Happy to Help

It seems the folks over at ComputerWorld have compiled a list of the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops. Among those that received the honor of being on this list is "Push Technology," most notably by PointCast.

Remember PointCast? I certainly do. Sometime in 1997, I decided to leave another technology company in Sunnyvale after focusing largely on expanding my management skills. I decided it was time to get back to basics. This meant focusing on my programming skills again and working as a contractor (which I have done ever since).

Somehow, I ended up working at PointCast. If you have a vague memory of the PointCast client, then you know that on every "page" of the application was a small window that would play advertising. I was in charge of a Lotus Notes based application that would track the sales of these advertisements and then generate a text file. This text file was distributed to all of the PointCast clients and told the application when to play which advertisement.

At first, working for PointCast was a delight. Typical Silicon Valley Boom company: company picnics each month (I remember one where we had one of these in the parking lot), wear jeans to work, an amazing lobby with glass from ceiling to floor that showcased this absolutely state-of-the art server farm) and get this, beer on Friday afternoons. Oh yeah, my code looked really good those afternoons and then I had to correct it all come Monday morning.

After a few months, cracks began to show. The biggest red flag was that the CEO just up and mysteriously left about one week after giving a big rah-rah presentation to all of the company about how bright and cheery the future was at PointCast. And then the thrashing began. Since my application tracked all of the sales, it became very apparent that sales people were doing anything to make sales which included selling things that we had no way of actually deploying. So, I spent my remaining months at PointCast changing how sales were represented in the database. This literally was almost a complete redesign every two weeks.

It was no longer fun. In fact, the business analyst I worked closely with termed the work "Project Esperance." He had a map of the world on his cubicle wall, and we determined that Esperance, Australia was the city that was directly on the opposite side of the World from Sunnyvale, California. This is where we often wanted to be.

Some personal issues forced me to move to Southern California, which in hindsight ended up being terrific timing as I just missed the complete implosion of the Silicon Valley. I worked remotely for PointCast for a few months, and then I was told that I wouldn't be needed anymore. At some point over those few months, I did make a trip back to the offices in Sunnyvale and they were nearly empty.

And that's how I helped PointCast make the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops list.