lens.
- First Network Gaming Party - My fiends and I (from the Mousehole), did the first Mac Network Gaming Party.
- Humble brag - Humble brag - why am I so humble? Because everyone knows more than me about something. You just gotta find it.
- Pig Sty - Back in the day (late 70's and early 80's) there were a lot of BBS's. PigSty was THE best in Orange County.
▼ Life Experiencesℹ️
- My Bias (1974) - Everyone is biased, I'm open about mine, so that people can decide if I'm right in spite of them, or where I go wrong (if they disagree). It started in 5th grade when I learned early that the School textbooks and teachers were indoctrinating me with lies (spin). So cynical skepticism (what's the other side of the story) was ingrained early, and forms my world view.
- First Network Gaming Party - My fiends and I (from the Mousehole), did the first Mac Network Gaming Party.
- Humble brag - Humble brag - why am I so humble? Because everyone knows more than me about something. Smarter than most people, on most things, also means that an average person knows more than me on at least one thing (even something I think I know). And there's other smart people out there that know more than me on a few things. You gotta ask questions to find out what.
- Pig Sty - Back in the day (late 70's and early 80's) there were a lot of BBS's (Bulletin Board Systems), and the elite ones were for Pirates, Hackers, Crackers and Phreaks. The famous ones in Orange County (where I was from) were Adventurers Tavern, Crows Nest, Pig Sty, and Mousehole. I was on all of them.
▶ Work Experiencesℹ️
Work Experiences • [16 items]- 1976 Ridgeline Country Club - Ridgeline Country Club - I was a caddy, sous-chef, dish-washer, bus boy, gopher for the local posh country club.
- 1977 Watts - Watts - I was a rural/burb kid that lived summers in Hollywood or Burbank, and worked in places like Watts.
- 1978 Cinedome Theaters - I did a summer job I did was at the local movie theaters; the Orange Cinedome.
- 1979-1982 Compusound - As a teen, I hung out in a computer store, and parlayed that into computer sales and consulting gigs.
- 1980 Brunswick Defense - My first aerospace contract was Brunswick Defense. The people that make bowling balls had a weapons division in So Cal.
- 1981 Ford Aerospace - The defense industry was hysterical, and there are many stories to tell about these places/weapons systems.
- 1982 Ideal Computers - While going to School in Kankakee, I walked a couple miles away to the local computer store to sell computers.
- 1983 Pertec Computer Corporation (MITS) - At 18, I went to work for Pertec (who had bought MITS/Altair) and was a QA that programmed myself out of a job.
- 1983-1986, 1994 Rockwell • North American Aviation (NAAO) - Coming of age at Rockwell North American Aviation (NAAO). Or starting to.
- 1986-1988 Rockwell • Collins - After I left Rockwell, I went to work for Rockwell. I learned a lot, and accomplished more.
- 1988-1991 Baxter - I left aerospace for biomed (Baxter), where I made medical instruments, inluding one used to save my wife's life.
- 1991 Relsys, Oracle (Alcon, Spectramed) - Dave Bajaj and I worked at Baxter, but the company had a cost cutting measure that eliminated the consultants.
- 1992 Workstation Technologies • UMAX • SuperMAC (Nortel) - I moved to Mac Application Development creating QT-VCR, one of the first video recording/playback apps.
- 1992-1994 American Zettler - I was able to turn around a product in crisis into a cash cow, by combining my Mac and Medical Device experience.
- 2006-Present Adobe - After I left 3M, I decided to do a gig in Silicon Valley, and I joined Adobe on a few year gig.
- Photoshop - Collection of stories about Photoshop
▼ Work Experiencesℹ️
- 1976 Ridgeline Country Club - Ridgeline Country Club - I was a caddy, gopher, dish-washer, bus boy, and sous-chef for the local posh country club (and the Presidential Chef, Skippy). It wasn't THAT posh, but I got good at golf and tennis -- and cutting/cleaning vegetables. While my parents were into status symbols and brand names, it didn't stick as well for me.
- 1977 Watts - Watts (Construction) - While I was a rural/burb kid, I lived summers with my Uncle in Hollywood, or Grandparents in Burbank. Hustling on Sunset, being "white bread" working in Watts. I learned a lot working in South Central. Most of it was not good stuff; racism, corruption, contempt/distaste for the inner-city subculture.
