Look at these studs. We’re just too cool for school, man.
Seriously though, this picture was taken this past spring at REAL World 2004 in Austin, TX. That’s Thomas Reed of BitJuggler on the left, Will Leshner of HaranBanjo in the center, and yours truly of bradrhine.com on the right. Thomas developed Coffee Break Pro, Gaps, App Bundler, and other programs, in addition to his many contributions to the REALbasic community in the form of both open source code and his tireless help on the RB mailing lists. He also helped me figure out how to use eSellerate. Will is the maker of Weblog Poster (which inspired me to write Frequency), KidzMail, and KidzLog. It’s cool to see internet software aimed at kids. What a great idea! He maintains an almost constant presence on the RB mailing lists as well.
I got to know both Thomas and Will online through being involved in the RB community, a close-knit group of professional and hobbyist developers. It was great to get a chance to put their faces and voices with their names and email addresses at REAL World. I was struck by how tall Thomas is. For some reason, I had him pegged as a little guy. But you can see in the picture above that he’s certainly someone I can literally look up to. Will looked pretty much like I figured. I don’t know if he’ll be pleased to read that or not.
Anyway, REAL World 2005 is in the works already. Here’s hoping I get a chance to go again. It was a fantastic conference. I’d really feel like I was missing out if I didn’t go next year.