this is an amazing story about writing software at #apple http://www.pacifict.com/Story/

We got resources that would never have been available to us had we been on the payroll. For example, at that time only about two hundred PowerPC chips existed in the world. Most of those at Apple were being used by the hardware design engineers. Only a few dozen coveted PowerPC machines were even available in System Software for people working on the operating system. We had two. Engineers would come to our offices at midnight and practically slip machines under the door. One said, “Officially, this machine doesn’t exist, you didn’t get it from me, and I don’t know you. Make sure it doesn’t leave the building.”

Greg was lurking outside one day, trying to act casual, when another engineer accosted him and said, “I’m sick and tired of you guys loitering in front of the building every day!” Later he phoned the appropriate bureaucrats on our behalf. I listened to his side of the conversation for twenty minutes: “No, there is no PO, because we’re not paying them. No, there is no contract, because they are not contractors. No, they are not employees; we have no intention of hiring them. Yes, they must have building access because they are shipping code on our box. No, we don’t have a PO number. There is no PO, because we’re not paying them.” Finally, he wore them down. They said to use the standard form to apply for badges, but to cross out Contractor and write in Vendor. Where it asked for a PO number, we were to use the magic words “No dollar contract.” We got badges the next day. They were orange Vendor badges, the same kind the people working in the cafeteria, watering the plants, and fixing the photocopy machines had.

#Graphing-Calculator #powerpc #programming #software #development #skunkworks #clandestine #motivation

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