A Mortal Kombat Rampage for Pole Position on Galaga

This week Josh, Ben, and Starr talk vintage console games and announce details about Honeybadger's upcoming RailsConf blow out. The episode then pinballs over to dismissing FU money, insights on hiring and more. Hold on to your headphones!

Show Notes
Links:
RailsConf
Waza
Remus & Romulus
SAML
DHH
Tableau
Calendly
M Night Syamalan

Full Transcription:
Josh:
It all started with Remus and Romulus, am I right, Ben?

Ben:
Oh, yes.

Josh:
Yeah.

Starr:
Oh my gosh, Remus and Romulus, those were the names of our first two servers.

Ben:
Our first database servers

Starr:
Our first database servers, I'm sorry.

Josh:
Was it Snickers was the ...

Ben:
Yes, Snickers was the first.

Josh:
Yeah, Snickers was the first.

Ben:
Yeah, so back in the day when we actually named our servers we named them after candy bars, so we had-

Josh:
First came Snickers, then came Remus and Romulus, and would you say that today Honeybadger is kind of in the late ... Like the decline of the empire stage?

Ben:
I hope not, no. We're still-

Josh:
I hope we didn't predestine ourselves ...

Ben:
Right.

Josh:
... with our server naming.

Ben:
We're still in the vigorous days of the republic.

Starr:
Yeah, I mean, we're referencing the Roman Empire, right? Remus and Romulus, they were ... You just said that they were like the, sort of like second servers that we set up, and before that was Snickers. I just wanted to say that you're implying that in the foundation of the Roman Republic before there was Remus and Romulus, like the official story, there was somebody named Snickers who really kicked it off?

Josh:
There was a Snickers, yeah.

Starr:
Little Snickers ...

Josh:
Snickers was the god that no one talks about.

Starr:
Yeah ... Maybe Snickers was the name of the wolf that raised Remus and Romulus, right?

Ben:
There you go.

Josh:
Right.

Starr:
Okay, that's a good name for a pet.

Ben:
I like it.

Josh:
Snickers the wolf.

Starr:
I love that so much! I love that so much, oh my gosh.

Ben:
Now we need some-

Josh:
I am totally going to name my next dog Snickers, by the way.

Ben:
That's awesome.

Starr:
That's a great name.

Ben:
I miss that server.

Josh:
Yeah, that was a good server.

Ben:
The good old days.

Starr:
Welcome to a special Valentine's Day episode of FounderQuest. We're talking about love. We take reader questions on romance, and how to ... I'm just kidding. We're going to be talking about ... Last episode we talked about, briefly towards the end we talked about how we were going to be doing the Honeybadger ... What's the official branding? What are we officially calling it? The Indie ...

Josh:
I think we're calling it the Honeybadger Indie Lounge.

Starr:
I like that. You know what would be even better than that?

Josh:
Tell me.

Starr:
The Honeybadger Indie Ultra Lounge.

Ben:
With sprinkles.

Josh:
Yeah, with sprinkles.

Starr:
Overstuffed furniture in there ... I don't know. I've never been to an ultra lounge-

Josh:
We should give out Snickers bars.

Ben:
I was thinking the same thing.

Starr:
Yeah, you should.

Ben:
You can have that party pack of Snickers in a bowl. Yep.

Josh:
In honor of our first server, yeah.

Starr:
That's a great idea. Actually, I've been legit hungry at conferences, so I feel like we'd get a lot of traction if we just had like a fruit bowl, just like bananas, just like free bananas.

Ben:
That's a good idea.

Josh:
We're going to have something really good there.

Ben:
We're working on getting a popcorn cart, actually.

Starr:
Oh, really?

Ben:
Yes.

Starr:
That's so cool.

Ben:
Yeah. Because who doesn't love popcorn?

Josh:
It's good to snack on, yeah.

Starr:
Maybe we should explain a little bit about what the heck we're talking about. We're talking about ... First of all we're talking about RailsConf. RailsConf is going to be when, like in May?

Josh:
Yeah, I think it's in early-

Starr:
It's in May, it's in Portland ...

Josh:
The first week.

Starr:
Portland is the Pacific Northwest, we're in the Pacific Northwest, so we're like, "Okay, we've got to really represent." If it was across the country, I mean, let's be honest, we just couldn't be bothered, but ...

Josh:
Also we have ... This is part of our origin story. We kind of launched at RailsConf, Pdx ...

Starr:
That's right!

Josh:
Was it RubyConf or was it RailsConf?

Starr:
It was RailsConf, yeah.

Josh:
It was RailsConf. Yeah, last time RailsConf was here ... I forget what year that was, it was ... I know it wasn't like 2012, but it was like a couple years after that, within that time span I think. Yeah, we went to RailsConf and we couldn't afford to sponsor, because RailsConf is a pretty hefty sponsorship price-

Starr:
Josh, we couldn't afford tickets.

Josh:
Yeah, you're right, we couldn't afford tickets, right?

Starr:
We didn't even get to go inside, we just sort of hung out in the hallway.

Josh:
We did the hallway, yeah, the hallway track. We basically bombed the hallway track, and put stickers on tables and things.

Starr:
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. That was one of the first times I've actually spent much time in Portland, so ...

Josh:
I totally forgot that we actually couldn't even afford tickets.

Starr:
Yeah, I remember sitting outside in the hallway ...

Josh:
Good times.

Starr:
... doing some client work for somebody, because I was still freelancing part-time, and just sort of doing that, and felt like such a rebel.

Josh:
I'm trying to remember that ... I don't think ... Was that before Waza?

Starr:
I don't know.

Josh:
If so, that was like my ... I had never been to a conference before.

Starr:
No, Waza was first because we met at Waza, right?

Josh:
That was first ... Oh, that's right, I guess you're right, okay. Okay, so I've been to one conference before.

Starr:
Cool.

Josh:
RailsConf is back in Portland and-

Starr:
RailsConf is back ... You know another cool little-

Josh:
This time we can afford tickets.

Starr:
You know another cool little sort of like circling of the circle? I don't know, looping back of the snake that eats his own tail?

Starr:
Yeah, so Portland has this awesome video game and pinball bar space called ... What is it called?

Josh:
Ground Control.

Starr:
Ground Control, it's amazing. That's where I first learned to enjoy pinball. That was actually on the night that I'm talking about. GitHub basically rented out Ground Control and opened it up to RailsConf people, and I looked enough like a RailsConf person that I sort of snuck in and played a bunch of pinball for free on GitHub's tab. This time, though, this time we're going to be actually renting out Ground Control ourselves, right?

Josh:
For a ... Yeah, for a little p...