I am chagrined, horribly chagrined. Entirely unintentionally, I have embarrassed someone who I greatly respect, Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka Matz, Ruby’s creator. I feel horrible about it and figure the least that can be done is explain what happened.
I met a number of people at RubyConf2008, including Charles Nutter, Yehuda Katz, Matt Aimonetti, Kevin Clark, Aaron Patterson, and last but certainly not least Matz. While I spent a bunch of time talking with Yehuda & some of the merb cats during the week, I really only bumped into Matz the last day prior to his departure, while he was talking with Yehuda and Matt. I figured I’d document the moment (since I was myself packed up to leave, and had all my photo gear with me), and snapped a couple shots.
Leah Silber (one of the editors of the Rubyist) happened to like one of the shots (and I did too, incidentally, which is why I posted it to my flickr account). She asked me, last minute, if it could be included in the 2nd edition of the magazine. I said sure, happy to have a photo in the mag. Here is the photo:
At this size, I was quite pleased with this photo. As a piece of photography, it’s got a really clear focal point and some interesting people posture. Unfortunately, as was discovered only after the issue’s release, when you blow the image up to full page size, some (apparently, drawn to Matz’s loins) noticed that Matz’s fly is (partially) down in the photograph.
That’s why there is a photograph of Matz’s semi-open fly on the internet.
To make matters worse. Jeremy McAnally, the chief editor of the Rubyist, the only person w/ access to the Rubyist’s server (from which the PDF version of the magazine is hosted), has been away, and incommunicado the week following issue #2’s release. As a result, this is a cross I am going to have to bear. There is no way for me to get my photograph back from the Rubyist. There is no way for me to halt the distribution of the photograph.
So, there isn’t much at this point I can do but apologize to Matz. Matz I am terribly, terribly sorry for any embarrassment to which I have contributed. It has been entirely unintentional. To say that this has caused me great distress over the past couple days, would be something of an understatement. Caught with no course of action that leaves any sort of positive outcome, all I can do is say that I’m really sorry. As I expressed in person, I am extremely grateful for Ruby, both in terms of the ecosystem that has developed around it, and the aesthetic and principles around which the language have developed. I feel simply awful to have, in return, assisted in the public embarrassment of the author of a cause for so much happiness.
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In the end all I can do is apologize, say thanks again for Ruby, and quote wycats when he says “If it’s good enough for Brad Pitt… http://bit.ly/imkK” And, at least he wasn’t wearing pink undies.
