Sunday, August 26, 2018

Well, damn.

2018.

WTF? Seriously, though.

My 18 YEAR OLD daughter was reading me a list of the extreme lengths that actors would go through for a role.

Harmless enough.

She got to to the story about how Ashton Kutcher's frutiarian diet lead him to be hospitalized... Somehow, that dislodged a memory that I had about being called to the Apple campus to create some software (using FileMaker Pro, no less!) that would be able to keep track of a top-secret project.

Mind you, this was the late 1990's - and, back in the day, I was "all that" when it came to FileMaker Pro (and before that HyperCard!). So, I knew a guy, who knew a guy that used to work at FileMaker (back when it was the "glory days" of Claris) who, at the time, worked at Apple.

He had called me in  to the fairly new Apple Campus (BTW: I saw Steve Jobs' Mercedes parked in the handicapped spot) at 1 Infinite Loop. It must have been sometime in late 1999...

I met my contact (name protected because I can't for the life of me remember) who led me into the under-bowels of the Apple Campus. Besides having the latest, baddest and most bitchin' Quadra 860AV - he had a strange mouse that had a red light rather than a roller ball. It was a working prototype of an "optical mouse" that was going to be released "soon"....

Anyway, I digress.

After the traditional 1,000,000 Non-Disclosure agreements, and promises of secrecy (under threat of bodily harm) - I was made aware of a new Apple initiative called "Nexus".

This was to be an Apple-sponsored RETAIL CHAIN of stores. The software that I was designing was to allow the real estate scouters to enter in the details of potential sites and then weigh the merits of the site based on hard-coded criteria.

The software, in theory, would then return a number based on a 1-10 scale (10 being best) of the suitability of any particular location.

I knew that at LEAST 10-20 people would have access to it (so it needed to be on a server) using the yet-as-unreleased FileMaker Pro 5.0 and FileMaker 5.0 Server!

Wow. Heady times, indeed!

It's just funny that the mention of a "star" who was featured in movie that featured a "legend" in computing (alas, I never met Steve Jobs IRL) could pull up a memory from almost 20 years ago.

A memory that I had all but forgotten.

I wonder how many more treasures lay locked up in my mid-50's brain? I will probably never know. I'm just thankful for the brief time this one bubbled to the top.
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