Yeah, so, I was working on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Wikipedia page when I decided to poke around for spoilers. Well, apparently I found one.

Some guys hacked into something, got the book and posted the plot summary. I read it, had to… like a train wreck: couldn’t stop.

 If you want to read it, this is the link.

I’ve been in Boston for the 6th Annual eBay Developer’s Convention. This is the fifth year I’ve attended. It’s always a pleasure to hobnob with people in my industry and generally hang out with people smarter than myself. Tonite was the traditional private event. Last year was at the top of the Mandalay Bay on the outside patio. The usual, open bar, flowing hors d’oeuvres and the chatter. Tonite’s was at the LTK — Legal Test Kitchen. It’s a great little place down at the seaport of Boston. The food was great.

It’s great how the evening starts where everyone talks about their web site or application and how it works. Sure, some are guarded with secrets and what not as we are mostly competitors. But down deep, we’re all geeks. And geeks like to “geek out”. And, if you pour a little liquor into that mix, well, things turn away from work to more traditional (and non-traditional) conversation. That’s my favorite. I’m tired of talking about work, my company, our technology, why we’re better, yada, yada, yada. Everyone needs to use our system, we’re the best, period. OK?

Anyway, I met some cool folks tonite. One was Alex Barnett from Bungee Labs. They’ve developed a way-cool browser based, drag and drop IDE for developing applications that utilize the eBay API. You can build widgets/plug-ins/components in their tool that you can license to other tool users on a pay-per-use basis. Very interesting stuff.

Also talked with the usual suspects from eBay. Most notably is Alan Lewis who is an eBay Evangelist. He’s heading up the San Dimas project. This is a tool built in Adobe’s new Apollo system. I think they’ve actually renamed Apollo to AIR, but I’m not sure.

Long time colleague at PayPal, Patrick Breitenbach and his fiancee joined us for a while.

Finally I talked mostly with Garry Heath from DealTree. They do logistics management and private marketplaces. Very interesting dude, had lots to talk about.