It's Time to Go Pro

All I can say is that PCB Design has been very good to me. Oh, you know better. I can say more. It is my supreme pleasure to announce that I have been chosen by GoPro to help out with the layout of the next generation of action cameras. These are amazing gadgets. Whether shooting in 1080 with 240 frames per second of using 5K to produce stabilized 4K video, the Hero 9 is an unsurpassed piece of kit.

Any sport sponsored by Red Bull is likely to have GoPro on hand...

The various mounting configurations have put these cameras everywhere to capture everything from wing-suit daredevils to VLOGer mom strolling the 'hood. The marketing team has created enviable brand awareness that goes beyond the product. Only a few others; Apple and Tesla come to mind, have achieved the level of devotion from their customers.

I'll admit to failing to land jobs at both of those companies this year. Back in February, I had the on-site day at Apple. I refused to shake anyone's hand. By then, Covid 19 was in the news but no concrete action was being taken to actively fight the virus in the States. Aside from that, I was nervous as hell and couldn't remember names or speak well. That was the one working day that I took off from Microsoft.

With Tesla, I was completely transparent in not knowing much about Altium. What I did know was that Tesla, like Apple, exists in a permanent state of crunch-time. Unlike Apple, they did, at least, inform me that they were not going to move forward. In retrospect, I consider those rejections as a blessing in disguise. That's all in the past and it's time for the future!

You may already know that I like to go on epic bike-rides and share a few seconds of footage or an image from the road or trail. You may end up seeing a whole minute of high-quality video the next time I'm out there. Mixing slo-mo, live action and "time-warp" on the fly - all in the camera is a real thing. I can't wait to get a handle-bar mount for this Hero 9.

Image Credit: Author

Not sure if I'll be using it but they gave me a floaty to prevent it from sinking. I don't know of other cameras that come with a life-vest. I don't think I've ever been ten meters below the surface but it's good to know that I can with the camera just as you see it. Maybe a video of my angel fish and the Bala shark from inside the aquarium could happen. Any sport sponsored by Red Bull is likely to have GoPro on hand to capture the heights and depths of the human spirit.

Beyond extreme sports, electronic sharing is not the same as person-to-person but it is a workable substitute when we can't be together. Wide angle? I can almost see my ears in the viewfinder. Stable? The Hero 9 can keep the horizon level through a roller-coaster ride. Too bad our local theme park is taking the year off. Resolution? How about 26 megapixels and the ability to screen-grab a 14 MP image from the video? All day long! Actually, I want the double-barreled battery charger to extend the action.

Have I joined a cult? Not sure about that yet but my coworkers seem to like working here. It's as diverse a group as you will find even as Bay Area companies go. We're focused on cameras and, apparently, having a good time of it. The founder is a surfer. It wouldn't surprise me if he opened the office in Carlsbad in part because the San Diego water is warmer than up here.

Image Credit: that's me.

As someone who loves the outdoors and is anxious to share the stoke, GoPro seems like a really good fit. For the foreseeable future, my office is the same bedroom with a different laptop. Thinking back 20 years to the dot-com era, Big Bear Networks sent me a nice basket of cheese, fruit and chocolate the day I accepted the job. No other company has provided a token of appreciation like that until now. The whole camera kit arrived on my doorstep a week before my first day.

I wasn't looking for work but I'm glad that I invoked the "Nvidia rule" and gave myself a chance. The Nvidia rule: Three months into Velodyne Lidar, a recruiter from Nvidia asked me if I'd apply to work in graphics. I passed even though I like doing graphics. That's why, two years later, I went to XBOX.

Around the turn of the century, I had cancelled an interview with Nvidia because I landed the first job out of five scheduled interviews. After regretting both of those decisions to decline Nvida, I vowed that I wouldn't let my current job deter me from dreaming bigger. Hence, the Nvidia rule. PCB Design has been good to me. Now, I'm living the dream.