3 ms·
> At least I got the story. Would you mind sharing?
by avinium 8y ago
> At least I got the story.
Would you mind sharing?
- jl2718 8y agoOh boy... Well, doesn't do me any good, so never before told, but I guess I only have so many stories to tell before I get hit by a bus, so... Briefly: 2007-2009 Satellite project at Stanford. Very modest capabilities. Prof had idea. Design and operating system by adjunct. Hardware by LMT volunteer (the real hero). I, also volunteer, wrote control software, did radiation testing at UCD LinAc. Bunch of students too. Then deployed to Afghanistan, heard nothing. Came back 3 years later, went to random meetup: person I've never seen presenting talk about founding company with brilliant undergrad who built a tiny satellite that could read license plates from space. Wait... what? Oh that guy. Hmmm... well, I wouldn't have done it, but hey, the pitch worked. $100M funding... wow. $500M acquisition by Google... eyes wide open. AFAIK, others not involved. Hope HW hero got something: quiet, humble, fast, obsessive, helpful, learned so much from him, but seems to have disappeared.