overt.org

Today was my first day at work. It was awesome. I’m going to give the generic rundown here. For the juicy bits, like what computer they gave me, you’ll have to contact me through some other channel.

I pulled in to the Infinite Loop campus at 8am. The training actually didn’t start until 8:30, but I’d lost the little sheet that said when we were supposed to show up, so I hedged. Things in the morning were pretty standard. They introduced all of the various programs and safety policies and talked a bit about benefits. Then they rotated in some speakers to talk about computer accounts and physical security. Pretty ho-hum morning, but necessary.

I then had a free lunch (free means Bryan buys the large sushi combo and yuppie juice) with my new manager. We talked a bit about the group and my possible projects. It was fun. Then I went in to get my badge, which was an experience in itself. The ID room had a professional photographer with indirect lighting (you know, like those little umbrella thingys). Then they took several pictures (turn this way. good. now the other way. Rest your elbow on your knee. Great! Now square your shoulders to the camera…) and let me pick my favorite one. The badge itself has a little red apple logo on it (the color of the apple is randomly assigned based on your employee number), my first name, and the picture.

Then I got set up in my office with a fancy new mac. I met the usually first day horde of people, some whom I’ll be working with and others who are just nearby my office. I say “office,” but what might be a slightly more accurate description might be “vastly overgrown cube.” It has no door, but it is huge, bigger than many small offices i’ve seen, with fancy ergonomic tables and such. The walls are wine and grey colored (as opposed to the white of offices) and every vertical surface is either whiteboard or a place to pin up papers. It has incandescent track lighting and a view out a window. It was apologetically explained that I would have had an office, but there is simply no space left in the building. I stifled a protestation that I actually would prefer the cube to the office.

The rest of the day was whiled away wading through administrative minutiae, but I did have one good meeting with my team (3 people as yet). Then I went home.

Wow. I’ll get into a bit more of the culture and such in forthcoming updates. For now, I’m a tad pooped.

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Comments

Ali — 2003-10-13 21:15:11

first post!

Anonymous — 2003-10-15 17:49:57

Do you like it better than MS offices?

bryan — 2003-10-15 20:59:56

The jury is still out. They don’t have free drinks, but the cafeteria is better. We’ll see when I have more than a few days to reflect on things.

I’m starting work on Monday. It’s a bit strange to imagine. I’ll go in, I’ll get my badge, get my office (I already have one decoration lined up: a miniature Texas flag), start meeting people. Eventually, after a period of cluelessness, I’ll start doing useful work.

I realized that this has been the longest period in my life without work or school since I started kindergarten. I haven’t done anything useful since I graduated in May. I have become so bored and frustrated that starting work seems like the best kind of vacation imaginable.

In other news, Zelda: the Wind Waker is definitely one of the top 5 best video games I’ve ever played. And I’ve played a *lot*. So, if you’re ever looking for a good way to kill a week while you’re, I don’t know, waiting for your job to start, I’d highly recommend this RPG full of bright colors and catchy sythesized music.

I’ll be back soon with a full report on work day 1.

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Comments

cameron — 2003-10-12 11:40:12

My favorties…

Dungeon = Tower of the Gods
Music = Forest Haven
Character = Makar (he makes rain stick sounds when he trundles!)
Item = Boomerang

Yay for Zelda!

bryan — 2003-10-13 20:38:22

I agree on all counts except for dungeon. I liked the dungeon with the big fan, so I guess that’d be the wind-god one. How could anything be cuter than Makar?

Cameron — 2003-10-13 21:58:52

I was not a big fan of the fan. I got a little tired of getting blown around, not having Makar, attacking wizards, and those stupid peahats dive-bombing in mid-air. In the Tower of the Gods, you got to have the clunky little statues follow you around like puppy dogs, and that was cool. And the Command Melody (and the way Link looked while controlling someone else, and the mysterious music) were pretty spiffy.

Another favorite - the fairies. How awesome were they with their shiny purpleness and lotus blossoms? And the child fairy queen = way cool.

Cameron — 2003-10-13 22:04:41

Oh, and have you heard the rumor about the new Zelda bonus disk to be possibly packaged with Gamecubes and/or The Four Swords, which will contain The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and a WW demo?!!?!? I’m hoping Nintendo will confirm soon!

(sorry, no o­ne in college station seems to play zelda)

bryan — 2003-10-14 08:45:32

all I can say is that would be sweet. I thought I read something about how, if you’d pre-ordered WW, you got a disk that had ocarina of time for gamecube on it, the disk with everything on it would be sweet. I played the original, and link, and then skipped to ocarina of time, but never finished it. Ah, Zelda.

Cameron — 2003-10-14 08:53:49

Yes, if you preordered WW, you got a disk with Ocarina of Time - original version and Masterquest version. Pretty cool. The game ran really well o­n the gamecube, and the MQ dungeons were fun. :)

I voted against it. Sigh.

We’ve been taking pictures of this and that for a while here, with nothing really adding up to anything worth a whole album on gallery. Today, though, we took a great little trip to Half Moon bay, a burg out west on the coast. We hit the beach on a cool, cloudy afternoon to watch seagulls and waves, throw frisbees, fly kites, and mutilate washed up plant-life. The pictures from this trip are bundled with some flotsam and jetsam from our lives these last few weeks and stuck up on gallery for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

It’s such a relief to finally make this post. After a little over a month of interviews, more interviews, and plenty of waiting, I’ve accepted a job offer at Apple in Cupertino.

The official title of the position is “system validation engineer.” I know, it sounds laughably mundane. But trust me, it rocks. The job listing on Apple’s website actually calls the position “HW/SW engineer,” which I think is a little more appropriate. I didn’t even know what the name of the position would be until I saw the offer letter. Basically, I’ll be working with a team of people to put together all the new Apple hardware. Take, for example, the new G5. The processor came from IBM, but all the rest of the nuts and bolts on the motherboard were made by Apple in-house. Once the components were done, someone had to take all the pieces and assemble them, and get them to boot. Same for the Powerbooks, iPods, or whatever.

Also, new hardware is often designed to be multi-purpose. For example, the same network chip might go first into a desktop machine and later into a laptop. Different parts of the hardware might be exercised by the two roles. It will be my job to make sure there are no new problems when trying to integrate the hardware further down the road.

I’ve met a couple of people that I’ll be working with, and they seem amazing. One is a fellow UT grad. All of them (besides me) have many years of experience. It’s a bit daunting to start out at my first job in a senior group, but it’s also exciting to be handed serious responsibility right out of the gate.

Okay, looking over that description, I realize that the job still seems pretty mundane. But at least *I* am excited about it. And even better, I’m working at a company I admire. I really couldn’t have hoped for an outcome like this when I made the decision to move down here.

It will be weird putting my brain back in gear after such a long vacation. Our apartment has probably seen its cleanest days, and will now begin a long decline into neglect. We probably won’t cook so much. But more importantly, I won’t feel useless all the time.

Yay job.

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Comments

clare — 2003-10-02 19:57:22

again, congratulations!

em — 2003-10-02 20:20:04

Rah! Rah! Rah!

drunk nun — 2003-10-03 18:09:48

congrats! MS to Apple. u-dub to san fran. (:

Wait, isn’t Apple a music company, not a fruit company? (;

passerby — 2003-10-03 23:02:12

I’m curious why you didn’t return to MS

bryan — 2003-10-04 23:49:11

Well, I let them know I was looking for a job, and they never called me back.

Seth — 2003-10-08 22:54:31

just came by way of leslie n clare…

man, that doesn’t sound boring to me at *all*. that sounds like my ideal job. then again, i’m a big dork.

regardless, much kudos.