So you want to know a little more about us here at Pottsland? Well, first off, we are not a company, at least not one that anyone would think about as a company. We are a family. Pottsland consists of myself, David Potts, my wife, Ya-Li Potts, and my sons, Lucas and Kevin Potts. If you've gotten this far and are still wondering where the name Pottsland came from, please go bang you head against the wall a few times and see if that helps.

 

For those of you still reading, lets precede. As for myself, I was born in a small town in Connecticut called Trumbull. The summers were hot and humid and the winters damn cold. I grew up there, I went to high school there and then I moved away. My parents still live there, in the same house that I grew up in (we moved into that house when I was in kindergarten.)  My sister also resides there with her husband and daughters (Bob, Sophie and Emma - go bang you head if you can't figure out which is which).

 

After high school I decided to attend college at Drexel University (I would put a link here for those who would like to check out the school, but I really can't recommend the school, thus no link) to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering. Yeah, I've known almost all my life that I wanted to be a computer dork and guess what; it worked. Then again, it seems like computer geeks are in fashion these days at least those of use who drive around in our nice benz's - but I digress. Drexel wasn't a horrid school, just adequate. I can't say that I learned a whole lot there (besides how to drink tequila) but I made some wonderful friends who really effected my life (this is where I wave to Linda, Hang, Kieu, Amy, Yoo-Mi [where ever you are] and Marv.) Oh yeah, about the last month of my college career there there was one major change in my life; I met Ya-Li (read the fourth sentence of this page if you've already forgotten who that is).

 

Why did it take me six years to complete college? It's not as bad as it sounds, Drexel is a five year college, so I was a year late. There are two major reasons why I graduated late. The first one is that during my junior year I drank like a fish and didn't study. Thus I flunked a whole lotta classes (who needs them brain cells anyway?) Secondly, no more money. I ran out of money to pay for classes and such, so I got a full time job at a company called Cone Software (what a horrible job that was - if you are working there I pity you) and went to school part time to finish up my degree.

 

Once I finished college I got a job at a company called Ensoniq Corporation, who was later acquired by Creative Labs, working as a field applications engineer (FAE) for Asia. I was not always an FAE, but that is basically what I ended up being.  I enjoyed that part of my job, it was rewarding, and fun (and I got to travel all around Asia!)  I started off doing some software for them - working on the DOS driver for their Soundscape sound cards. I still think we did a bang up job on them, with special thanks to the guys at iD for not patching Doom to support us, thus forcing us to fix our DOS sound blaster emulation. Sure the product wasn't a huge hit, but we had fun doing it. The FAE work that I was doing required me to travel to Asia to help customers design products with our chips. It was quite interesting and fun to travel to Japan, Korea, and China and to work with the customers there - but it was tiring and I was newly married so that played a big part on why I wanted to leave. The real reason behind my desire to leave was that I wanted to design chips instead of systems or program. Lucent made me an offer that I could not refuse, so I bid fair-well to Ensoniq.

 

Lucent offered me more money, but more importantly a chance to work on the design of some very interesting products. They hired me on to work on a project that was very aggressive, but unfortunately never turned out to make it to release (although the chip was complete and functional). My boss, Jalil put a great deal of faith in me, and I don't think he was disappointed in my work (you'll see why later). I also own Jalil a lot of thanks because he helped me turn my career into something that I really wanted to do and he took the chance on someone who really didn't have the experience - but he expected a lot of work out of you. I spent a good amount of time at Lucent, about 4 1/2 years before moving on. I had worked on their Wildwire chip set and several other chips that were either canned (for market reasons, not design reasons) or not shipping at the time of this writing.

