In June I landed at Dulles International where Zeze picked me up and, after a week of helping their family move, I arrived at my new home in the back woods of Virginia.
Everything I’d shipped from Colorado was there, and I got all of my systems back up and running in short order… The problem was the new farm was so far out in the boonies the best we could get was a couple of phonelines, and 14.4kbps at best on those… So, I started figuring out how to fix this.
I quickly landed a job at Amerind in Alexandria, where Zeze was already working, and was put to work doing things like converting the coast guard’s internal systems at the Pentagon from Banyan Vines to Novell, or flying out to Ohio to work on a database project for the US Army.
Things quickly evened out for us – it was Zeze and I working at Amerind and Zeze’s ex working for “American Photobooth” (APBI) also in Alexandria. All told it was Zeze and Zeze’s family on one end of the house and myself on the other end, three horses, two dogs, two cats, and assorted chickens on a 40-acre bit of paradise in the deep woods of Virginia.
In September Zeze and I were approached to see if we could fix the issues APBI was having with their Generation One “Sticker Station”. I got turned loose on the spaghetti code in the Gen 1 and had it literally re-written in a weekend, creating “Gen 2”.
The owner of APBI, Sam Attenberg, was impressed and set up a meeting with Zeze and I where he asks “What could you do with an unlimited budget?”
I started going on about live chromakey of a full-motion subject based on the stuff I used to do on the Amiga with a video toaster, and I wanted to use network connectivity to allow for the rotation of new backgrounds without having to actually go to the machine… Zeze chimes in with miniaturized dye-sublimation printing technology being demoed by Fujitsu.
We left that meeting with employment contracts and a virtually unlimited budget to create the Generation Three “Sticker Station” … A system that would briefly become the most advanced vending machine on the planet.
The hitch was we would have one year to build it, starting January 1, 1998.
Given the numbers involved (and the prospect of not having to drive 150 miles a day round trip to Alexandria), Zeze and I tendered our resignations from Amerind and began using UniGraphix temporarily for our contract work. I also run the numbers and decided that having a T1 trenched in from Orange (the nearest hi-cap switch) was a no-brainer, so I set that up… It would be a mere $8000 installation and $2200 a month.
But, while Zeze and I were really good at what we did, we knew we would need a low-level programmer to do some driver stuff for the various bits of hardware involved… Conveniently, a fellow Zeze knew from FurryMuck – Pegasus – was an amazing low-level programmer and circuit designer, and was working on selling his ISP in Tennessee. He also said he was looking for something new to do.
We explained the project to him, and in October he came out to visit and to get a feel for what we were up to.
In November Zeze and I were sent to the “International Association of Amusements Parks and Attractions” (IAAPA) show in Florida to support the Gen 2 machine – and do research on what other vending machine companies were planning.
Zeze made connections with a cabinet manufacturer and some other parts vendors while I did a couple of live updates on the Gen 2 codebase before the show to give out free prints.
I did get to see the show though. IAAPA was basically the tradeshow for Willey Wonka – it was amazing.
1998
1998 arrived and the countdown began.
Zeze and I put on our game faces by taking two weeks to drive from Virginia to California and back to run UniGraphix one last time at “ConFurence 9” from January 15th to the 18th in Buena Park, California. We arrived a day early just so we could walk Disney Land…
We returned to the farm in late January by way of Colorado, where I picked up everything that I didn’t ship last year.
We turned the first two of our six garage bays into the workshop for the Gen 3 hardware, and the sunroom into the software development room – and I got the touchscreen UI and some of the core portions of Gen 3 running by mid-February.
The T1 into my bedroom was also completed at this time – nice birthday present!
Zeze started spending time in St. Louis in March, working with the new cabinet maker to get the mechanical parts of the design in a prototype state. Pegasus drove to St. Louis while Zeze was there and helped out with drivers for the mechanicals.
On March 25th, Widget (Frencheska x Thing) was born.
Collectively we busted our asses for the next six months; Zeze worked on the mechanical aspects of the system like case, touchscreen, camera tilt mechanism, and internal wiring and layout. Pegasus and I worked on the code – me from there on the farm and Pegasus from Tennessee. Pegasus did come out and visit a few times, eventually planning to move to the farm in ’99.
