Have you heard of Qarl Linden? Someone who comes close to having super-powers.
Sculpties, improving performance on low-end hardware, the upcoming mesh code, bug-fixes and performance-improvements all over the place. One of the Lab’s most valuable developers – and not even near the top of the salary range that the Lab pays.
But wait! Don’t just take my word for it! Here’s his performance review from two weeks ago:
Can I say how invaluable you are to the render team? You burned through a large number of crashes and critical rendering bugs. Without a lot of direction, you completed the feature/gpu table on S3 project, thought through a LOT of the complexities, and produced something incredibly useful. You enabled RenderDivisor to work on low end hardware (even if the hardware couldn’t take advantage of it in the way we hoped.). You did a ton of work to get mesh ready for public beta. You’ve fought long and hard trying to get Apple to fix their drivers while seeing if we can handle our textures better. And that was just this quarter (And you did all this while the company was undergoing a major reorg and giving us TONS of direction changes). You consistently brought things to fruition that worked well the first time. I love working with you. As does everyone on the team. You rocked it.
July 2010 – Q210 Manager Review
Qarl practically embodies the new Linden Lab mantra: Fast, Easy, Fun. (Although perhaps not in every single possible way that you could interpret that)
So, what’s Qarl up to next? Why, he’s getting laid off!
That’s right. Gone.
I’d like to say that this is an astonishingly daft thing to do, but I don’t have to. In just a few hours, almost everyone else will be saying it, I’m sure.
I can’t really bring myself to believe that this has anything to do with the mesh features that are in beta at the moment. If you want to reduce crash-rates and all sorts of lag in Second Life Qarl would be pretty much the first person you’d want to pick for the team.
Update: Codebastard Redgrave has set up an in-world memorial for Qarl.
Update: Indigo Mertel has started a petition to bring Qarl back.
That’s a scary scary piece of news. Good luck mister, you are going to be SORELY missed. What on earth is going on in that company? It’s not good decisions, that’s for sure.
Qarl did some awesome stuff, http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/04/26/cube-arg-what-we-know-so-far/
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tateru Nino and Ron Blechner, Mimi Muircastle. Mimi Muircastle said: As I said before —> sad
RT@taterunino Qarl Linden laid off « Dwell On It http://bit.ly/aZdEzQ [...]
Actually what I most remember was the artificial-life blimps – http://www.qarl.com/qLab/?p=40
I really enjoyed the little interaction I’ve had with Qarl and I’ll miss him. But let’s be hard nosed for a minute.
Not really knowing what the thought process was ….
if I was a business person who had just laid off 1/3 of my permanent staff and had a contractor still there working on a project which is now a low priority it wouldn’t make sense to hang on to him.
He’s great and I’m sure they’d use him again in the future if he’s available but it would be a slap in the face of the people laid off if they kept him to work on something they don’t really need at the moment.
But that’s just a guess on my part
I am pissed off beyond belief. And judging from the reactions of other people, I am not the only one.
This move is totally counter-productive, it’s nonsense. Why does LL keep shooting itself in the foot?
I think it’s time for SL resident to raise their voices. I have sent these two tweets:
http://twitter.com/IndigoMertel/status/20371127701
http://twitter.com/IndigoMertel/status/20373262341
The problem with that logic, Honour, is that Qarl worked on almost EVERYTHING (LSL, media on a prim, the sim, the graphics engine) in the SL. The only reason to let him go would be if Linden Lab were giving up on it all.
[...] with Firing of Qarl Linden By Vivienne Daguerre, on August 5th, 2010 I read with dismay today on New World Notes about the firing of Qarl Linden, Karl Stiefvater. Karl disclosed his firing on his website, [...]
I have started a petition on Qarl Linden’s layoff.
If you think his layoff damages Second Life please sign and spread the word:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bringqarllindenback
[...] Nino calls him a developer “who comes close to having [...]
You know the weirdest part about all of this is that Bill Paxton predicted this would happen over 24 years ago:
http://thebotzone.net/2010/08/05/bill-paxton-predicts-the-fate-of-qarl-linden/
Now we will never have mesh or dynamic shadows in the standard viewer.
Addendum: I can’t really bring myself to believe that this has anything to do with the mesh features that are in beta at the moment. If you want to reduce crash-rates and all sorts of lag in Second Life Qarl would be pretty much the first person you’d want to pick for the team.
Seriously? The long list of people who get shafted by this company is ridiculous, Qarl being the latest casualty. Anyone considering working for Linden Lab should really reconsider. This happens every year at Linden Lab, the company is completely unable to sustain a balance with it’s employees, and hires and fires on a whim.
Qarl, Cory, Blue, not to mention the 30% that was laid off last week. It is just absurd and goes beyond economic woes, it is piss-poor management.
If anything, he was probably too transparent for Linden to feel comfortable. A shady, shady company.
Linden Lab CFO Bob Komin posted a note this morning about Stiefvater’s layoff:
“Having one or a few working in a country or state is often not feasible. Taxes and regulations in a world of budget deficits are a reality… Unfortunately running a business is complex. Things like taxes and regulations driven by where you are doing business matter.”
http://twitter.com/bk_linden
It seems that Komin is saying that Linden Lab can’t afford to keep Stiefvater around — even after laying off some 100 of his colleagues.
I’m hoping that this means that all the mesh work is completed, tested, and debugged and ready to go live.
– Maria
Hmm. Qarl’s in California, so I doubt it boils down to unusual taxes or regulations.
Tateru –
Yeah, it makes no sense. Even if Komin is talking about Qarl’s status as a contractor — that normally means less taxes, not more. It does have some accounting overhead, though, if he’s the only one.
– Maria
@Little Lost Linden: I’m not getting the Paxton thing. Read it, but can’t make any sense of it, sorry.
“@Little Lost Linden: I’m not getting the Paxton thing. Read it, but can’t make any sense of it, sorry.”
oh, i suppose it is a far reach but I’ll try to explain it.
In 1986, Bill Paxton starred in the movie Aliens. During the pivitol scene in the movie, he cries out “Game Over”.
This past week, in a sense, it was Game Over for not only Qarl Linden, but some might believe even for Second Life, or at least Game Over for Collada™. (possible dual Game Over meaning).
The super far extended reach comes in if you consider that in the movie, Bill Paxton was actually making a prediction about what was going to happen to Qarl Linden in the year 2010. (I know, it’s a very far reach).
If you never saw Aliens, or were not a fan of it, you probably wouldn’t get the meaning. And even if you were a fan of Aliens, you might not get the attempt at humor with Paxton just acting in a movie versus acting and making a futuristic prediction. The Youtube link to the famous pivitol scene is right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY
Sorry if you didn’t get the humor (I’m guessing most wouldn’t). Perhaps it was too far out there.
Ah. I remember the scene. I just didn’t make the connection.
It’s always easy to predict the downfall of things, though. Inevitably, all you have to do is wait long enough. I know a few people who have been predicting the downfall of the Web since about 1994. When you point out that it is still going strong, they just smile and nod, put a finger against the nose and say “Wait.”
Indeed, all things end eventually. It’s just uncanny that Bill Paxton could have predicted Qarl Linden’s layoff to the exact time and date. That just does not happen very often. Some people have unusual abilities.