Interesting...

"But the best thing was the chef Nat had hired for the week, who cooked delicious crepes every morning. He even cooked, after seeing there was a Spanish guy in the crowd, some Spanish omelettes."

Once again I have solid proof that there are better ways of “team building” than what I’ve experienced so far in my short career as a developer. It used to be that the IT group of any organization ruled, getting a lot of respect and perks along the way. Not so anymore... at least around here... More and more our sub-divisions (i.e. Operations, Developers, DB Admin, etc) are growing apart and there’s just too much “statics” in the sole communication channel. Even within sub-divisions there’s not much appreciation by our superiors... “You want a 17-inch monitor because you think your 13-inch is straining your eyes??? Go back to your cubicle and write 25,000 lines of code for that!” The sad thing is that after a while you get used to it... Almost as if numb to it all.

When I visited Ximian’s office in Cambridge, MA this last February I was awaken from this deep slumber! I had heard of places, in a far, far way land, where developers get the best computers with lots of RAM and even a sound card!!! Where coffee flows in abundance and there’s even a choice of decaf for those who have been in the front for too long... Ximian’s place was just like that... with more! They had a foosball table... and, and... couches... and, and... free pizza! I thought it was a mirage!!! THAT is the kind of place I’d like to work for! Not only you get to work on what you like but you get paid for it and the perks too!