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Written by Administrator(Neima)
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Friday, 19 June 2009 10:28 |
Cary Enoch Reinstein, tech enthusiast, artist and former employee of
Microsoft & Intel has agreed to an interview for scitechguru.com
5/31/09
Email interview
SG = scitechguru.com
Mr. Reinstein's answers are directly below each question.
1. SG- Cary, begin by telling us about your entrance into the
field of technology, and what sparked it?
I was originally in the graphic arts field and also worked part time as a photographer. In 1976 I became very interested in HP programmable calculators because they made darkroom work much easier. I submitted a large number of photographic calculation programs to HP and then they made me a job offer.
2. SG- What was it like working for the titans of industry, Microsoft& Intel?
Intel and Microsoft are very different from each other. Intel is a cube environment whereas most people at Microsoft have private offices. However, the differences run much deeper than that. Intel has both an aggressive and an oppressive management style. You definitely know that you're working in a factory. Although they have rigidly fixed hours, like every other high-tech employer they expect you to work extra hours and on weekends. Some of my comments about the lifestyle at Intel were published in a book by Fortune magazine editor Jill Andresky Frasier a few years ago. Its title is White Collar Sweatshop. The author interviewed me by phone and quoted me in three different chapters. This review includes one of the quotes from my interview:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/03/01/sweatshop/index.html
Microsoft is a very different environment and it was usually fun to work there. There was no mistaking the predatory attitude of top management. We were clearly told at company meetings who was considered the current "threat" that had to be defeated whether it was Borland, Lotus Notes, or Netscape at that moment. The company loved to hire young unattached college graduates because they would put in an enormous amount of extra time.
I was hired in 1991 and was awarded 3000 stock options which soon increased by 900 more. The stock split numerous times which enabled me to retire at the age of 56. I was not a millionaire by any means but comfortable enough to leave a high pressure environment behind and frankly I was burned out. When I was hired, I was roughly their 9,000th employee. Today there are ten times that many employees.
3. SG- What were your day to day duties at both companies, and how
long were you at each?
I was at Intel for six years and Microsoft for seven years. I began at Intel as a technical writer and was soon promoted to a senior level. I also taught extension classes for employees on various technical topics. I entered Microsoft at the senior writer pay level and worked in the Windows division which was called BackOffice during those years. I also worked for about a year as a team leader and for two years as an internal tools developer.
4. SG- I understand that you won a coveted award at Intel, can you
tell us about that?
I won the Intel Achievement Award and was the first writer to ever win one. It was usually awarded to engineers and executives. It came with a large fancy plaque, shares of stock, and a public ceremony. They make about 30 or so awards annually out of the entire company workforce.
5. SG- Can you tell us about any major tech projects you have done?
I wrote an Access front end to Word that enabled the writers who were working on an error messages book to see and import messages directly from the Windows source code. That enabled a better understanding of what they meant and when they might appear to the user. The database was capable of outputting a fully formatted and ready to publish copy of the book. I also rewrote the Windows Registry manual for the NT Resource Kit. There were over 6000 possible error messages and tens of thousands of registry keys to research and document. I never wrote anything that anyone would actually sit down and read from cover to cover. It was all for reference by engineers.
6. SG- If you could tell Steve Jobs(founder of Apple) anything What
would it be?
I would suggest that he stop presenting himself as a demigod and appealing to the totally inappropriate and quasi-religious feelings of his fan base. http://www.searchmagazine.org/Archives/full-iPope.html
7. SG- What would you tell Bill Gates(founder of Microsoft)?
I would congratulate him for following an altruistic path and trying to make the world a better place by investing his huge personal resources. I would only focus on the positive because that outweighs everything else in my view.
8. SG- Can you tell us about Enoch's Vision, Inc.?
Enoch's Vision, Inc. is incorporated in the states of Georgia and Nebraska. Basically, it consists of only two people. Having a business entity will make it easier for me to sell fine art prints of my work when I am ready. Enoch is my middle name. I adopted the name enochsvision way back in the 1970s but only recently put it through the lengthy and complex bureaucratic trademark process. Despite the superstitious views of some Christian sects about the historical figure of Enoch, he receives scant mention in the Old Testament. Enoch is known to us almost entirely through fragmentary Apocrypha and pure mythology. Allegedly he toured heaven bodily, which is physically and spiritually impossible.
9. SG- Which field is more of a passion for you, art or technology, and why?
Technology, no matter how much I enjoy or make use of it, is merely a tool for that helps me produce art insofar as I'm concerned. We should embrace digital tools with the same attitude that our paleolithic ancestors embraced ways of making better arrowheads or keeping their fires burning longer.
10. SG- What is the funniest thing that happened to you while you
worked in the tech industry, the worst?
Nothing really stands out either at Microsoft or Intel as particularly funny. I was looking for a peripheral at a Computer City store in the Seattle suburbs. I swiped my credit card at the cash register and then signed the receipt that the clerk handed me. She turned my card over to compare the signatures and noticed that I had forgotten to put my signature on it. I asked her for a pen and signed the back of my credit card. Then she spent at least two minutes comparing the two signatures very closely. I asked, "Do they match?" and she said, "I suppose they're close enough." So I said, "Then I guess this really is my credit card, isn't it?" She nodded and I thanked her and left with my purchase. And that sums up my opinion of the knowledge and ability of most people who work in retail computer stores.
11. SG- What keeps you busy these days, hobbies, pets?
I'm migrating and relaunching my former blog and hosting it myself this time. Some of my old entries attracted between 600 and 1100 readers. I'd like to increase that now that I know a lot more about how to do it. I'm also working on restoring a large set of almost 40-year-old filmstrips which document the early history of the Baha'i Faith in Iran. It is technically very difficult because the film has degraded and lost most of its original color. With the right equipment and Photoshop technique, it's possible to restore and even improve them over the originals so people can enjoy and learn from them again.
Finally, I'm raising two very energetic German Shepherd puppies named Magic and Jewel. Purely for fun, I write a Twitter feed for them @magicandjewel. I also gave them their own website and blogs but those are strictly spare time projects and I don't have a lot of that. I'm also learning my way around a new city and a new religious community consisting of the local members of the Baha'i Faith.
12. SG- What is good on TV?
Primeval on BBC America, which is about to be canceled. Doctor Who is and always has been good. NCIS is exciting and amusing thanks to well developed and very quirky characters. I'm a fan of Meerkat Manor and It's Me or the Dog on Animal Planet and the Dog Whisperer on National Geographic. I watch a lot of TV but mostly stick to science and science fiction. I don't watch any sitcoms or any of the news channels except for MSNBC on occasion. I probably wouldn't have done that but I discovered how interesting Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow are. They are the best counterpoint to the extremest flunkies on Fox News. That name, by the way, is a classic example of an oxymoron.
SG. Well Cary, it was a pleasure talking with you, thank you
very much. To learn more about Cary, please go to
http://www.enochsvision.com/ . Cary is also a part of the
scitechguru.com creative team. Any closing remarks?
It is quite ready yet but I really need feedback on my new blog at http://www.enochsvision.net
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Last Updated on Friday, 19 June 2009 11:03 |
