Working at Microsoft was a different experience. I quickly learned that while everybody was smart and didn’t suffer fools with any amount of patience, my fellow developers were very cool and very fun to work with. Some were a bit eccentric, which everybody embraced. Everybody was very intense, but it was an extremely fair environment. It took a long time for me to overcome my…
So I moved to Bellevue to work more closely with Microsoft, and the first things that we did was setup a meeting with the DirectX team to ask them to add a new DirectDraw feature that allowed configuration of the video port hardware that most graphics vendors now supported. Eric Engstrom confirmed that a bunch of vendors have asked for this support, but as we…
Switching from Pixel to Cirrus Logic was not a drastic change, but it was impactful in that we moved from creating separate video processors to integrating our video technologies into existing Cirrus Logic graphics chips. As Cirrus Logic had 60% of the graphics market (at the time), it also allowed me to engage more formally with Microsoft. And we did eventually move into a much…
The above picture shows the old Pixel office. It looks cleaner today that I remember it – somehow less run-down. Maybe it’s the lack of the big white lettering spelling PIXEL SEMICONDUCTOR. I can remember the exact day that I started working at Pixel Semiconductor because it was the day that the branch Davidians set fire to their compound in Waco, TX (killing everybody). It…
Probably my biggest claim to fame while at Compaq was that while debugging code that I wrote that interacted with NVRAM, I inadvertently welded my power cable to my motherboard. But I did learn some things as well. Tell the truth and take responsibility Our release process was that for every disk that we shipped, we filled out a form, gave it to the release…
In 1989 Houston was an oil town that had very little tech presence. When Compaq started (and quickly became huge), it was Houston’s darling. It had great benefits and everybody wanted to work there. They had a gorgeous campus built in the North West corner of Houston (not far from Tomball) that incorporated both office buildings and factories – all of which was connected by…
I never really knew what I wanted to be when I was growing up. In 8th grade I said it was a toss up between being a doctor or a cabinet maker. When I graduated from HS, I went to a small college and I chose accounting as a major (not for any real reason, it just sounded respectful). So for one year I took…
I just finished reading The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan Haidt, published in 2012. I bought this book on a whim while browsing at Powell’s Books in Portland – mostly because I’ve lost several friendships with people in the past few years whom I used to respect (but now we cannot understand each other). This book is…
Last Friday (August 16th) my daughter Madeline and I attended a Robert Plant & Allison Krause concert at Chateau Michelle Winery in Woodinville. The show was sold out long before I heard about it, but luckily my son Wyatt’s college roommate works at the venue and was able to get us in for free. This is the third time that I have seen Robert Plant…
Last year I teamed up Christopher Carter to help build a portable shower for Camp United We Stand (a county sanctioned homeless camp that moves between church parking lots in the Shoreline area). Christopher is a member of the camp. We designed it ourselves using mostly resin, corrugated plastic, and FRP paneling and built it in my garage. Today I was talking with Christopher and…
