The Brad Hole

So the past 2 weekends in San Jose, I've done some nerdy things. Why not - I'm in a major nerdicenter here, right? So I let my nerd flag fly.

First was a trip to the Computer History Museum. That was more interesting than I was expecting, in part because it covered a lot of pre-70's computer history. There were exhibits starting at abacuses, moving through slide rules and Babbage machines, super-old adding machines and IBM's first few devices (labelled "International") and then part of an ENIAC, as well as huge supercomputers from the 60's. It was all very interesting to see up close. I always wondered what all those dials and buttons did, and now I have a pretty good idea. They even had not one but 2 "Apple Computer 1"'s on display, one signed by Woz.

I also checked out Castro street in downtown Mountain View and bumbled my way into some sort of street festival (as a spectator, not a participant). It was very cool. They also had a nice used bookstore there that reminded me a lot of Bookmans in Arizona and to a lesser degree, Half-Price Books.

This past weekend, on a tip from a friend, I checked out the Weirdstuff Warehouse in Sunnyvale. They had a ton of older computer stuff and older office supplies, and lots of other, well, weird electronic stuff. So much in fact that it was really hard to discover it all because the place was just jam-packed with stuff only loosely organized. Sadly, they didn't stock a lot (or really much of any) vintage computer hardware. Macintosh SE's are about as old as it got, and the only Apple II computer was a //e in a display case. Surely there is someplace here in the valley with stock of some old Apple IIs, but I have yet to find it.

Finally yesterday I checked out the San Jose Flea Market. This was, for me, a bust. It was huge and bustling, but the selection was very narrow. It was a lot of people selling a lot of the same thing. It was also fairly clear I was not in the target demographic, as most of the sellers in the "produce row" were barking out to passers-by in Spanish. ¡Que Ganga!

My quest for vintage computer stuff in the valley continues. I understand there's a Vintage Computer Festival coming up in November that may do the trick.

Posted by bradman at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I have a question for The Internet.

If you got a live paycheck and it had a completely bogus middle name which didn't match your checking account, you'd be hard-pressed to deposit it, right? If it matters, I use BofA.

Posted by bradman at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

One of the things I'm having to get used to in San Jose (and maybe California in general) is driving. Specifically, there are a few things there that are very different from Phoenix.

For one, the freeway designers here must've really loved cloverleaf ramps, because they're everywhere. I find this is harder to manage because you can't really drive on a cloverleaf with any speed, and when it comes time to merge onto the freeway, it's not unusual to have a very short space in which to do so, which means quick and rapid acceleration and (sometimes) praying for a spot to merge into.

The other thing is that the freeways here don't seem to follow a consistent pattern in where the on- or off-ramp will be. For example, let's say you're approaching a freeway with the intention to enter. In Phoenix, it's simple: you get in the left lane of the road and enter the freeway via a left turn past a light or for the other direction, enter the right lane and make a right onto the freeway ramp at the light. Rare is the freeway exit in the Phoenix area that doesn't follow this pattern, so you pretty much always know what the expect. Here of course it's a bit more of a crap-shoot. I'd say most of the time (60-75%), owing to the cloverleaf arrangement, you can count on always entering from the right lane of a road, but that's certainly not always the case. And it's not consistent enough to the point where I'm prepared.

The other really striking thing about the San Jose area is that it seems all major roads have divided medians, contrasted to the left-turn "suicide lanes" that are literally everywhere in Phoenix. The upshot of this is that it's incredibly common to make a U-turn in San Jose. I've probably made more U-turns here in the past week and a half than the past several years in Phoenix. This almost got me in trouble yesterday. Because of the U-turn phenomenon, if you are making a right turn here, you pretty much have to sit and make sure cross-traffic is not going to make a u-turn in front of you. I was ready to make a right turn into the cross-traffic (which was clear in my direction) when I saw a guy come screaming through and make a u-turn right in front of me. In Phoenix, a U-turn is rare enough that if you are making a right, it would be almost shocking to see someone make a U in front of you. (Thinking back, I don't know that I recall this happening to me in Phoenix.)

I don't know if this is related, but I've noticed that drivers here are a little, well, crazy. They're either super-aggressive or super-passive. There seems to be no middle ground. I figure one of two things: they either know the area they're in by heart and can deal with the idiosyncrasies or they're in unfamiliar territory and have no idea what wacky traffic flow or signage is coming up.

I've said this before, but it's a point I become more convinced of each time I'm away: if there's one thing that the Phoenix metro area does well, it's street and freeway planning. This is no doubt in large part to most of the roads having been built in the last 30 years, but the difference is still pretty amazing. I'd be interested in hearing a city planner or civil engineer comment on that to see if I'm just crazy. Citizens of Phoenix may not feel that way if they've lived there all their lives, but all it takes is driving in some other city to really appreciate the consistency that Phoenix has.

