It's a boy! Er well.. Sonic Blue is confirming that Hugo is indeed a fellow. I don't know if this means that we should all address him as Sir Hugo or something similarly silly, but that's definitely how he should be signing Empegs from now on. Here's the press release: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020404/40068_1.html -Hoagy.

Congratulations!

I hope they gave you something more than a printed certificate...

Too cool. Congratulations, Hugo!

Dang! Awesome! And one of the first two fellows EVER for that company!

Congrats Hugo! It is well deserved.

I knew him before he was famous

Rob

"... and now he won't return my calls."

It used to be about the MP3's, man!

ROFL

I find it funny that both of the employees to whom they gave this honor are people that worked for companies that they acquired, and not really internal company employees.

Were Hugo and Don kicking up a stink about leaving or something?

I hope they gave you something more than a printed certificate...

Or at least that it's a really cool certificate!

That's great, really. Congratulations!

What "internal comany employees"?

SB acquired: Rio (Diamond), empeg, ReplayTV & FrontPath. I don't think there are any developers in the company that predate those acquisitions - the graphics business is long gone.

The integration of the acqusitions is considerable, and we all definitely feel that we work for SB and not the older organisations. That said, I still have a 10ft empeg logo over my desk, for old time's sake

Rob

I remember I once got a certificate (it may actually have been my high school diploma) that had a gold seal on it. And to make it look more official, they had a word embossed through both the certificate and the seal. That word? ``SEAL''. In case I forgot what to call it, I guess.

I was thinking that S3 and Diamond merged to become SonicBlue. But, even so, there are no S3 employees lying around in a janitor's closet somewhere?

It was S3 when Empeg was acquired. The name change came later.

Calvin

There are lots of S3 admin and managerial staff.

Rob

Pardon me but, what are the benefits of being declared a fellow?

Calvin

It's a route for technical (as opposed to managerial) progression - a high level of seniority and influence outside of the normal management structure. You can't be a manager if you're a fellow, which is why I now manage the Cambridge team *doh*

Rob

your a real champ rob

What sort of influence is this? Guidance of corporate strategy and direction or guidance of internal technology... ? Or is it simply something vague? ;-)

Calvin

Hugo will now be a highly paid guest speaker who will appear at many famous universities around the world.

Congrats Hugo!

Sean

Pardon me but, what are the benefits of being declared a fellow?

I can't speak for SonicBlue, but at many other large companies, including IBM, Silicon Graphics, and others, the title of "fellow" or "principal scientist" generally gives a sort of carte blanche to the holder to do absolutely anything he or she wants. Paul Haeberli, for example, a principal scientist at SGI, did all kinds of cool hacks and things. I one met a neat fellow at IBM, Bruce Lindsay (also an ACM fellow), who spent a large amount of his time hassling IBM's database groups. Why? Because he could.

Will SonicBlue give Hugo this kind of unfettered freedom? What will he do with it? Heaven only knows, but I hope it will run on my car stereo.

what will he do with it?

Well having already produced (with an excellent team) a revolutionary product, too many years before it's time, the possibilities are endless.

...cheers, that man.

Congrats Hugo.....

I wish I was a 'fellow' at work......I'm just considered a 'Jack@ss', I still have a couple more ranks to get though.....