Book of Red Gate 2010 - Red Gate Software

As the train glided into Cambridge station, I realized the
time had come to discover the reality behind the carefullyconstructed
image, surely dreamed up by marketing
experts. Simple-Talk: the vociferous editorial meetings
by donnish geeks in the Cambridge pub, the strange,
outrageous, antics of regular writers such as Phil Factor
and Robyn Page, and the beer-drinking of Tony Davis.
Soon, I told myself, I’d see the reality behind the myth;
the slick office; the quiet unhurried efficiency that had
brought Simple-Talk to its present popularity, rivaling the
leading sites for the industry. Regularly read by around
half a million IT professionals.
The taxi took me to a pub, the Waggon and Horses. In
walked Tony Davis, the Editor in Chief, cursing amiably
in broad estuary dialect. Soon we were settling down to
a large bowl of chips, and several pints of a strange dark
beer called Skull-Splitter. Suddenly, in burst Phil Factor,
dressed in shepherd’s costume, baying for his special jug;
his white hair and walrus mustache windswept,
followed soon after by Chris, the matinee idol, still
bleary-eyed from his night’s thespian exertions. A strange
conversation ensued, involving finite state automata,
which became louder and more heated. Although regular
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