My Doer's Profile

Last updated 1999.02.01

Originally started at Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company had a little tradition called Doer's Profiles. In a large-ish company like 3DO, it's impossible for you to get to know everyone personally. So how will you know anything about them if you suddenly need to deal with them? Well, that's what the Doer's Profile is supposed to help.

All 3DO employees were encouraged (but not required) to write one of these up, print it out, and pin it up outside their cube. At EA, a photograph also accompanied it. It was a nice way to get an overview of the people who worked there. These days, you'd probably accomplish the same thing by putting up a Web page... Hey, wait a minute!

Anyway, this is mine. I've decided to make it more "generic", and keep it up to date (when I remember to).

Doer's Profile

Name:

Leo L. Schwab

Company:

Be, Inc.

Job Title:

Digital Spellweaver/Graphics Driver Engineer

Department:

Graphics

Start Date:

1998.05.14

Stuff I've Done So Far:

Wrote NVidia RIVA 128 driver for R3.x; ported to R4.

Wrote NVidia RIVA TNT driver for R4.

Wrote Intel I740 driver for R4.

Stuff I'm Doing Right Now:

Get AGP working so we can start fleshing out hardware-accelerated OpenGL.

Designing and writing a new Surface management system that will allow the system and applications to better manage graphics buffers.

Nickname (Self-assigned):

Bols Ewhac ("bowls EH-wack")

Nickname (Parentally assigned):

classified

Birthdate:

1964.08.07

What I Really Do:

Write code I've never written before and pretend I know precisely what I'm doing.

Why I Do It:

I was no good at football, and girls already didn't talk to me...

Where I Used to Work Before (reverse order):

Prolific Publishing (Senior Software Engineer, North Office):

• Ported Firepower to the WebTV Internet terminal, as proof-of-concept.
• Worked a bit on Return Fire II.

The 3DO Company (Digital Spellweaver, Consumer Products/System Software):

• Wrote Escape from Monster Manor for the 3DO Multiplayer
• Worked on the Graphics Folio for the 3DO (Opera).
• Designed and wrote the video driver architecture for the M2 OS.

Pantaray, Inc. (Programmer)

• Some further refinement of CDTV development tools and documentation.

Silent Software, Inc. (Programmer):

• Wrote "Disney Presents: The Animation Studio",
• Wrote the RedBook audio control panel for Commodore's CDTV.

Fantasy Career:

Starship commander

My Hero/Heroine:

RJ Mical, Kim Tempest

Last Book(s) Read (most recent first):

Putting Your Heart Online, by Nancy Capulet

God is My Broker, by Brother Ty, Christopher Buckley, and John Tierney (a wholly impulsive purchase, and a completely silly book)

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe, an autobiography by Walter Koenig

Xlib Programming Manual, by Adrian Nye

DNS and BIND, by Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu

sendmail, by Bryan Costales and Eric Allman

UNIX Network Programming, 2nd edition, vol. 1, by W. Richard Stevens (an absolutely excellent book)

The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli

The Dilbert Principle, by Scott Adams

How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie

Mostly Harmless (the fifth and final book in the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy), by Douglas Adams

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein

Hated Vegetable:

Dan Quayle

Favorite Drink:

Water, Good Earth spicy iced tea, Hobee's spicy iced tea, orange juice

Best Fast Food:

no such thing

Favorite Game:

Tempest (Atari coin-op)

Hobbies:

Computers, cruising the net (I have no life), attending science fiction/fantasy conventions.

Unusual Abilities:

Can imitate RJ Mical almost flawlessly.

Unusual Habits:

Uses Starfleet dating format.

Most Loved Movie Experience:

The Wizard of Speed And Time, by Mike Jittlov

Worst Movie Experience:

Without reservation or qualification: Starship Troopers

Favorite Vacation Spot:

Vacation... Vacation... I've heard of that somewhere...

Most Memorable Cultural Event:

not applicable

Preferred Musical Styles(s) and/or Group(s):

Literally all over the map. Examples: Mozart, Beethoven, Paul Simon, Huey Lewis, Art of Noise, Kraftwerk.

Blast From The Past:

I saw this really cool computer animation involving a unicycle, so I thought I'd... Nah, you don't want to hear about that...

What I'm Really Like:

Reserved, creative, imaginative, self-deprecating, virulently passionate, slightly off plumb.

What I Think Life Is All About:

Be nice. Play fair. Have fun.

Favorite Quote:

"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody. I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor (Dr. Who)