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Almost meeting Joe Armstrong

27 Sep 2007 . tech . Comments #erlang

I’m really kicking myself. I had multiple opportunities to meet with Joe Armstrong during this years JAOO. When I came in on Saturday, he was actually on my flight. When I got my bags and got outside, there was this guy standing in line waiting for the bus. There was something about him, and he looked at me, and generally seem open to contact, but I was just anxious to get to my hotel, and didn’t initiate contact.

Several times over the next couple of days, I kept seeing this guy, and thinking that there is something familiar about him, not making the connection. Then on the last day there was an article in the JAOO daily newsletter about Joe Armstrong, and a picture. Of course, then I realised that this guy that I hadn’t talked to was Joe Armstrong, one of the creators of Erlang, and that the reason he looked so familiar was that I had seen a much younger version of him in the Erlang video that is available online. This is when I started to kick myself. I managed to miss his talk and his book Programming Erlang was sold out, and now I couldn’t see him anywhere. Typical. Oh well, at least I know what he looks like now.