You worked at Apple?
Well... no. Not exactly. Although I was never an official Apple employee, during my employment at Avid Technology (1994-1999) I was Avid’s liaison to Apple Computer. Avid was one of the largest vendors of Apple Computer at the time. All of Avid’s products were Macintosh based for most of this period. My role was “Apple Seed Hardware Engineer”. In this position I was one of 5 people outside Apple that had a direct hand in the testing and development of Apple’s professional lines of computers. Every high end Mac prototype was sent to me far in advance of release so that I could evaluate performance and compatibility with Avid’s products. I was heavily involved in all Apple systems from the “Flagship” 8100/110, 9500 & 9600 series, Gossamer G3, Power Express G3 (PEX) (which was never released), Yosemite G3, “Yikes” G4 and finally the “Sawtooth” G4. There are multiple features that I contributed to Apple’s systems that became standard features across all models. Some remain to this day. Power Management Unit (PMU) reset was one of my ideas. I may be partly responsible for Apple moving away from storing so much stuff in PRAM and helping to stabilize their long standing issues with the “Cuda” chip.
Apple’s Secrecy
Apple’s confidentiality agreements are extreme to say the least. I had to sign multiple non-disclosure documents for each project in which I was involved. In addition, each prototype system component had my name next to it in a database at Apple. If pictures or parts were ever leaked, they would have known who it was. Any printed material that accompanied the prototype systems would have my name embossed in the background to prevent copying. Apple even went so far as to require me to fly the computers across the country and personally deliver them back to Cupertino headquarters. If an enclosure redesign was involved, the computer skins were never present on my prototypes. I could see them only in a secure lab at Apple headquarters under direct supervision. All the prototype labs are locked down. Although I never spoke with any of the other 4 people involved in the prototype projects, we would all occasionally meet at Apple for conferences & debriefs. One of these 4 people was from Adobe.
Most people working within Apple (at least at that time) had absolutely no idea what any of us were working on. They were completely oblivious to new products in the pipeline. This amazed me. I remember being in the Apple booth at Macworld in 1998 for the introduction of the original Blue & White G3. I had been working on this system for 7 months and every Apple employee around me knew nothing about it! Apple was able to keep their new products a secret from their own employees. These guys know how to keep a secret. There have even been stories lately about how Apple senior management feed suspected moles bogus information to see who will leak it. Incredible.
Apple always treated me well and my experiences there were quite amazing. It is no secret to anyone who knows me that Apple is my platform of choice. Simply brilliant stuff. They tried to hire me when I was leaving Avid but I wasn’t up for moving to the Cupertino area and couldn’t convince them to let me work remotely from my home. I’d love work for them directly sometime.
