"Open-source programmers gathered this past weekend to
share ideas and dreams about new methods for distributing encrypted
data across the Internet and plans for a peer-to-peer wireless
backbone.
Aside from a common love of computing, the crowd that was
gathered in the dim confines of a nightclub at the edge of
Multimedia Gulch here shared another trait: unemployment.
While many skilled programmers here were caught up in the recent
dot-com frenzy, the collapse of the market has left most of them
without work--and with a lot of free time."