When September rolled around we were about 99% done with Gen 3. The mechanicals were in production and the code was waiting on a driver from Sony for the custom dye-sub printers.
Zeze and I took a breather and headed to ConiFur NW in Washington state, September 4-6, 1998. The convention was run by Flinters, an old friend, so it was nice to go bum around with him for a weekend and decompress.
According to my code archive I sent the final 1.0 code to production on September 23rd. Which means we were officially “done” two months ahead of schedule and under budget.
And to thank us for all of that hard work – by Thanksgiving there was a rumor that APBI was being prepped for sale to FotoFantasy…
Zeze and I were listed as company assets and keeping us on for at least a year was a stipulation of the sale. While this was interesting, I was frankly tired of having my work sold out from under me.
1999
Pegasus sold his ISP in December and suddenly became very flush with cash… He moved to the farm in January, and noting that the farm was a short jaunt from the Chesapeake Bay he started shopping for a yacht…
He’d always wanted a really big boat he could live on, and now he had the opportunity. So, he and Zeze spent the month of January yacht shopping, eventually locating a 47-foot 1967 Chris Craft “Commander” in Baltimore.
In February we were approached by Ronald Massa Associates (RMA), who we used as a source for the Targa image capture boards and Sony cameras we used in the Gen 3, to see if we would be interested in developing a digital signage system for ADT’s use in airports. We looked over the project requirements and, being as it was pretty simple (sending still images to a monitor over a network), decided to add it to the plate. I started work on it on February 10th, calling it “Arch View”.
Pegasus purchased the Chris Commander, christened it “StarChaser” (I called it PegaBoat to keep with the tongue-in-cheek naming convention we used for anything Pegasus worked on), and he and Zeze started fixing up the boat as the 1999 handyman project. The boat spent several months in Baltimore getting the engines worked on and the hull repainted.
FotoFantasy purchases APBI on February 19th, 1999. With the purchase of APBI we were now working for a different company based out of Hew Hampshire.
As far as I could tell, the purchase was to do three things: put APBI out of business, acquire APBI’s patents, and acquire APBI’s location portfolio. FotoFantasy still had to honor the orders for the Gen 3 though, so we still had some spot work tuning up the codebase and adjusting the hardware spec as little issues cropped up here and there throughout 1999.
We come up with a name and incorporate to cover ourselves with the contract work it looks like we’ll be doing. PFM Technologies was formed, I banged out a logo for it, and the domain was set up (pfmtek.com).
In March I acquired my 28 foot Scarab off-shore racer. My boat came with a three axel trailer and the guy selling it was also selling the truck he built to haul it around; a red 1991 Ford F350 4-door long-bed dually… Zeze bought the truck.
On April 12th Arch View Version 1 was finished and I sent it off. And on the 19th of May, 1999, Gen 3 systems are loaded with licensed imagery for the opening of “The Phantom Menace”.
Zeze, Pegasus, and I went to Kings Dominion on June 6th and rode rollercoasters until we couldn’t see straight.
On June 21st of 1999 I was in England on FotoFantasy’s dime to assist with the setup of an international order for Gen 3 systems for the UK. This involved a few minor tweaks to the code for the coinage and disabling the network systems as they didn’t have the service in the UK.
While there I palled around for a week with Geoff and Matthew whom I’d known on the internet for a few years.
And I rode more rollercoasters until I couldn’t see straight…
When July rolled around, RMA checked to see if we could build a digital video recorder that would replace the analog 7-day VCRs used by casinos. Of course we could! Pegasus started inventing a video storage format (PegaVideo Format – PVF) and Zeze started working on the design for DVR servers.
In August RMA returned with the requirements for ADT’s “Arch View 2.0”… This time it would be four large HD LCD TVs mounted in portrait and they would need to be run from a single programmable controller accessible over LAN. Each TV had to show 30 second full-motion video signs for travel alerts, security directions, etc. on a rotating basis with up to six separate images played in succession.
