"This was a pretty low point in my career. Writing ASP
isn't exactly a ton of fun but when you pair it with the most
boring work in the world (Intranets that never launch! Meetings --
so many meetings, a management ban on COM objects, &c.), it
starts to grate on you. I used to invent excuses to go play with
the HP3000 just for a change of pace. It was a paycheck, but
something had to change.
"Eventually, I decided that open source would be the best outlet
for my frustrations and tried to spend as much time with it as I
could. I started by talking the head sys admin into allowing my
Linux laptop onto the network (the only Linux machine box on a
network of something like 750 machines). I introduced the guy in
the cubicle next to mine to Cygwin, and the two hit it off
instantly. Somehow convinced management that we needed a Linux
server just to run cron jobs since *.bat files were prone to error
(still not sure how I managed this one). And generally threw myself
at Python.
"I learned the language (it "fits your brain") and wrote it
every chance I could. I made some (very small) contributions to
open source projects, wrote Python documentation and started a
short-lived magazine. Eventually, I caught the attention of the
crew at Linux Magazine and by late-2002 I was running a PHP
conference for the company. I've been hanging around ever
since."
