The Omni Show

Dave Lonning — world-traveler, world-builder — joins the show to talk about writing documentation for Omni apps — and about how the tools and formats have changed over the years.

He also talks about moving, after college, to Japan — where he taught English and later worked on video game localization. He was there in 2011 when a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit.

Dave’s hobbies include role-playing games — running and creating — and painting miniatures. And, most importantly, he’s a cat person who’s learned to love the office canids.

You can find Dave @zroundbls on Twitter.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Ainsley Bourque Olson — knitter, cat person, OmniPlan planner — joins the show to talk about being the product manager of a project management app.

And about how to go from Apple retail to world domination. And about how to get by in Norwegian Ballard.

You can find Ainsley @ainslaw on Twitter and on Instagram.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Orion Protonentis — swashbuckler, bug-hunter, pastry-enjoyer — joins the show to talk about testing Omni apps. And about his life on the stage with swords.

After studying acting and stage combat in Hawaii, Tennessee, and Las Vegas, and after tending bar and running nightclubs, Orion — whose first computers were Commodore 64, TRS-80, and Apple II — answered the call to come do support at The Omni Group.

He later made his way to the test department, where he’s been finding bugs — so you don’t have to.

You can find Orion @orionp on Twitter and on Micro.blog.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Ken Case, CEO and one of the founders of The Omni Group, talks about what we accomplished in 2017 and what we plan to do in 2018. It’s a big year, especially for OmniFocus 3 for Mac and iOS.

You can read all about it: see Omni Roadmap 2018 on our blog. And go back in time, if you like, to the 2017 roadmap. And 2016 and 2015.

You can find Ken @kcase on Twitter. You can also find @omnigroup on Twitter and on Micro.blog.

Liz Marley, unlike your host, is not afraid of math — and she brings that fearlessness to work every day on OmniGraffle, which is chock-full of math-y goodness.

After getting a computer science degree from Harvey Mudd, then joining The Omni Group in 2005 and working as a tester, OmniBugZapper PM, tester, OmniFocus PM, and tester, two years ago she walked down the hall and switched to engineering. She also volunteers for App Camp for Girls, does innovative technical talks (using Swift playgrounds), and keeps up on her knitting.

You can find Liz @emarley on Twitter.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Mark got hooked on video and special effects at the age of five when he saw a TV show about the effects behind The Empire Strikes Back.

After creating videos for vast government bureaucracies and The History Channel, Mark moved to Seattle to come work at Omni — which, from his point of view, is a video production company that happens to create some companion software to go along with the movies.

Mark also hosts The Optical podcast, which you should listen to. And — most critically — Mark is this show’s intrepid producer.

You can find Mark @bobtiki on Twitter. You may, if you meet him in person, call him Bob. It’s fine.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Andrea studied fine art at Michigan State and human-computer interaction at the University of Michigan. One day, while working at the school library, it was discovered that she could make websites — which launched her career as a UX designer, and since 2012 she’s been designing apps at Omni.

Andrea, it must be told, is firmly against stealing money from puppies — or maybe she’s against treating puppies as a particularly cuddly form of currency and then stealing them.

Nobody knows which. Don’t do either!

You can find Andrea @amcvittie on Twitter. And you can find her work in every single Omni app.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Brian Covey studied computer science at The Evergreen State College — which your host also attended, but back before computers were a thing. After some normal young-person-bouncing-around a little, Brian came to shore at Omni in 2001, where he became the leader, dear and fearless, of Omni’s Support Humans.

You can find Brian @hidvorak on Twitter. (You can contact Omni support at support.omnigroup.com.)

You can also find a video of Brian doing the worm in an Omni commercial from 2006. Absolutely not to be missed!

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

Curt Clifton came to Omni while on sabbatical from his computer science professorship at Rose-Hulman — and never went back. He’s spent much of his six years at Omni on the OmniFocus team, where he clicks checkboxes for a living.

Curt’s a fan of the local association football team. He also likes woodworking and distance-running, though he has yet to explore the synergistic possibilities of doing both at the same time.

You can find Curt @curtclifton on Twitter and at curtclifton.net.

Some other people, places, and things mentioned:

For our first episode we interview Kristina Sontag, who runs Omni’s test department — a group tireless, fearless, and strikingly effective in its hunt for bugs.

Kristina got her start playing games for a living at LucasArts. Between there and today she’s also worked on educational software, gotten a pilot’s license, volunteered for App Camp for Girls, and helped organize the Emerald City Supporters.

When she’s not doing everything else, she’s playing Destiny. She may even be thinking about Destiny at this very moment.

You can find Kristina on Twitter @knsontag.

Some other people and places mentioned: