Disorderly Content

I have an ego. (Yes, I know that isn't news.) Couple that ego with a modest web presence of long standing, and what I am about to tell you will come as no surprise: I Google myself.

Heck, I bet you do it too. All the cool kids do. I used to do it reguarly, but now I let Google Google me all by its ownself and tell me when it finds something. Every day it emails me with new discoveries, most of which are no surprise. Heck, most of them are pages I put there myself.

But every now and again I get a surprise. Like just now, when in addition to noticing my studio photography page, it pointed me to an ancient article from my Sun days. The subject was moving a development team from C to C++, the author was a team lead on the project. I was mentioned in passing, as their instructor on the ways of C++ and the ways to avoid getting into a heap o' trouble. An entertaining read, especially as I don't feel any need to cringe over the advice I gave them in those long ago days before Java and web development and so much else. And proof that on the web, everything is indelible.

It's strange to think of Sun Microsystems without Scott McNealy at the helm. I'd been hearing rumors for weeks, which turned into a confirmation on Friday from someone well connected in the Valley. Scott was a great CEO once upon a time, probably the best I've ever had. He cared about the company, and about its employees, in an era when terms like Human Resources are used to equate workers to raw materials that can be replaced or junked as needed. He also knew how and when to reinvent the company, as well as how to get us all behind the concept du jour. Sun wasn't without its problems, even in its heydey. (Way too much managing up going on for my taste.) But it was a good place to work and a force for creativity in an industry that needs as many of those as it can find.

Not that Scott was always right. I lived through the planetization, when he had the brilliant idea to break everything up into self-contained and autonomous business units. Most of those units failed miserably, and even the ones that didn't spent foolishly, on advertising (with three or more full page ads from different units in the same magazine), on packaging (the box for Sun's development tools cost more than PC vendors charge for their product!) and on trade shows, were so focused on their own success they ignored what was right for the company. More recently (and long after I was gone, thank god) were flex-offices; instead of assigning an office to employees, you would show up and check a terminal for an available space. I knew I was right about how bad an idea this was when I heard several directors talk about how glad they were it didn't apply to them.

But still, brain farts and all, Scott made Sun the cool and creative place it was. That he couldn't get it through its latest troubles shouldn't take away from his accomplishments; maybe no one could have done better. I don't envy Jonathan Schwartz as the new CEO.