joe shaw

Two months shy of my 8 year anniversary at Novell, I’ve decided that it’s time to move on. My last day is today.

I was only 19 when I moved to Boston to work for a startup (later) called Ximian. I’ve had the pleasure to work with and learn from some truly brilliant people, and it’s certainly no exaggeration to say that today I am a vastly better programmer for it and that this experience has changed my life in very good ways.

Then: Terrified fresh-faced kid

Now: Terrified beardo

In particular I want to thank Nat and Miguel for seeing something in me then and giving me the opportunity. I got to work on some very, very cool software over the years and it’s been a lot of fun.

As for the future, later this month I will be joining ITA Software. ITA is solving some of the hardest problems in the travel industry with some very cool technology, and I am very excited to be part of that. If you live in Boston, you will no doubt have seen their hiring ads blanketing the T, and if you’re a fan of Paul Graham, you’ve probably read about them because they’re big real-world users of Lisp. And if you’ve ever used Orbitz, Kayak, Hotwire, or CheapTickets to search for flights, or looked for them directly on Continental, US Airways, Alitalia, or many other airlines’ web sites, you’ve already used ITA’s underlying flight search software. Their Matrix web site is also great for people who fly lots of complex routes. Oh, did I mention that they’re hiring?

I hope to blog a bit more specifically on my role at ITA a bit later, but for now I have to leave you in the dark. I will try to preempt what I suspect will be FAQs: (1) Yes, I will be hacking on Linux software and (2) No, I don’t suspect that I will be doing much if any Lisp.

Wish me luck!

(Photos stolen from Larry and Nat, respectively.)