5 years

Hey dude...

It's been a while. Nice awards, I guess no raise to go with
them, though. Kinda like working for the Government. Should
one ask WHY you quit? Good luck on whatever you do next. I
will be rooting for ya. Hope you are going to continue on here
at Applefritter. WE all appreciate what you've accomplished
here even though we CAN'T give you a raise.

PM me.

_____________________________________________________________
Some people march to a different drummer... I have a 52-piece orchestra playing just for me!

I haven't had a raise in over 3 years. I quit because I want to move out of California and buy a house for 1/7th of what it would cost here.

Oh, and I'm now free to hack again. WooHoo!

Dr. Bob

You ARE going to stay with Applefritter after you relocate,
aren't you? Hope so, anyway. I can relate to the economics-
of-scale. Relocated to Virginia after retiring for the same
reasons. Also wanted some space (rural) around us. Peace and
quiet and all that. Enjoy.
_______________________________________________________________
Some people march to a different drummer... I have a 52-piece orchestra playing just for me!

Of course I will silly. If anything, having my own real place to work on stuff will make the hacks more elaborate and complex. My GF really enjoys that wort of thing too.

Dr. Bob

That balcony view is amazing! But then again, I'm in the land of the 184 degree sky, so trees and mountains and stuff always amaze me.

That's one groovy house, Bob!

and on the whole "5 years" thing:

When I hit 5 years almost a year ago, the whole company got together and went to SpringCreek Barbeque for lunch. I also got an extra week's vacation per year. Not bad for a small software company, huh?

Still gotta know why you quit, though...

--- Rev D.

There once was a man from Nantuckett
who like to drink beer from a bucket.
One day he fell down,
an' spilt beer on the ground,
and when he saw, he said, "Aw, shucks, that was Guiness."

You should eBay that pen. You know there are Apple-worshipping drones out there that'll pay through the nose for it. ;^>

--Peace

You aren't the first person to make that suggestion. I wonder what it would fetch?

Dr. Bob

l said above what my reason was.

Dr. Bob

What exactly did you do for apple? Are you getting a new job? What State are you moving to? How you do well!
-Crosby

I broke things. I'm currently looking for work in the Portland area

Dr. Bob

Dr. Bob,

Good Luck and Good Skill in your new gig!

Also, a little chlorine, or maybe some oxalic acid, will kill that mold on the deck. Those deck boards look like fir. Not recommended for an outdoor application. Redwood and western red cedar, both naturally resistant to decay, would be the best option for a deck.

tony b.

Tom Waits for no man.

Just had to get that 5 years thing

At least we can get to see some more sweet hacks and mods!!!
(TechTV, are you listening? )

****************
*APPLE MAC HOME*
****************

It's supposed to be cedar, but hard to say. Certainly one of my first tasks upon moving in will be to clean, sand, and seal that wood. The 1st floor deck needs treatment too. I also plan on painting the garage too.

Dr. Bob

Actually, I've been trying to quit for 2.5 of those years. Plus if you count my time as a contractor, I've been working at apple for about 6.5 years. Lousy economy derailed my plans.

Dr. Bob

What do you plan to do now? Build community wireless networks while eating white rice and lentils?
"Don't do drugs or you'll end up like the people that made HURD."
-Linus Torvalds

Dr.Bob;

That retirement jazz ain't all it's cracked up to be! I'm working
harder now then when I was working! I think I'll go get a job so
I can get some rest! (HAR!) Enjoy your time. Maybe you can get a
contract again with the Gov breaking their stuff some more?
_____________________________________________________________________
Some people march to a different drummer... I have a 52-piece orchestra playing just for me!

First I plan to sit around the house for a few days. Then I'll get started on home improvements and such. Then I'll work some more on my current hack project. Then maybe I'll look for a job.

I know more than a few people that left Apple recently (most involuntarily) and every one of them has said that leaving apple was like adding 20 years to the end of their lives.

I'm looking forward to that feeling myself.

