Thursday, December 05, 2002

Tuesday night I met up with a few other Apache folks for a friendly poker game. I met Greg Stein, Brian "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, and another nice gentleman whose full name I missed, so I won't attempt to mangle it here. It was actually happenstance that I got a chance to meet up with those folks. Brian and I are recently annointed Apache members (1). I saw Fitz commit his home address to the membership list, and it just so happens that we live in adjoining neighborhoods, so I dropped him a note in introduction, and he let me know about the game. It was particularly cool to meet Greg Stein with whom I had only corresponded (ok, debated) via email. It'll be a little tougher arguing with him now that I can put a face to the name, but I'll manage. Very pleasant folks, all three. And since they've subsequently added me to their mailing list, I guess I managed not to burn any bridges, despite getting names and jobs mixed up on multiple occasions. Sorry guys. :) 1. An Apache member is in the next stratum over Apache committers; they are the only committers who may vote on board members, they have access to a members-only mailing list, and supposedly they have a greater deal of liability protection from the ASF, although that issue is murky to say the least. I may make some future blog posts on the different levels of Apache-ship. 5:16:31 PM    comment []

I started my first weblog today. Actually technically it's my second. I tried to start up on another blogging site, but I got too many mysterious errors trying to make posts. The purpose of this blog? Good question. I guess it's to wax rhapsodically about whatever technology I'm digging (or hating) at the moment, relate developments at one of my open source efforts, make other random observations, and post pictures of Beenie Babies (<- an unavoidably private joke, since it references a post on one of the super secret Apache mailing lists). I think I'll have something to say from time to time, but if not, at least future interviewers can point to this page and laugh at me when I take a bathroom break. Who am I, you may ask? Well, if you are reading random people's blogs, you may have too much time on your hands. In any case, I perform some open source development at the Apache Jakarta Project and also at Tigris. I won't spoil the surprise and tell you what exactly I work on; I need to keep some topics in reserve, just in case my other blogging possibilities yield no fruit. I also perform Java development for a large, Chicago-based encyclopaedia company. Much of the open-source work I do is in the spirit of enlightened self-interest wrt. the needs of my day job. Well, back to work. More to come, perhaps. 12:17:26 PM    comment []

This is potentially my first successful blog post. 11:14:25 AM    comment []