Summer '08

As of this writing, I’ve just finished and sent off my last term paper this quarter¹. I’ve also just realized that I’m officially on summer break now. This means I should probably explain what I’m going to be doing.

Last year, I took an internship at Microsoft. It was an interesting experience, but I wanted to try something different this year. This is pretty much the only time of my life I can take a job at a different company every year and not look like a terrible employee, so I’m taking full advantage of that.

The first day of my first non-intro-track Computer Science course, Software Design and Development, the instructor handed each of the students a binder full of useful documents ranging from concrete topics like the differences between C#/.NET and Java² to more abstract topics like UI design. In the latter category were several essays from Joel on Software.

Eventually, when I started using a feed reader at the end of that summer and I was looking around for blogs to add, Joel’s was one of the first I thought of. He would occasionally post about how the company he co-founded, Fog Creek Software, had summer internships. I didn’t pay this much mind until this year, when I applied more or less on a whim.

After a phone interview and a series of live interviews in New York, I actually ended up getting a position. I’m flying out this Tuesday, and I’ll be in New York through August. I’m very excited.

I’m not sure what this will mean for my activity with regards to open source stuff. Last summer Microsoft left me pretty exhausted, so it sort of dropped off. I’m hoping Fog Creek will be more invigorating than exhausting, though. We’ll see.

I’m also going to be at RubyFringe in July. Be sure to say hi if you see me there!

¹ For Philosophy of Science, on the sorts of relativism that may or may not be implied by the strong program in the sociology of knowledge. I enjoy this sort of thing.

² At the time, Java was all most of the students (including myself) knew, since it’s what was taught in the intro courses. They’ve since added supplemental material on Python.