So, my friend DaneseCooperis going to Intel. Some info on this little move here, here, here,here,here,here,andhere.Cool. I now know someone at Intel. It’s a really big place over there,and I haven’t run into anyone at Intel over the years. So that’s good.Sure, it’s sad for those of us here at Sun who know her well (and whoget her), but it’sprobably a wonderful opportunity. Go for it, Danese. You’ve earned it,and you deserve it. Whatever it is.
I met Danese pretty much as soon as Iwalked through the door here at Sun fiveyears ago. Open source seemed much more interesting than doing productstuff, so I dove right in. I was in Software PR at the time (read:painful), and we were all gettingready for JavaOne or something. Things were frantic. I remember onetime I was in somemarketing meeting trying to keep up with the noise and the spin and allthe executive gyrationsand wondering what the hell I did coming to this nut house of a companyinCalifornia. It was very different on the east coast where I came from.Anyway, in walks this redhead — late, of course — with a cell phoneglued to herear. She was talking low, holding a big bag, and wearingsome sort of brightly colored flowing gown or something. She huggedpeople, too. How odd, I thought. Ok, this is California and I’m fromNew York. But we areatwork, aren’t we? Ok. The then plops herself down and jumps right intotheconversation in the room — simultaneously monitoring and contributingtotheconversation on the cell phone, of course. Who she was talking to Ihave no clue, but it clearly was not related to the substance of thisparticular meeting. Or maybe it was. It seemed to be all one bigconversation to her. On the surface, Ithought this chick is loopy. But downdeep my gut told me that this was someone very special, and I shouldpayvery close attention. I somehow knew I shouldn’t miss this. Whatever itwas. Ok, so the meetingwent on and on. And on. It was one of those weekly “launch” meetingsbefore a big show. Then at one point while she was engaging in arapid-fire conversation of some importance with some senior guys, shereached into her big bag — still talking as she bent over to dig deep.What was she looking for? I figured she’d take out a document orsomething important to help make her point, right? Nope. Instead, shepulls out some long needles and yarn andstarts knitting. Knitting? Who does this? What elsedoes she have in that bag, anyway? Where am I? The conversation neverskipped a beat, though. Solid, direct, focused — and fascinating -content flowed like ariver out of her mouth to the rhythm of the swish-swish-swish sound oftwo metal needles wrestling with thread. Welcometo California, Jim. Welcome to Sun. Welcome to Danese.
Yah, yah, I could talk about all the open sourcestuff she’s done at Sun — the licenses, the communities, the press andanalyst and customer and developer briefings, the executivemeetings, the multi-level back channel dealings, the times she got me outof serious trouble, the times she got me inserious trouble, the work advice, the personal advice, the never endingflow ofideas she offers free of charge, and all that. But all you really needto know about Danese is that she knits in meetings, she hugs people,shetalks honestly, she knows interesting characters all over the place,and she’ll help you whenever you need it no matter where she happens tobe on the surface of the planet.
Have fun at Intel, babe! But don’t change your cell phone number.
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