Friday, July 18, 2008

Venice summer of code

As of today, the four programming interns in Venice this summer have been here a month. Rado is going back to Bulgaria after the weekend as planned. He enjoyed Venice, the sights, the gym and says he learnt a lot from the experience. The other three interns have also decided to leave prematurely to get back to the US and complete the project there, where the internet is faster and the dollar goes a lot farther than in euroland. Since I would like to inaugurate a Venice Summer of Code session every summer from now on, we need to learn from this year's lesson. "Real programmers" need a quiet place where they can work at their own schedule, with really fast internet and lots of whiteboard space. It may be impossible to secure a really creative in-and-out place, with food, drinks, bean bags and lots of gadgets à la Googleplex, but it is clear that neither the VPC office, with its comings and goings, nor the apartment, with the poor cell-quality internet connectivity fit the bill. We need to figure out a solution that will help the team of four CS seniors who are coming to Venice in the fall to follow up on the interns' work. Our task is to make their working environment as productive as we can, and we will do our best in that regard.

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