Matching Faces to Avatars

"We're in Jail," I thought I heard the voice on the phone say, "come on up and meet us tonight... say around six?"

I looked at my watch... "Oh god, what have the Canadians done this time?" I thought to myself. "I'm sorry, where'd you say you were?"

"Yale," the voice repeated, "We're in Yale."

I breathed a sigh of relief that the first time I met my friend and co-developer Holger Sandmann, I probably wouldn't have to bring along my checkbook to post bail. One of the odd ancillary effects of the digital age is the ability to get to know someone and even launch a business venture with them, without ever meeting face to face. It's usually a little awkward for those first few moments, the attempts to match the face with the endless stream of instant messages and emails. Then there's the realization that while you may have intimate knowledge of how the other person designs 3D models or creates artwork, you have no idea whether they have kids, or pets, or like to dress in women's clothing...

That's usually how it works, anyway. Somehow we managed to skip most of that when Holger and I, along with his lovely wife Julie and my own better half Linda met last night. We had a lovely chat over some surprisingly good food at a roadside watering hole in middle-of-nowhere Washington. We relaxed, we enjoyed one another's company, we talked of many things. But unless you were slinging hash at Jack's restaurant last night or have a signed NDA on file, you'll just have to wait to hear the details ;-)