Posted by bradman at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Beth and I drove out to San Jose last Thursday/Friday and aside from a scare very early into the trip involving wobbly tires that were apparently not fastened tightly to my car, everything else went OK.

We had a lovely stay Thursday night in Solvang, CA and some fine Danish pancakes Friday morning. We drove up the PCH, passed by the Hearst Castle and saw lots of coast and fog. It was very nice. We drove up through Santa Cruz and into San Jose Friday evening and made it to the apartment that Apple provided as temporary housing. It was fully furnished and frankly a little nicer than I was expecting. There's a British pub within walking distance, but the big culture shock for me was the shopping center it was in. It was stuffed to the gills with Asian restaurants and shops, and the crowd was nearly 100% Asian. You just don't find that in Phoenix. ;-)

We puttered around the area on Saturday and made a stop at Santana Row and then the Winchester Mystery House. I'd wanted to do this for as long as I'd known about it. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but I'd say it's definitely worth doing at least once as it's certainly one-of-a-kind. If you like the number 13, you'll find it in abundance there.

On Sunday morning, we drove down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was also interesting. I expected it to be a little larger or more extravagant, I guess, but it was worthwhile. As the Winchester was to me, the aquarium was to Beth; she'd wanted to do this for a long, long time.

And so Beth flew back to Phoenix on Sunday night and has rejoined the dogs and cats for life without me - at least until early August when I'll be going back to get the rest of the stuff I'll need for a real apartment here.

Posted by bradman at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday around noon, we'll be loading up my car and making the drive out to San Jose. Beth has detailed that in her blog so I won't repeat any of that here.

What I will say is that this is going to be a hard trip to make. The biggest downside to taking the job at Apple is having to relocate, and for me it's a huge downside. It's no exaggeration to say that it was very nearly the deal-killer for me. Only by sitting down and making lists and crunching numbers did we reach the eventuality that it was doable, and even then there are really a lot of sacrifices that make me uncomfortable in the short term.

For one, I'll be separated from Beth for roughly a year and a half. Sure, we'll make frequent trips to visit (hopefully once a month) but until she graduates from ASU in Dec. 08 and we can sell our house in Phoenix, it's going to be very painful. I'll also not get to see our dogs for most of that time, unless I'm back in Phoenix visiting. I'll miss a year and a half of watching them grow up - and tear things up - in this house.

I'll miss my friends here in Phoenix, most of whom I've known for 15-20 years. We've got a rotating monthly poker game that is as much fun for the social aspects of getting together as it is for the poker. This is a group of guys I've known since roughly freshman year of college some 18 years ago, and one guy i've known since high school. It's hard to quantify how much this sort of thing weighs in a decision to relocate, but I do know that I was glad when I moved back to Phoenix from Austin and this was one of the primary reasons why.

I'm going to miss working with the guys at Aspyr, a number of whom I've known for 8-10 years. In fact I heard today that one of the colleagues I'd worked with previously and of whom I think highly will be joining Aspyr. I was remarking to another colleague yesterday about our porting library and how it is, by comparison to a lot of code we see, very clean, reasonably well commented and formatted and fairly easy to work with all things considered. I've gotten used to working in Xcode after leaving CodeWarrior behind for good a few years ago. I'd be a little nervous about using other, more basic, tools.

I used to remark that while it's nice working from home, it can be a little lonely at times. I've definitely moved past that, and having 2 dogs and 2 cats running around frankly is more companionship than I really want. ;-) So I'm a little nervous about being back in an office. Beth remarked the other day that I'll no longer be able to fart indiscriminately -- sometimes it's the simple things in life.

I'll be living in a "corporate apartment" that's fully furnished for up to 30 days once I arrive. I have roughly that much time to find an apartment (or god forbid, a roommate). Housing is expensive out there - ridiculously so - that maintaining our mortgage on the house here while also having an apartment out there is going to cause some belt tightening in the short term.

Then I get to come back out to Phoenix, load up a small truck full of stuff and do a mini-move. One logistic I haven't quite nailed down are my computers. What do I leave here and what do I take with me? I've got my e-mail and all my "personal" stuff on this Mac mini, but it's also hosting our websites and blogs. I could take it with me, but there's no guarantee I'll have an internet to plug it into in the corporate place. So I think I'll leave it here for now and move it once I get my own place. I've got a Macbook, but it's Aspyr's and so is going back along with a PowerMac G5 that, frankly, has just collected dust for the past year. That leaves me with an Intel iMac that I got as part of signing up for Apple's Intel developer kit way back when. It has a camera built-in, so it seems like the best bet; I'll get to do video chats with Beth which should help with being apart.

And so it goes. I'm excited to be working for Apple, of course, and I'm cautiously optimistic that this will all work out. There's only one way to find out though!

Posted by bradman at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)