From 1991 until its acquisition by Adaptec in 1995, I worked for Incat Systems in Milan and then California (yes, it was a long commute). Here are some “family” photos of my colleagues on both continents, some of whom are still friends, others I’ve lost touch with.
Category Archives: my life in tech
LISA 2018
In 2018, Brendan and Rikki Endsley co-chaired USENIX LISA. I was, as usual, along for the ride, but also managed to pull off a surprise birthday party for Brendan.
Netflix 100M Party
The Netflix 100M party in 2017 was held regionally, with the bulk of the attendees traveling in buses from all over the Bay Area to San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (because the majority of the employees work in Los Gatos).
Guests were encouraged to dress to reflect Netflix’s expanded worldwide market – a relatively easy assignment for Brendan and me as we are both comfortable in Indian clothing and had some formalwear from our trips to India together. Many of the Indian women wore saris, and their consorts, seeing Brendan, regretted that they had dressed in western suits instead of churidar-kurta!
Continue reading Netflix 100M Party
Netflix 50M Party
Some of the most fun tech events I have attended were two epic parties thrown by Netflix for its employees, to celebrate hitting the 50 million (in 2014) and 100 million (in 2017) customers marks. Netflix now has over 200 million customers, but alas there have been no further parties Brendan reminds me that there was a 200M party, virtually, in 2021.
The 50M party involved EVERY Netflix employee (and a date) worldwide being flown to LA for an evening themed around its then-current hits (yes, House of Cards was the biggie – another thing that has changed), featuring the stars of said shows plus a bunch of other notables.
We were not hobbing and nobbing with the balcony people, but nevertheless had fun. Just having an occasion to dress up and admire others dressed up is always fun!
You can see the video clips here.
You might also like:
Problematic employers in tech
Once upon a time, a company that many – especially those who worked there – felt to be nice, good, and generally on the right side of tech history was acquired by a company that many – including some who worked there – felt to be evil, rapacious, soulless, and in other ways reflective of its founder.
Yes, I’m talking about the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle.
Many stories could be told about this acquisition, but for the purposes of this piece I will focus on the schism between those who left Oracle immediately, and those who did not.
Continue reading Problematic employers in tech