Tonight I attended the food for thought dinner with 12 very interesting folks. OK food and good conversation. I've never really had dinner before with bloggers or other people I only know from the internet. It's an odd experience. I've been reading Dave Winer's weblog, Scripting News, for 2-3 years and it's weird to be able to start a conversation in the middle. I know almost everything that's happened to this guy over the past 3 years but he doesn't know anything about me. It was very interesting and we talked alot about Podcasting, Adam Curry, and the new company.

Then across the table was Craig Newmark of craigslist fame. Just a normal guy. He almost seemed uncomfortable with the fact that he is "craig". We talked alot about the legal environment and it's impact on craigslist and the stuff that keeps him up at night. We also talked a little about some of their technology. Apparently the list is Linux/Apache/Mod Perl. I can't remember the DB, I think it was MySQL.

The ride home was interesting. Dave, Craig, and me got a ride to the hotel from one of the other folks at dinner (I can't remember her name). She has this little old boxy BMW 2 door so me(6'4") and Dave(6'4" ish) squeezed in the back and Craig was in the front. It was a sort of surreal experience being squeezed in this little car with these guys I really admire. I mean hey the guy who invented RSS, the guy who started craigslist and me! Boooinnggg

Update: As per Craig below her name was Betsy and they use MySQL. Thanks Craig.