Thursday, August 10, 2006

Open-Source people in their natural habitats

Tim Bray knows stuff:

I think Carr’s problem is that he doesn’t actually see Open-Source people in their natural habitats; he was at OSBC but not OSCON. The practice of OSS software has two drivers that matter: the community of peers, and the urge to scratch a technical itch. If you don’t understand that, you’ll never understand anything important about OSS.

I very briefly met Tim at OSCON.

I made a "I really respect your music" type comment to him. He was all, "hey thanks - who are you?".

The "I really respect your music" line originated in college. I was studying in Europe and attending a Phish/Santana show in Rome. Phish opened for Santana. When Phish finished their set, they came and hung out with the crowd (mostly a bunch of American college idiots like myself). Trey Anastasio (then Phish's lead singer) came by and I said, "Hey man, I really respect your music." (like a total blubbering idiot). Trey responded:

7 second pause, "hey, um ... thanks?". And then he left.

I have a way with words, what can I say.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I really respect your music" is much better than my "Nice rack".

I can sympathize with being an idiot. I once met Bob Golic (Raider nose tackle) and found myself completely at a loss for anything intelligent to say. To be fair to myself, he is an astoundingly large human being. But I still sucked.