Posted on 1 Comment

virtual jetlag

I just returned home from Europe…

First a staff developer meeting in Malta. Meeting up with all of them always rocks. They’re the ones implementing all the funky new features! Currently most are focused on the upcoming 4.1 production release though, like fixing bugs.

SANE 2004 in Amsterdam was cool in a different way. I always love talking with users, as it’s straight from the real world. I did a couple of MySQL tutorials and a talk at the main conference about current and upcoming features. Visiting in Amsterdam is always funny as I was born there, speak the language, and always run into friends from long ago (also at the conf).

But back home… we should think about inventing a new word, related to jetlag. Here’s the thing:
MySQL AB is, as you may know, a global virtual company. That is, there are now over 170 people around the globe, mostly working from home. This is an excellent setup as we can find the best people no matter where they happen to live. But it creates some interesting challenges.
I live in Brisbane (Australia), and now have VoIP with a phone number in California. Somehow it all makes sense, trust me!
Anyway, some arranged conference calls end up at odd hours of the day for me, since most participants are in either Europe or North America. In this case I had to be up at 1am. And that’s a killer. I do have a life and a wife, too… ohwell, it’s all part of the job. There aren’t many negative sides.
Hey, if you do come up with good word for this kind of jetlag, drop me a note!

Posted on 1 Comment

1 thought on “virtual jetlag

  1. A little while ago I made a summary of the nationalities I know of those who are regularly involved in Wikimedia/Wikipedia server-related tasks:

    German: 1
    French: 1
    British: 2 (one physically in the US)
    Lithuanian: 1
    Australian: 2
    US: 2

    You can definitely get jet lag without jetting anywhere.:)

Comments are closed.