Gregory Brown

I met Emily over 5 years ago through the internet. She is one of the most interesting and influential people I’ve ever met. She also has a wild imagination and a short temper.

If it wasn’t for her, I doubt I would have persued a career in Free Software development… I did not think it was possible to follow my dreams until I got to know Emily.

Yes, that’s probably over-the-top.
But it is also true.

I met Matz at RubyConf 2005.

He was sitting next to me during the first talk and I was like “This guy looks familiar”. Then either Chad Fowler or David Black (i forget which) asked ‘where is matz’, and he raised his hand.

At least it solved the mystery of why he looked familiar.

I met Jamis Buck at RubyConf 2005. He was actually the first person I spoke to out there. While he was working on something for Rails… I asked him if he wanted to use my Rails book. He responded politely “I’m pretty familiar with it”.

And then I laughed when I later found out he was part of the rails core.

I met Francis out at RubyConf 2005. I thought I might see him again at one of the NYC.rb, but enjoyed the group so much that now I’m a regular.

He also contributed some kickass ideas and code to Ruport. ;)

I sat next to Hal during the RubyConf 2005 Keynote. He seemed to be one of the few people who ‘got’ what Matz was trying to say about keyword arguments.

I had lunch with Austin at RubyConf 2005, talked to him about integrating Ruport with PDF writer, something that is finally starting to happen.

I had lunch with Jim at the RubyConf 2005… he was wonderfully down to earth and put on two awesome presentations.

Matt is awesome, and provides a great place for the NYC.rb meetings.

I met Deirdre at the RubyConf, 2005.