 

During my stint in Allentown Pennsylvania (I guess I should note that after college I purchased a condo near Pottstown [no relation] PA for my family to live in) Jalil, my boss, relocated to California to startup a design group there. I stayed in Allentown to continue to work on the Wildwire chip set and to start a real family - my first son was born in September 1998 - Lucas Potts. Then in 1999, after continued to contact with Jalil about his work out in California and my growing dissatisfaction with my new boss, he made me an offer to move me out to work with him on the west coast. At first I decided not to take his offer, but after a few more difficult months with the new boss I was ready to fly. I found a nice little house in Rancho Santa Margarita, priced well above what we could afford, and in January 2000 we packed up our home and move across the country.

 

I don't regret our move one bit; yes it is far from my family, but we are closer to Ya-Li's (who, by the way, is from Taiwan) and the environment is 100 times better then what we had in Pennsylvania. 2000 was an interesting year for us, we have had some major changes come our way. First of course was the move from PA to CA (sure only one letter changed but physically it is a whole lot more), Ya-Li found a job that she really enjoys and Luke has made a ton of friends on our street. But another big change came late in the year, with Lucent stock heading in the toilet, and my options being more worth less then the paper they are printed on, I made a bold move to leave Lucent and join a small start up company called Internet Machines.  Unfortunately, I know that this upset Jalil and rightfully so, he made a huge effort to get me and I left.  I wish that he would have understood why I left, and maybe he did eventually (especially after Lucent closed that office a few months later), but I will never know.  In late 2006, Jalil lost his battle with cancer; he will never know how much he affected my life.

 

I enjoyed working at Internet Machines; the work was good, the pay was good, and the options were excellent. Working for IMC was quite a bit different then the other places I had worked.  The engineers were phenomenal, some of the best I had ever worked with.  The technology was very advanced and the atmosphere was exciting.  Unfortunately things didn’t go the way we had hoped.  Our designs were solid, our work was almost flawless, but with the telcom crash in late 2001, IMC was doomed.  I made some wonderful friends, and would do it again in a heart beat; those were the glory days.

 

Just as I wrapped up my stint at IMC, another major change to my life was about to be thrown my way.  On May 2nd, 2002, my second son, Kevin joined our family.  I know that we are missing a daughter, but two boys just make life so interesting and exciting.   Having gotten laid off from IMC, and a new son in my life.  I took the next two years to locate my next job (sure I was looking, but I really did want to stay home with him.)  Ok, ok, you got me, it wasn’t two years, it was really 18 months, but after a while you stop counting.

 

The day came where I needed to return to work, not just for the money but emotionally.  It is not easy being able to stay home when you want to be working.  But as I look back on it now, it was the best thing that I have ever done in my life.  Raising my little boy proved to be a wonder in itself, watching him take his first steps, hearing him speak his first words, being there for it all was wonderful -- I wouldn’t mind doing it again, if I had the chance, and it was because I wanted to, not because I had to.

 

During this time off, I spent about six months working in the evenings to just get out of the house and do something different.  I was worked for Blizzard Entertainment as a game tester!  Yes, I had a whole lot of fun but I could only take it for so long before the lack of sleep really took it’s toll on my body.  I would work from 5pm till 2am every day; then get up at 6am to start housework.  That didn’t leave a lot of time for sleep.  But I did have a good time; and I did get credits in Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and in World of Warcraft - that in itself made it all worth wild.  

 

Of course, I did return to work.  This time for Boeing Corporation.  I work on projects that I can’t really talk about, but just say that they have been fun and different.  I have been there for over three years, but I can see the end coming.  Right now Boeing is in the process of closing the office that I work in and trying to relocate the employees to an office that would add about 20 to 30 minutes to my commute.  Thus I can foresee myself leaving in the near future.  

 

That just about wraps up the overview of myself; who I am and where I came from. Yes there is a whole lot more details that I left out, maybe someday I'll write them all down - sometimes I think it would make for a good story... but then again, maybe I should wait and see how the ending turns out first. So far life has been good to me, I can't complain too much, I have almost everything I have ever wanted - nice home in a warm climate, beautiful wife, wonderful sons, good job, and two nice cars; all that is missing is a daughter. =)