12 March 1999: Life at Apple

Friday, 12 March 1999:

Life at Apple

It's the end of my first "in the office" week at Apple, and it's been pretty good. I talked on Monday about going through orientation. It seems like I've basically spent the time since just getting to know people on my team (ahem, "department") and setting things up in my cube.

I have two Macs and a PC in my cube. One is a Power Mac 5400/120, which is by this point quite outdated, and I'm just using it for my e-mail. It might do better if it had more than 16 Mb of RAM; maybe I can request some, although maybe the powers that be would consider that something of a waste on this machine.

The other Mac is an 8500/120, and is respectable - I'd guess it has a 604e chip and the 5400 has a 603 chip. I installed Mac OS X Server on the 8500, and I'll use that for my Mac-based WebObjects work. The PC will be used for my PC-based WO work, which will probably be more prevalent since I probably have more PC experience than some of the other testers, which makes me a good guy to test on that platform.

Installing Mac OS X Server on the Mac, re-installing Windows NT on the PC (since the network driver on the previous installation was hosed), and WebObjects on both machines took some of my time. I actually had to install WebObjects on the PC both before and after the re-install. Plus I installed MacOS 8.5 on the 5400, since it was only on 8.1. Installations are pretty dull, but that's life when you're testing software. Eventually I'm sure I'll get development copies of the code so I can root through it to examine problems, not just to find them.

Also had a couple of chats with my manager, JP, about my job, and I've gotten to know one of the developers - Tom - pretty well. I've been getting my cube arranged - brought in a couple of posters today - although it will go through some changes next week, since I want to expand my desk, raise my desk, and get some more accessories (like a whiteboard) for my space.

Beyond that, my work hours have involved administrative overhead in setting up my systems, and handling things like setting up my benefits details (which isn't yet done because for some reason I'm not yet in the system driving the benefits Web page). But things are going well. I even got to put in a little time using WebObjects this week, in between trying to figure out why NT was erasing my user profile every other time I logged in.

The Apple campus is very nice. The R&D campus is in a set of buildings called Infinite Loop. I'm at 5 (out of 6) Infinite Loop. The buildings' exteriors are all off-white and they have blue tinted windows. (I've joked that I'm surprised they haven't replaced them with iMac blue.) My cube has a window, which someone pointed out faces north, meaning I never get direct sun. (This is actually a good thing; blue sky, plenty of light, but reduced glare.) At night I can see the lights of the east bay across the San Francisco Bay. I also have an obstructed view of I-280 (woo-hoo!).

Building 4 - which I also overlook - contains the Apple cafeteria, which I find to be quite yummy. I've had their pesto over pasta several times; it's not the best in the world, but there's a lot of bad pesto out there and this is pretty good. Their cookies are also yummy.

Building 1 is the main reception area, contains the corporate offices (which I haven't seen), and has a nice coffee shop, and a lounge area. People often go over to get coffee and sit and talk for a while.

Infinite Loop itself is a road that loops around the campus buildings, and there's a courtyard in the center of the campus. It's been a little chilly lately for many people to hang out there, but I bet they do so often during the summer.

Apple doesn't keep quite as tight a rein on its employees as Epic does, perhaps because it's a larger company and doing so would be a lot of extra overhead for (in my opinion) not a whole lot of benefit. I don't have to do a workplan at the beginning of every week, and I don't have to log how I spend my time every day. That's pretty nice.

To compensate, I know I'm going to have to really be a self-starter here; in fact, that's pretty much part of my job description, they want someone who will bring something new to testing this software. My boss and I had a talk Wednesday on what my job entails and where it will be going. We seem to be pretty much on the same wavelength; time will tell how it all works out. But I know they have high hopes for me, so I'll try to live up to them.

I think it's going to be fun. I'll be glad when all the startup stuff is taken care of and I can focus and get into a groove.

I decided to accept the apartment I looked at last Sunday which is near the large park. I think it will be okay; I always seem to be worried after looking at a place that it won't be large enough, and the memory of the dimensions always seems to be the first thing I lose touch with a day later. I remember moving into my last Wisconsin apartment and thinking when I moved in that it seemed a lot smaller than when I'd viewed it. But it turned out to be just what I'd expected, so hopefully this one will be the same.

The landlord seems very nice and accommodating; we'll meet mid-next week to finalize things, and the movers will likely bring all my stuff on Thursday. Then I can spend an evening or two doing some basic organizing, and finally bring the cats and such from the temp housing to the apartment on Saturday. It'll be nice to finally be settled; I'm getting tired of the temp housing. Besides, John wants to borrow some of my books!

I opened a bank account with the credit union on the Apple campus earlier this week, and today I called to inquire about getting my car registered. I think that that will be a pain, but we'll see. I'll need to get insurance for it, and I'll probably also get renter's insurance. John recommended I just go to AAA, so I think I will.

Once I register the car, I can take my time about the driver's license, although I won't put it off any longer than necessary. And once that's done, then I should finally be settled. Whew!

Last night I stepped on poor Newton's tail. Even worse, I did it while I was drinking from a glass of water, and he was eating. He must have been in the middle of swallowing, because he made a funny sound that I later realized was a sort of choked hiss, so I didn't recognize it immediately, and didn't immediately step off like I usually would; my reaction was more like, "What the hell is that?" as I finished my sip of water.

Fortunately, I was only wearing my slippers, so though it surely hurt, there wasn't any permanent damage, even though he did go into a corner and cough for a few minutes. He did come out pretty soon, and seemed to forgive me quickly. I almost never step on my cats tails (I do occasionally accidentally kick Jefferson, but that's because he has this habit of running right where I'm walking in order to rub against me; the concept of moving legs hasn't registered on him), so I felt pretty bad. But he seems okay today. Poor fellow.

Not much else to report. Probably hiking tomorrow, gaming on Sunday, and hopefully dinner with Ceej and her husband David sometime in the next week. Right now, I'm bushed and I'm glad it's the weekend. I'll keep working on Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky this weekend; John's already finished, and is pushing me to finish so we can discuss it.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)