{"id":231,"date":"2006-08-16T14:48:29","date_gmt":"2006-08-16T05:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-08-16\/231"},"modified":"2006-08-16T14:48:29","modified_gmt":"2006-08-16T05:48:29","slug":"andy-oram-parker-ranney-wade-lagrone-and-hill-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-08-16\/231","title":{"rendered":"Andy Oram, Parker Ranney, Wade Lagrone, and Hill Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n   \n<p>\n\nWhat a fun day I had today.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI first went up to San Francisco for <span class='nobr'>a small<\/span> <a\nhref=\"\/blog\/2006-08-15\/230\">O'Reilly event<\/a> at\nLinuxWorld, and in doing so <span class='nobr'>I got<\/span> to meet my book's editor, <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.oreillynet.com\/pub\/au\/36\"><b>Andy Oram<\/b><\/a>, in person\nfor the first time in perhaps four years. <span class='nobr'>I was so<\/span> shocked at how good he\nlooked, having trimmed down from the decidedly chubbier Andy <span class='nobr'>I knew<\/span> from\nbefore, that <span class='nobr'>I almost<\/span> didn't recognize him.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nHe has two musically-gifted children (aged 5 and 9 when <span class='nobr'>I last<\/span> met them,\nnow aged 17 and 21). Although they got their gift from God, it would have\nnever realized its potential without nurturing from their parents, so we\ntalked about how to provide such opportunities to your kids. <span class='nobr'>He and his<\/span>\nwife have been so clearly successful that <span class='nobr'>I wanted<\/span> to absorb what <span class='nobr'>I could.<\/span>\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI then started a short walk across downtown San Francisco to meet former\nYahoo! Finance friends, and on the way, happened to run into another former\nYahoo!, <b>Parker Ranney<\/b>.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nThere had always been a somewhat of <span class='nobr'>a dark<\/span> mood about Parker, and I'd\nalways thought that was just who he was, but when <span class='nobr'>I ran<\/span> into him today, he\nwas clearly <span class='nobr'>a different<\/span> person than I'd ever known. <span class='nobr'>He had an<\/span> aura of\nhappiness that was wonderful to see. <span class='nobr'>A network<\/span>\/IT guy and Yahoo! employee\n#27, Parker had been working 24\/7 for <span class='nobr'>a couple<\/span> of years by the time <span class='nobr'>I\nstarted<\/span> in April 1997, and so was simply exhausted. <span class='nobr'>By the time<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I became<\/span>\nthe same way, his image was already set in my mind. <span class='nobr'>It was wonderful<\/span> to see\nhim, and we chatted <span class='nobr'>a while<\/span> with <span class='nobr'>a promise<\/span> to get together again later in\nthe afternoon.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI continued on to Montgomery St to meet <b>Wade Lagrone<\/b> and <b>Hill\nFerguson<\/b>, who are now at the US venture of <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.zopa.com\">Zopa<\/a>, <span class='nobr'>a UK<\/span> peer-to-peer lending service.\nUnlike how Andy and Parker had changed, Wade and Hill were exactly as if\nI'd last seen them yesterday, and <span class='nobr'>I had<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a wonderful<\/span> time with them. They\nseemed to have some very good things in the works with their company, but <span class='nobr'>I\nhope<\/span> they pick <span class='nobr'>a better<\/span> name before they launch in the US, because\n&#8220;Zopa&#8221; sounds <span class='nobr'>a bit<\/span> dopey. Okay, <b><span class='nobr'>a lot<\/span><\/b> dopey.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nAfter a few hours there, <span class='nobr'>I headed<\/span> back to meet Parker, now <span class='nobr'>a network<\/span> guy at\n<a href=\"http:\/\/adbrite.com\">AdBrite<\/a>, an online ad marketplace. <span class='nobr'>We talked<\/span> for hours about the old days at Yahoo! and his current work at\nAdBrite. <span class='nobr'>I really<\/span> enjoyed myself in <span class='nobr'>a technically<\/span> satisfying way that <span class='nobr'>I\nhadn't<\/span> in <span class='nobr'>a long<\/span> time. (Well, last week I'd enjoyed myself in <span class='nobr'>a similar<\/span> way\nwhen <span class='nobr'>I visited<\/span> friends at Yahoo!, but it's been <span class='nobr'>a long<\/span> time otherwise.)\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> What a fun day I had today. <\/p><p> I first went up to San Francisco for a small O'Reilly event at LinuxWorld, and in doing so I got to meet my book's editor, <b>Andy Oram<\/b>, in person for the first time in perhaps four years. I was so shocked at how good he looked, having trimmed down from the decidedly chubbier Andy I knew from before, that I almost didn't recognize him. <\/p><p> He has two musically-gifted children (aged 5 and 9 when I last met them, now aged 17 and 21). Although they got their gift from God, [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}