Silicon Cowboys

At around the 2nd or 3rd story there was a tunnel between the buildings, making a big ring. You could run/walk the tunnel all the way around the campus, including thru the manufacturing area (yes, they actually made their computers on site in Houston, this was back when you didn't get everything made in asia.)

This company was the most paranoid I worked for. There were multiple levels of code names. EG: the code name for our product that my manager used with me was different than the code name that she used with her boss.[1] So she once started talking about a product but was using the wrong code name and I was completely confused! The product we were making was a printer driver. Nothing you would think needed to be that secret (and at this point the printers were increasingly commoditized- the job ended when Compaq got out of the business entirely.) And in fact there were different code names for the different versions, so I had to use multiple code names. We all knew the real product name too, so it was kinda silly.

I remember the really rough searches we had to go thru - the Compaq security guards seemed to be all assholes. Prototypes of todays TSA. You had to be searched when coming in and when leaving. (we were going to smuggle software out in a pocket??! didn't matter, there was manufacturing going on on the premises, we could be stealing Intel CPUs.)

At one point I discovered a woman from my high school graduating class was also working there (this was a big company at this point!) and we just met up one day in the tunnels and went to lunch. (also a woman in tech, I tell you it was no big deal until people started giving them a stigma.)

But it was great- in the stifling heat of Houston, to have that tunnel between the buildings, that was air conditioned, you could go anywhere in the company via those tunnels and you had a great view-- it was a sea of tree tops, with a few high rises sticking up. (Compaq was up north of houston, away from the Houston Sprawl.)

I wonder what happened to that campus.[2]

[1] Yes, back in the 1990s, females were about %50 of the tech population, their proportions dropped when people started telling young girls that tech was hostile to females. My mother is a programmer, for instance, and her team was %60 female, %40 male- in part due to sexism, women were perceived as being more appropriate for "sitting around typing all day" so she was able to hire females more than "ruining a guys career" by hiring guys. But that was because her company was old school. Tech companies like compaq were much better.)

[2] Here's a picture showing the tunnels I was talking about. Looks like 2nd floor but I think it varied by building elevation: http://www.lagunabeachbikini.com/shoebox/1991/Compaq-1991/bi...