Dr. Bob

I am imagining from that description that your job involved throwing bowling balls into monitors or dropping them off of rooftops, like in the videos posted in the old forums. Now *that* would be a sweet gig.

I guess it's safe to tell those stories now.

The bowling ball monitor thing:

I had that 21" monitor in my office. It sucked. Eventually it failed. During spring cleaning, I put it in that big plastic bin (which says APPLE RECYCLES on the side). That's right outside my office. So anyway my boss has this bowling ball he throws on the ground when he's upset to vent some steam. He comes by and says "wouldn't it be funny to bounce my bowling ball off that monitor?" So we grab a camera and set up. The first shot goes through and makes a deafening BOOM. Someone on the other side of the cube farm yells "WHAT THE F*** WAS THAT!?!"

The monitor from the sky thing:

The same guy with the bowling ball in the story above was given the task of fixing the 1710AV monitor after it had turned into a disaster. He hated that monitor so much that when The Steve closed down Apple Hamilton (a 6 story building) my friend put the X on the ground, went up to the roof and tossed it. He had taken bets that he wouldn't hit the X. He said afterwards "It was like purging a demon."

No video:
One time I was throwing out a bunch of slot load iMacs (the very first ones) into those big plastic bins in story 1. At the suggestion of Mr. Bowling Ball, we started throwing them from further and further away. We went for both distance, and getting close to the ceiling without touching it. Not a single one of the broke the CRT or did more than minor damage to the enclosure.

Video not seen:
I have video of an Xserve RAID getting launched off our shock table. Pretty good. The best part is when the designer dares it to fail just before it does. (this problem can't happen in the released version).

Note that at no time during actual testing did anything that exciting go on.

Dr. Bob

Nice house. Too bad about what happens to companies, too bad that most people suck. Anyway, I got a good one.

I was noticing how much room there is in Oregon, from the pictures... Couldn't the builders have squeezed those houses just a little closer together?

I moved back from Austin to Virginia a couple of years ago, and I remember my brother's house down in Bee Caves area, huge, beautiful, nice views of nothing the eye needs to stop on before infinity, but for some reason, the builders have to slam one house right next to the other, something like 8 or 10 feet apart!

What is up with that? Its not as if Texas, or Oregon, is running out of room because of a population explosion. I know, the builders are maximizing their profit (like the margins aren't insane as they are), but why are buyers putting up it? A big, expensive, several thousand sqft house, land as far as the eye can see, and neighbors so close you know what religion they are! Its like no one is noticing the builders are skimmin' the skim, as it were––would you buy a bed if its got the width of a California King, but the space saving length of a twin (isn't that just a queen turned sideways?)?.

When I got to VA, I moved into a tiny maybe 200 sqft cottage (including the covered front porch), with 12 surrounding acres. That's more along what I'd like to invest in... not that those communities are not beautiful, great for raising rats (of the rug variety) but I think they could benefit from an extra 12 or 20 feet between the mansions.

Will someone please stop them before I can afford one? Thanks.

There you go, assuming that I was paying attention or somethin'...

There once was a man from Nantuckett
who like to drink beer from a bucket.
One day he fell down,
an' spilt beer on the ground,
and when he saw, he said, "Aw, shucks, that was Guiness."

You did mention Texas in there, and the problem is rampant in the D/FW area (sorry to go OT here).

I think the reasoning here is that the D/FW Metroplex covers an area the size of most states in New England. People want the illusion of being near everything, even though most people around here commute an average of 38 miles per day. Also, when a developer moves in to an area, they buy so many acres of land to develop. Would you rather sell 100 1 acre lots at $125K, or 200 .5 acre lots at $85K?

I make a 40 mile commute (one way) every day, but I also have 2 acres between me and my next-door neighbor!

There once was a man from Nantuckett
who like to drink beer from a bucket.
One day he fell down,
an' spilt beer on the ground,
and when he saw, he said, "Aw, shucks, that was Guiness."

