When I first started at Intel, it was for the Intel® AnswerExpress(SM) Support Suite. I hope I got that trademarking right—they were pretty finicky about that.
We were in the Internet Software Organization (ISO). It was a startup, but within a huge corporation, so there was probably better budget than the average startup has, and since we were the hourly contractors we did not have to work the extra hours that the real employees did, but at the same time, things were casual, and if you could do something, they would let you do it, so I got a chance to develop new skills. All of that was good.
The service itself combined virus protection, online data backup, an online library of PC tips, and support phone calls. I spent a lot of time working on the library, sorting tips, and a lot of my PC knowledge comes from this time period.
During the pilot program there were four of us contractors who did phone support for help with the service, not with the actual technical support phone calls—a different group did that. I think we have already established that my mind goes down weird paths and finds stories, and it happened again. After all, there were basically four parts to a computer (work with me): hardware, software, operating system, and the network. We had four team members. Could it be any more obvious?
The Net: Reclusive billionaire Jeffrey Poseidon, who used his intelligence and vast fortune to perfect the crime-fighting tools he needed. Yeah, he’s Batman, but more purple than black for the costume, and also he carried a trident and net. Sometimes he would use the net for swinging or catching a ride somewhere, but mainly it was used to drop on bad guys.
Captain Windows: Ossie was a mild-mannered window washer, but from his vantage point high above the city he could easily spot crime and swoop down to fight it, using his rather Superman-like strength and flying ability. He also carried a shield that was shaped like the Windows* logo.
Hardware: The ultimate geek, Chip lived in his mother’s basement, where he had a workshop where he developed a retractable armor suit that provided him protection when he needed to fight crime. I suppose that would be more like Mantis, but I pictured him as looking rather like C-3PO.
Software: This was the girl, so I guess this must be me. Incredibly intelligent, Corrine supported herself by writing books in the For Dummies series while working on her doctoral thesis in abnormal psychology. She also used her skills to develop a remarkable fabric that made her costume, allowing her to fly and she could occasionally cause it to do other things, like when She-Ra would transform her sword into a blanket or something. A better example would be the memory cloth in Batman Begins, but it looked cooler when they did it. Naturally she had a utility belt.
I guess she was an important transition for me—no special powers, but what she knew made her able to do things. Actually, most of the team was developing their own abilities rather than having them innate or via radiation. The only one who did not have to invent things was Chris, and I have no idea where he got his powers—he just had them. Maybe he was bitten by a radioactive beetle.
Trademark issues alone would have guaranteed that this would never see the light of day, but the team was disrupted in a different way, when it turned out that one member’s lack of social skills was worse than it initially appeared, and he was creepier than he appeared, and he was gone. Pete came in, and he was great, but he would not have been Hardware. I sort of had this idea for a virus storyline, but it faded away.
Oddly, Pete acquired his own special powers later, with one of those weird conversations that I enjoy so. I was talking with one coworker and somehow we got on the topic of things like the Donner Party, and Uruguayan rugby teams except I always thought it was a Chilean soccer team—anyway, we ended up asking Pete if he would mind if in a plane crash situation we ate him. That sounds worse than it came off. There were no illicit overtones anyway.
Pete agreed that would be okay as long as we made sure he was really dead. You know, poke him or something first. And my brain went here:
“Couldn’t you have poked me?”
”We cut off two arms and a leg. If that didn’t wake you up…but it’s okay. We’ll get you new ones. And this time, we’ll make them bionic!”
He’d be the $6 Million Pete.
We were in the Internet Software Organization (ISO). It was a startup, but within a huge corporation, so there was probably better budget than the average startup has, and since we were the hourly contractors we did not have to work the extra hours that the real employees did, but at the same time, things were casual, and if you could do something, they would let you do it, so I got a chance to develop new skills. All of that was good.
The service itself combined virus protection, online data backup, an online library of PC tips, and support phone calls. I spent a lot of time working on the library, sorting tips, and a lot of my PC knowledge comes from this time period.
During the pilot program there were four of us contractors who did phone support for help with the service, not with the actual technical support phone calls—a different group did that. I think we have already established that my mind goes down weird paths and finds stories, and it happened again. After all, there were basically four parts to a computer (work with me): hardware, software, operating system, and the network. We had four team members. Could it be any more obvious?
The Net: Reclusive billionaire Jeffrey Poseidon, who used his intelligence and vast fortune to perfect the crime-fighting tools he needed. Yeah, he’s Batman, but more purple than black for the costume, and also he carried a trident and net. Sometimes he would use the net for swinging or catching a ride somewhere, but mainly it was used to drop on bad guys.
Captain Windows: Ossie was a mild-mannered window washer, but from his vantage point high above the city he could easily spot crime and swoop down to fight it, using his rather Superman-like strength and flying ability. He also carried a shield that was shaped like the Windows* logo.
Hardware: The ultimate geek, Chip lived in his mother’s basement, where he had a workshop where he developed a retractable armor suit that provided him protection when he needed to fight crime. I suppose that would be more like Mantis, but I pictured him as looking rather like C-3PO.
Software: This was the girl, so I guess this must be me. Incredibly intelligent, Corrine supported herself by writing books in the For Dummies series while working on her doctoral thesis in abnormal psychology. She also used her skills to develop a remarkable fabric that made her costume, allowing her to fly and she could occasionally cause it to do other things, like when She-Ra would transform her sword into a blanket or something. A better example would be the memory cloth in Batman Begins, but it looked cooler when they did it. Naturally she had a utility belt.
I guess she was an important transition for me—no special powers, but what she knew made her able to do things. Actually, most of the team was developing their own abilities rather than having them innate or via radiation. The only one who did not have to invent things was Chris, and I have no idea where he got his powers—he just had them. Maybe he was bitten by a radioactive beetle.
Trademark issues alone would have guaranteed that this would never see the light of day, but the team was disrupted in a different way, when it turned out that one member’s lack of social skills was worse than it initially appeared, and he was creepier than he appeared, and he was gone. Pete came in, and he was great, but he would not have been Hardware. I sort of had this idea for a virus storyline, but it faded away.
Oddly, Pete acquired his own special powers later, with one of those weird conversations that I enjoy so. I was talking with one coworker and somehow we got on the topic of things like the Donner Party, and Uruguayan rugby teams except I always thought it was a Chilean soccer team—anyway, we ended up asking Pete if he would mind if in a plane crash situation we ate him. That sounds worse than it came off. There were no illicit overtones anyway.
Pete agreed that would be okay as long as we made sure he was really dead. You know, poke him or something first. And my brain went here:
“Couldn’t you have poked me?”
”We cut off two arms and a leg. If that didn’t wake you up…but it’s okay. We’ll get you new ones. And this time, we’ll make them bionic!”
He’d be the $6 Million Pete.
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