Great Googling Guido!

December 22, 2005 7:08 PM

Google reels in Guido van Rossum. Guido van Rossum's popular Python language will be the focus of his work and play. Lovingly stolen from MoFi.
posted by fish tick (13 comments total)

You could at least have copied the links from MoFi, and not merely linked to their link.

That said, good for Guido.
posted by kenko at 7:39 PM on December 22, 2005

Alex Martelli, too, apparently, another Python notable (though obviously not as notable as Guido). If they got Tim Peters it would be almost a complete set.
posted by kenko at 7:40 PM on December 22, 2005

What about Cleese?
posted by substrate at 7:48 PM on December 22, 2005

It's, like, programmers as trading cards.
posted by ddf at 7:52 PM on December 22, 2005

What about Cleese?

Don't mention the language war.
posted by dhartung at 8:15 PM on December 22, 2005

That's gotta be fun: "What do you mean the project's not done? You wrote the godd**m language!"
posted by null terminated at 8:17 PM on December 22, 2005

This is totally OT, but I just checked this thread while not logged in and saw the most AMAZING BlogAd next to this thread:

don't fool yourself and locked
and loaded and egregious
stereotyping and muito informativo
and a man boinking jesus
and buscando freaks and killer
and crack open a few closed minds

All I could think was, if Google could just bring Allen Ginsberg back from the dead to write their ads (not that he would), damn, they'd REALLY have something.
posted by BoringPostcards at 8:25 PM on December 22, 2005

Man hired by company. Wow. If that ain't best of the web I just don't know what is.
posted by kjh at 9:47 PM on December 22, 2005

It's, like, programmers as trading cards.
posted by ddf at 10:52 PM EST on December 22 [!]

Ha! Great idea. "Google gets 5 firefox developers, IBM employs Eclipse maven, Red Hat foots Kernel hacker's bills, Microsoft picks up Ray Ozzie..."

Someone make a website, it'll be a hit! Fantasy baseball is so passé.
posted by Firas at 11:03 PM on December 22, 2005

I've been saying for several years, now: Open source is great for big companies. You only have to hire a few people to have a really disproportionately big impact. Google's taking the high road of hiring the mavens, expecting them to influence the herd. IBM does it, too, but they seem to do it in a different way: They hire people who have nothing to do but work on what IBM wants them to work on.

They're logical modes for each company: Google gets all its juice (for the present, still, at least) out of how much people LIKE them, so it makes sense for them to try to get sway by hiring the cool kids; IBM gets its juice out of strategic positioning (to drive each big sale).

I don't have the impression that Apple really understands the finer points of the game. Microsoft gets it, I think, but then Microsoft ... well, they're kind of exempted from this game, at least for the forseeable future. Evel Umpire and all that.
posted by lodurr at 3:58 AM on December 23, 2005

kjh: "Man hired by company. Wow. If that ain't best of the web I just don't know what is."

Prominent leader of one of the most popular open-source programming language hired by arguably the world's most influential technology company. Poorly-supported NewsFilter, yeah (c'mon, a link to a link to a usernet post?), but it's not the guess-what-I-had-for-lunch GYOB post your comment seems to imply it is.
posted by Plutor at 5:18 AM on December 23, 2005

ddf: "It's, like, programmers as trading cards."

Firas: "Someone make a website, it'll be a hit! Fantasy baseball is so passé."

I'd also like to get on the "that's fucking awesome" bandwagon. I'd play Fantasy.. er.. something. Or a blogosphere/programmerosphere CCG.
posted by Plutor at 5:20 AM on December 23, 2005

Then go do it, man! /.ers will swarm. Just be prepared for the shitstorm of criticism....
posted by lodurr at 7:47 AM on December 23, 2005