- 1978 Cinedome Theaters - I did a summer job I did was at the local movie theaters; the Orange Cinedome, which has since been torn down. It was one of the last 70mm theaters in the area. I was young, biking the 5 miles down wasn't bad; riding back after my shift, with an uphill grade, was a lot tougher. Getting there without being disheveled in the heat wasn't always easy.
- 1979-1982 Compusound - I hung out in a computer store, and I sold Computers by asking people, "What would you like to use it for?" By listening to their answers, I could solve their problem, and sell them a computer AND my programming services. After I got my drivers license, I was consulting to places like Brunswick Defense and Glendale Unified School District.
- 1980 Brunswick Defense - My first aerospace contract was Brunswick Defensee. The bowling ball folks had a weapons division in Costa Mesa, and I worked on two wespons systems there (anti-runway missile and anti-bunker rocket) writing Quality Control Software. I wrote the controls/analysis software for the Lab/Test Equipment that did pressure or temperature tests to make sure the toys made Boom-booms only when expected.
- 1981 Ford Aerospace - The defense industry was hysterical, and there are so many stories to tell about these weapons systems. There were thousands of people, but it was a small industry with characters, and insanely funny programming mistakes in the way that non-life-or-death software can never be. Ford had a few of the best "gaffes".
- 1982 Ideal Computers - I walked into the local Computer Store in Kankakee (while going to school in area), and just pretended I worked there. I was helping people with sales and support until I found the manager, and since I'd already sold one computer and supported another, I got him to hire me. Later, I made their largest sale until I was sabotaged by a professor.
- 1983 Pertec Computer Corporation (MITS) - Back from Illinois (first semester of College), I had to work to pay for school. So at 18 I went to work for Pertec part time (they had bought MITS of Altair fame: the first Microcomputer). I started "at the bottom" QA (Quality Assurance), as I didn't have a degree (and they had snobs). But I kept writing utilities, games and tools in my spare time that was showing up their programmers, so they let me go.
- 1983-1986, 1994 Rockwell • North American Aviation (NAAO) - I started coming of age at NAAO, working on the B-1B Bomber (Lancer). I got my security clearance, learned to deal with eccentric co-workers, learned about nepotism, Corporate Politics is about more than just hard work, and how not to mix substance abuse and work, got "hit on" in front of my parents, and learned how NOT to exit a company.
- 1986-1988 Rockwell • Collins - After I left Rockwell, I went to work for Rockwell. I moved from Airplanes (NAAO) to Collins Radio and was working on the MILSTAR Satellite Communication Terminal: a system that was used for most of the secure military battlefield communications. Never have I worked with such a ragtag bunch of humans... and had the time of my life. It was a lifetime of experiences in 3 1/2 years.
- 1988-1991 Baxter - After I left Rockwell the second time, I went to work for Baxter (Edwards Critical Care division), where I made medical instruments (including one used to save my wife's life). While saving lives wasn't as "interesting" as weapons systems to take them; it provided life lessons about dating on the job, the costs of defensive medicine, and just the problems in the provider side of healthcare.
- 1991 Relsys, Oracle (Alcon, Spectramed) - Dave Bajaj and I worked at Baxter, but the company had a cost cutting measure that eliminated the consultants. Dave started his own biomed consulting company: Relsys, and I was his first employee, working out of the spare room in his house, and helped with the demo that got him his first contracts (Alcon and Spectramed) beating out much larger companies.
- 1992 Workstation Technologies • UMAX • SuperMAC (Nortel) - I moved to Mac Application Development creating QT-VCR. The job was creating a QuickTime VDIG and a dithering algorithm for teleconferencing (for Nortel), and QT-VCR a commercial application used for recording and playback of streams, at a small startup WTi (Workstation Technologies, Inc), later acquired by UMAX/SuperMAC.
- 1992-1994 American Zettler - I combined Medical Device Interfaces and Mac Development, with Zettler's Nurse Call system (Sentinal). It managed Hospital administration and nursing staff to allow patients to call for nurses and track their responses. They were losing contracts and going into litigation, but I went on site to many Hospitals, hired Engineers and Quality Assurance teams, and turned the product from legal disaster to cash cow.
- 2006-Present Adobe - After I left 3M, I decided to do some time in the Valley (Silicon Valley), and work for Adobe. This was going to be a few year gig to fluff up my Résumé and move on. But the company stuck and I worked there longer than any other company. I managed their relationship with the largest companies in the world for 12 years, until I got a bad manager. Then I moved on to Program Manager for Adobe Sign.
- Photoshop - Collection of stories about Photoshop
