We plan to offer a wide range of applications for increased productivity needs (as well as a few NON-productivity needs). We believe good software can be divided into two categories: programs that quickly complete tasks for you, thus saving you time, and programs that entertain you, thus using up your time in an enjoyable manner.

The Midnight Mage, also known as Steve Sheets, has been developing Macintosh software since 1983. He was born and raised in Silicon Valley (Saratoga, CA), where he got his start at independent programming jobs while still in High School. After college at University of California, Berkeley, Steve was hired by the Accessory Product Group at Apple Computer. At one time, Steve was the only developer at Apple who was required to write software for the Apple //, the Apple ///, Lisa and the new Macintosh computer. His projects from this time included the Imagewriter Toolkit, the Apple Plotter tools, and the original Apple Term (terminal) program for the Apple //, /// & Macintosh. Other jobs followed including game development at Penguin Software.

After a return to working at Apple, Steve was hired to develop an unknown Macintosh online service called America Online. He was the Lead Programmer for the first two major versions of AOL for the Mac. His original designs for large portions of the mail, instant messaging and forms system were later used across all AOL platforms.

After a stint of programming for the US Government (on products he is still not allowed to talk about), Steve returned to independent software design and contracting, specializing in the Macintosh. He has been a regular attendee of Apple World Wide Developer Conference since its conception. Steve has also contributed to a number of publications, including over a dozen articles for MacTutor/MacTech Programming Journal. An avid historical fencer, Steve hopes to combine his two interests, computers & sword work, in a project in the near future. Steve's personal site has more about his interests and family.

One of the creative forces of Midnight Mage Software is Sunny Worrell. A true lady of the Deep South, she has been invaluable to the company as both the Art Director and a Project Leader.

Originally a native of Alabama, she attended Auburn University before going to work for Baptist Medical Centers at the Corporate Office in Birmingham. There she was part of the "in-house" staff of artists and creative directors that were responsible for all the ad campaigns, annual reports, magazines, corporate identity, not to mention the ever present brochure detailing every conceivable office, procedure and treatment.

Moving about the region, from Memphis and Nashville to Mobile and Athens, Sunny picked up freelance and contract work where ever she happened to put down roots and had the time. Finally leaving the world of commercial art and advertising for family, she still enjoyed brief returns to the easel for occasional portraiture and fine arts projects.

Now updating her skills from the Dark Ages of the drafting table, waxer and Radiographs, to dual processors, OS X and a pen tablet, Sunny is a frequent attendee at MacWorld, and the local Apple Headquarters for classes, encouragement and therapy.

Needless to say, quite a ride..

Duncan Champney has working with computers since 1978, when his family got an Apple II, which had serial number #1120.  He has done development for various flavors of Apple II, Apple III, and the original IBM PC (under DOS 1.0 and DOS 2.0, before the Mac came out.) He took a job doing development in C for the DEC VAX, and knew it was time to get a new job when the started pressuring him to write in COBOL. That led to his purchase of a Mac (Mac II) and teaching himself Mac development.

At this point, he then took a job with a little known company called Quantum Computer Services in 1988. They later changed their name to America Online. He worked there for almost 11 years, and left AOL in 1999.

He has been doing part time private consulting since then, and started working with Midnight Mage in 2005. Duncan works mostly with Macintoshes, although he has been known to do Windows development under duress.

Duncan has three kids, aged 10, 8, and 4. He enjoy cycling, swimming, skiing, and other outdoor activities, as well as board and card games. Recently Dunan began trying to learn how to play Go, but is not especially good at it.

John Nelson is a software developer with over 24 years of industry experience, the most recent 15 years as a consultant to companies such as McDonnell Douglas, MCI, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. John is currently president at Computation.com Inc., a small IT consultancy headquartered in the Commonwealth of Virginia. John's specialty is perhaps his lack of specialization, having developed code for everything from avionics systems to large backend financial systems, to the video and media oriented products of the Midnight Mage.

John remembers well the introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer in 1984. In 1989, he began developing object-oriented software on the Macintosh II fx computer with 24 bit color and then purchased his first Mac II cx in 1990. In 1992, John participated in the development of a Macintosh based maritime collision avoidance system.

Soon after, John purchased his first NeXT cube and then OpenStep on Intel hardware, spedning the next nine years developing enterprise software under NeXTStep and Enterprise Object Framework. In 2001, Apple Computer released Mac OS X, merging OpenStep with the Macintosh interface. John returned to developing software under Apple's new Mac OS X, Xcode and the familiar NeXTStep API's with the purchase of a G5 tower and G4 Powerbook.

Mr. Nelson is also a member of the Society of Market Technicians, a non-profit organization whose members meet regularly to discuss and share their techniques for analyzing futures, stocks and options. He is an avid computer gamer with an interest in the underlying technology for designing and rendering computer games. Finally, when he finds the time, Mr. Nelson works on his Masters thesis project, an evolutionary computation study of a proteomics problem known as The Protein Folding Problem. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Thank you to Maria Arguello for taking this picture of Steve & Sunny.

MacWorld Expo 2005 User Group Kickoff