Mon, 03 May 2004

Back From Boston

I got back from Boston last night. Set a new record for my Boston to Pittsburgh run, actually Portsmouth to Pittsburgh, which is about 50 miles longer. I normally do it in about 10 hours, this time it was 9. I always drive faster when I'm alone. Go figure.

I met William Bardwell when I interviewed at Platinum Technology in January of 1997. One of the interviewers was out of the office and so William was substituted at the last minute. We spent most of the interview talking about his experience at CMU and Pittsburgh, as I recall.

Nobody would have believed it then, but we would go on to become great friends, working long hours in that office along Mall Road in Burlington, MA, dining on ethnic food late in the evenings, and returning to work late into the night. It was the height of the dotcom craze and we were excited to be creating a new CMS product called Raveler. It's difficult to remember that in 1997 the acronym "CMS" didn't exist and content management was a nascent market.

If you had told me that William was going to be married in 7 years, well, I guess 7 years is a long time. Pictures from Carrie and William's wedding are here. Oh, and don't ask what the Triumph Speed Four has to do with the wedding. The answer is nothing. It was parked in Canal Park and I just had to take it's picture since it was so sleek all in black. The wedding was a nice affair held in the courtyard at Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. I sat with my old friend Tony Hinxman and his wife Christine. It was good to see them again after so many years.

We were seated with several of William's friends from Curl. They were all quite funny, young, still not having been beaten down by life. I find that youthfulness refreshing, and yet it makes me feel so damned old! You may remember Curl, they've been around since 1998 with quite a team behind them:

Curl Corporation was founded in February, 1998. The company was established to extend and commercialize the results of a three-year, five million dollar US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded research project conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The founders of Curl Corporation were twelve members of the MIT community, with a technical team led by Stephen A. Ward, an internationally recognized computer scientist; the late Michael L. Dertouzos, Former Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science; and Timothy Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web and Director of the W3C.

The wedding included a nice trio - guitar, bass, drums playing jazz for the reception. These kids were layin down a wicked groove playing standards. Very mature sound for their age. They didn't look a day over 20. Very dark and swingin. I wish I had gotten their names. It reminded me of my audition at Berklee when I was in high school - so many killer jazz players in Boston.

On another note, the Cobind press coverage continues with this blurb in Computerworld.

Oh, and mark your calendars (June 5, 2004) - Bryan and I will begin our Linux User Group world tour right here in Pittsburgh with our presentation to the Western PA Linux Users Group at CMU. Be there and you'll get to see what we've got cookin in the labs and maybe you'll be lucky enough to win some Cobind swag. Thanks to Beth Lynn for creating this opportunity for us.

Posted at: 23:57 | permalink