I got started on it…
In November we were contacted by a gentleman in Amsterdam who purchased 18 Gen3 systems. He told us that FotoFantasy was not going to continue Gen 3 production, sales, or support – so he was on his own. He wanted to contract us to come out and adjust the software to support the local currency as well as localize the software.
The “Arch View 2.0” project was finalized and sent off to RMA on November 20th 1999.
Six days later, on November 26th of 1999 I was in Amsterdam to work on the Gen 3’s purchased by the Benelux company.
It was pretty easy and I got it done and tested in a day. While I was there I removed the royalty code so that his systems aren’t reporting their sales numbers to FotoFantasy – if they aren’t supporting him, I assume they don’t need his money either.
I then spent the rest of the week in Amsterdam being a tourist:
But, all good things must come to an end… On the 3rd of December FotoFantasy had a conference call with us to tell us that, due to discontinuing the Gen 3 product line, our services would no longer be required after February.
We got ahold of RMA and explained the situation, they said they had a few things in the pipeline that should have big payoffs – and we agree to take any projects they have. They mention a portable digital x-ray system that’s in the works – we say we’ll take it.
I get started on that portable digital X-ray system (DVX) for “Innovative Digital Solutions Inc” (IDSI).
2000
We survived the 2K “Clock Apocalypse”; no planes fell out of the sky, no satellites burned up on reentry, the robots didn’t rebel… It was actually kind of a letdown after the 24/7 media fearmongering that went on for a year.
I sent off the demo code for the X-ray project (DVX) on January 31st, 2000 for client approval. And in February RMA sent us another proposal from ADT; this time they wanted a video recorder that could trigger an alarm if something moved from left to right while everything else in the field of view was moving right to left…
This was intended to be part of an airport security system that could catch people or objects like a tossed weapon moving backwards through an exit gate… Pegasus started on the new ADT project and I put rihahn.com online to take a few art commissions.
On March 2nd we delivered the finalized DVR hardware and software to RMA (DVR Xpress, which used Pegasus’ custom PVF video format and wavelet compression routines). It had been through five revisions as the goalposts moved around – but we still managed to score a touchdown.
RMA had another project brewing that required our expertise; an automated submersible for Woods Hole Oceanographic that would count plankton in a water column, untethered, for months at a time… And we get started on it.
Aryntha and their brother came out to visit the farm on March 25th, and we tooled around looking at old AT&T microwave towers…
In late March the fellow we were buying the farm from has decided he doesn’t want to sell anymore, and he gave us 90 days to move out… So, we got a 15’x30’ storage unit in Fredericksburg and started moving stuff into it in preparation for finding a new place to live.
We looked at some other farms for a bit before Pegasus said “Why don’t we just live on the StarChaser for a year or two and save up for something really nice?” So, we eventually settled on moving Pegasus’ boat back to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor… Baltimore was close to DC, where all of our projects were coming from, and the berth rent was super cheap at around $300 a month.
The StarChaser had been mostly revamped over the last year and housed about $30,000 in radios, radar, navigation and other seafaring gizmos. One of the things all of this hardware did was talk NMEA over a can bus – which meant I could do things with it – so I started researching NMEA format communications with the intent of putting the boat on the Internet. (Basically IoT a decade before IoT)
In May I gave Pegasus my beautiful hot-rodded 1967 Mustang. I figured I wouldn’t be needing a car in Baltimore and he’d been lusting after the Mustang since he moved in, so it became my way of saying ‘thank you’ for putting a roof over my head on his yacht.
A week later a herd of deer charged across highway 20 into Fredericksburg while Pegasus is doing about 60, and totaled the Mustang – the car was sold for parts.
Anyway, the spare change we had went into the 200-gallon diesel tank for StarChaser as well as the assorted fees / payments to get it set up in Baltimore. Zeze and Pegasus moved her from Hampden Roads up the Chesapeake to Baltimore; It was 90 miles at 10 knots, so it took a while.
I met them at Harborview with Zeze’s truck full of stuff. We tied up the boat, got the shore connections set up, and started moving in…