Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

The end

Sooner or later the will to continue the project left the company… we were all given notice of redundancy sometime around 16th April. Hurrah!

Of course this leaves the project team slightly demotivated, and questions about the future viability of the project abound. There is a potential way out, but the talks to make that happen have not yet occurred.

A new CEO joins the company immediately after our notice is given… doubtless he is pondering the wisdom of letting go three of the most experienced engineers in the company….for nearly everyone else it is their first job after leaving university – they’re not stupid, just inexperienced. Its good to have a mixed team of junior and senior members from different backgrounds. One of the big problems with the company before its restructing was its heavy weighting toward Physics PhD people…this problem is worse after, not better. Still, at least its not my problem.


The begining of the end

(corporate stuff… don’t get too hung up on this – theres a happy ending, well a new chapter at least)

Out of the frying pan, into the fire… I knew it was doomed three days in when I asked a question about repeat sales. Never-the-less I stuck with it ‘cos I figured I could learn something. Hell, did I learn some things.

I joined a project intending to deliver multimedia software for handheld computers. What they didn’t tell me before I joined was that noone there had delivered any software for handheld computers before. What a mess…still we got on top of that situation, as far as was possible.

Just before christmas we started another project, this time the development spirit was right but the commercial situation was broken. I can’t repeat details here, suffice to say I read Machiavellis The Prince and recognised rather too much.


A first post

Erm…is this thing on?

Alright, this journal corresponds to a new chapter opening up in my life. I’ll be adding some background over the next few days as plans become clearer. In the meantime I’ll be trying to figure out how friend lists work…