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Phil Greenspun is still active on X: https://x.com/PhilipGreenspun

Some throwbacks of his from 1999:

https://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/aolserver/introduction-1.ht...

https://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/aolserver/introduction-2.ht...

As a teen I attended a weeklong ArsDigita workshop in the vault of their Pasadena office. It was in an old bank building on Green St. Aeron chairs, Sun Ray thin clients (iirc), a huge circular bank vault door...

I remember being introduced to regex one day, and later the instructor (a Caltech PhD?) being surprised my code passed all his tests in a class review.

Really, a wonderful experience.

I thank my cousin, who lived by the 7Cs, for hosting me and driving so far to pick me up the first night (after I hung out waay too long with new acquaintances in the AD office).

And I remember, after a day of learning Tcl, while waiting for an express bus back to Claremont, listening to a woman belt out opera on an empty Colorado Blvd in front of Vroman's, like a private opera rehearsal.

Such a classy city.

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