Would you rather sell 100 1 acre lots at $125K, or 200 .5 acre lots at $85K?

Why doesn't this philosophy apply to other areas of market? Like auto-manufacturing, or software development? Or chip manufacturing?

I think people wouldn't buy the product... that's what would need to happen to change that... sprawling communities of big, beautiful houses, stacked next to each other like dominoes, all empty...

I still don't get it... developers could just charge more for the land to make up for the difference in margin, couldn't they?

People want the illusion of being near everything
Its not an illusion, those houses are really close!

Smaller houses would give the illusion of more room. What is happening that Americans are building and buying bigger and bigger houses? Is it just status? Or can they not stand to be in normal, 800-1500sqft houses with their own family? I wonder what the average sqft per person is for middle to upper income DINKs and SINKs?

I have to bring up my father, who grew up in a crowded Brooklyn apartment, and being successful, and using real estate to become vastly more successful, and though capital gains played a role, I think there is something certifiable in the way that in each sucessive move he increased the sqfootage per person in the household by nearly 100% (much higher now that my siblings and I have moved out).
Meanwhile, I, and some in my generation, have sought to find cozier abodes, if only because we've found them easier for upkeep (much easier to clean a small kitchen than a large one, etc.).

Frankly, I'd rather see 1 100 acre lot zoned for one residence. I bet utilities become an issue, too, though (must be difficult and expensive to run power and water miles out into the wilderness for minimal usage).

I'm just asking for 10 more feet between houses and less sqfootage per person.

Also, I think there was only one real tree in Austin (the one down at Maria's taco bar, a nice big Maple)... besides missing family, the main reason I moved back to Virginia is that we have real trees, sure, its like 2nd or 3rd growth, and they are no more than 100ft tall (unlike Oregon, I bet they got bigguns out there!), but I couldn't stand people calling the, what were they? 'Live Oaks?" Those aren't trees! They're scraggly bushes! I know, its a delicate desert ecosystem... But since they are destroying the wilderness to build these plans anyway, hasn't anyone thought to plant some REAL trees in Texas? Everything is bigger down there, except for the trees.

Sorry, I do like Texas, especially the people (except when they are in their cars). Which brings me to another weird observation... why, in an area where everyone seems to have oversized SUV's, and land and space everywhere you look, do they insist on making parking lot spaces ONLY for compacts? It must be some body repair and insurance conspiracy.

Smaller houses would give the illusion of more room. What is happening that Americans are building and buying bigger and bigger houses? Is it just status? Or can they not stand to be in normal, 800-1500sqft houses with their own family?

I always assumed they needed it for computer storage...

Dude, when I was in college I was happy to move out of the dorms and into my own apartment. I don't have enough stuff to come near filling a house.

In Oregon, the lots are small because they only allow a small percentage of the land to be used for houses. Most if it is still farmland and wilderness land. They are trying to keep the population down and the encroachment to a minimum.

Interestingly. although the neighbors are close, I have no windows on either side that can see them. The only exception is the wide window above the bathtub but it's way over the top of the next house.

Dr. Bob

In my area of Portland, the house is worth roughly 10X the land. So to double the land size and charge extra would be to make far less money than the land could fetch with a 2nd house on it.

Dr. Bob

Oh yea, those mountains you see, are mere hills 1,000 feet tops. I grew up in the Sierra Nevada's. Now them's some mountains! (10,000-14,000 feet)

Dr. Bob

I noticed the architecture was similar in Bee Caves, with few windows on the sides of houses (except for that bathtub window skylight).

I definately prefer houses to apartments, as I am prone to playing and listening to loud music at any hours, but I need to see far in more than one direction when I am feeling the cabin fever.

Its true, I think, that the more space I have, the more computers (and parts of computers) there are that seem to be lurking in corners, under tables, taking up the floor space, in various states depending upon the number of unfinished projects.

