Blonde Developers Have More Fun

Well.. it’s been said that “Blondes have more fun”.  And we all know that Developers are having more fun than IT Pros this week, so it must follow that blonde developers are probably having more fun than anybody.

Yes.. I must confess… this is NOT my natural hair color… AND I used to be a Software Engineer!   But then I started playing with TCP/IP, the Internet, NT Domains, and I was hooked. Group Policies were in my blood.  IT was in my future.  (And so was “Just for Men”)

Here’s a discussion I had with a coworker back in 1989…

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Younger, less grey me: “Wow!  Come look at this!  I just made an FTP connection to a file server in f***ing Finland!”

Him: “Huh?  FTP?”

Me: “File Transfer Protocol.  It’s an Internet standard.”

Him: “Huh?  Internet?”

Me: “Yeah.. it’s this groovy** inter-connection of networks.”

Him: “Oh.  That’ll never catch on.  So.. what’s so cool?”

Me:  “I just told you!  I’m not just looking at some directory on the server downstairs.. I’m looking at a directory of files IN FINLAND!”

Him:  (leaning over to look at the file listing.  Finally, a light-bulb goes on over his head)…”Wow!  …Porn!”

Me: “No!  That’s not the point!  I’m connecting to a server that’s way over… Hey!  Where are you going?!”

Him: “Porn!  FTP!  File Transfered Poooorn!…” [rushing off to his workstation to start his own FTP-enabled porn collection]

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** Okay.. maybe “Groovy” was already out of style in ‘89. But so was the tie I was wearing.

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And so the Internet flourished.  Because of porn.  But I digress…

I spent several years as a developer even after those first FTP porn downloads.  And I loved it!  I went to a few cool conferences.. Borland’s, C|Net Web Builders, TechEds.. and it was at TechEd’s 94 and 95 that I saw more and more how Microsoft was making it easier to get porn..er.. to connect computers and manage directories of users.  And in the small company I was developing for, we needed someone to manage the network, email, set up Internet connectivity, file servers, etc. And I stepped into the role partly out of necessity, but mostly because I really thought this stuff was groovy..er.. cool.  Eventually I gave up development for full-time IT work.

Sound familiar?  I know many IT Pros who have similar stories.  Some not even involving porn.

Now.. flash-forward to this week.  HUGE news coming out of the PDC.  Developers are going nuts with fun stuff.. Windows Vista demos.. Office 12 demos… Max, Sparkle, LINQ, WPF, WCF, WWF… whoo-hoo!  PDC is where it’s at!

“But Kevin.. you went to TechEd, didn’t you?”

<yawn>  Yeah… I did.  And it was fun.  But… that fun pales in comparison to the all-out geek-O-rama that is this year’s PDC.

Granted – there are some really kick-butt products and technologies coming out yet this year and next year.  Things that make a young IT Pro’s heart jump for joy.  But when developers have so much fun… wow.  It makes me think maybe I should start working through the new Visual Studio demos, watch a few MSDN webcasts.. maybe attend a few MSDN Events…

Yep.  I think I’ll go back to being a developer.

…And I’ll color my hair blonde.