I’m sitting here in a wonderful arcade of 80s arcade games, listening to Rush, arguably the best rock band ever, drinking beer, and enjoying WiFi, all courtesy of Stonehenge, and in particular Randal Schwartz, the maverick entrepreneur who happens to be a great teacher of Perl.

Stonehenge is hosting a post-OSCON free beer and games afternoon/evening event here in Portland; the place is packed and everywhere I hear the sounds “oooh, I remember this” or “aah, I used to be good at this game” from people rediscovering Galaga, Donkey Kong, Centipede and many other classic computer games from the 1980s.

I discovered Perl, and subsequently the power of Open Source, through Randal. Way back when, I discovered Randal’s magazine columns on Perl. I regularly printed a column out, and took it to lunch with me to study. Getting back to the office, I used to enthuse about what I’d just learnt about “this new language” to my work colleagues (including Piers). I got to know Perl well, and haven’t looked back.

Thanks, Randal.