One thing I noticed is that smaller places help get me out of the house faster, less often late for appointments, because, invariably, I am leaving, running back inside the house to grab things forgotten, like car keys, then back out and in for the license, then for a coke, etc., before I actually pull away. Larger houses seem to hide these things better, taking up more time when I want to depart (running up stairs, down hallways, into rooms, then all the way back out again, and more often than not, back in again).

Also, once I got used to the house in Bee Caves, and close neighbors, I was fine... just took a few weeks of adjusting...
Now I am in a place surrounded by a horse farm outside Blacksburg... it took no time at all to adjust to the solitude and tranquility of this bucolic setting. I can't describe how good it feels to be disturbed by the paint whinnying, or catching a glipse out a window of it and the others going about their business in the hammock of trees or in the big field out there. One very nice thing I am thankful for, up here on top of this slope, the wind always seems to blow from west to east... if it was any other way it might get uncomfortable.

I must admit that apartment life is making me nuts. I do like to make a little noise now and then. Usually to watch a good movie. I haven't listened to music since moving into apartment life and I'm looking forward to getting that back in my life as well. My current upstairs neighbors are incredibly obnoxious with a loud TV, loud stereo, loud arguments, and constant stomping of their feet.

Personally, I can't wait to enjoy the tranquility or Oregon.

3 more weeks!

Dr. Bob

Ah so here's the official thread
How much did/are you pay(ing) for the house? Um, would you be interested in immigrant labor for home improvement jobs? Cause like, I could use the work and I like that physical labor stuff.

Dog
*flexes* mmmmh tendons

do you think steve jobs actually signed that poster himself ... or is it just printed on

TOM

The one and only thing I've been thankful for living in such a small apartment is that my possessions are only the bare essentials.

Dr. Bob

The house was about $289K. I don't have any need for home improvement help as yet. We enjoy working on the house as a hobby. Plus money will be tight until I find a job, so no outside jobs.

Dr. Bob

I think it's printed on. It's a form letter.

Dr. Bob

Oooh, how many square feet? room's, bathrooms, closets, etc. (I guess I could count the photo's)

Dog
*woof*

2500 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 7 closets (not counting a HUGE attic area).

Dr. Bob

Glad to hear you're out of the rat race now Bobby. Hopefully you'll find something fun, satisfying and non-NDA'd to do in Oregon. Nice house BTW, and not a bad size for the money - if only they were that reasonably priced here

---
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.

hahaha...that monitor thing was freakin' funny. I think I have the movie of it on all of my servers

I hope there was something wrong with those iMacs, though...

(I watched to movie again, and didn't hear the "WTF??" - I only heard maniacal laughter.)

I cut that part out.

Dr. Bob

All the hacks I did that Apple made me take down are going back online.

Dr. Bob

Would you happen to know where I can download a copy of said video?

The lazy man would rather exert himself than make two trips. -- Slovenian saying

http://vader.inow.com/~drbob/aw/boom.mov

Dr. Bob

I think I speak for most of the AF community when I say WooHoo!

---
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.

You worked for Apple?

lol

I did for almost 6 years. Still do for 2 more weeks.

Dr. Bob

idiots.

Could you expand on your reply?

If it is because Dr Bob left Apple then that is very naive. While a place may sound cool to work at and may have been a dream of yours for years, it can be hell.

I say this as previous a Microsoft employee which was my dream to work there. I only lasted there about 6 months. It is not that it is a bad company* to work for it is just that my personality was not suited to it. From stuff I heard the internal culture of Microsoft and Apple are similar. So I can completely understand the comment that leaving can add 20 years to your life.

Now just to see all of those great hacks that can be released into the wild again.

*Lets all stay adults here and refrain from the MS is evil comments.

The lazy man would rather exert himself than make two trips. -- Slovenian saying

The quickest way to cure an apple zealot is to get him a job there.

Dr. Bob

No, I'm not a zealot, but exactly *how* bad is it there? What kind of badness (woho! I made up a word! ) was it? Just curious. Sounds like to me that apple and microsoft act too much a like.