Nathaniel Talbott

Bil has gone far beyond being a _why fan… he’s a bona fide _why groupie. He’s got a _why t-shirt and has hand-copied a _why cartoon on to the top of his Powerbook. He even got _why to make a cartoon for the cover of one of his technical papers at work – now that’s hardcore! Instead of kudos, Bil, I give you: CHUNKY BACON! CHUNKY BACON!

He had one of the most conversation-starting presentations at RubyConf. The long-tail, and the current state of web app dev (or web services, or Web 2.0, etc.) is something a lot of people there seemed to be itching to talk about. Thanks for triggering all those discussions.

His talk on the long tail and Rails was one of my favorites at RubyConf 2005.

Does he sleep with his beard over or under the covers?

I remember sitting around a table with several other programmers and Dave Thomas at the 2000 OOPSLA as he told us about this programming language called “Ruby”. I bought Programming Ruby at the conference, and it change my life (for the better!) Thanks Dave!

He doesn’t like green or red peppers.

Was 5:30am at the San Diego airport after Rich Kilmer was kind enough to deliver us to airport following RubyConf2005.

Because he’s the author of FXRuby, of course! I’ve used Fox on several different projects, big and small, and it’s a great library. It’s a great boon to the Ruby and Fox communities to have such a dedicated maintainer. Keep up the good work, Lyle!

I first heard Geoffrey on the Ruby on Rails podcasts, and then got to meet him at the 2005 RubyConf. Can’t wait to see what comes out of the typo theme contest he cooked up!