There comes a time in every young company’s life, perhaps right around the time that it goes from one person to two, when it becomes time to get the first server. The legendary first server … the one that will house all the initial code, run the first builds, and probably handle your email, website, wiki, bug tracker, and MP3 collection too.

What to name it?

Of all the first decisions, this one is undoubtedly the most critical. Choose poorly, and your company is doomed to failure. Choose well, and your Google-like IPO is just around the corner.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re buying a foosball table. First, where do you even buy a foosball table? You can’t exactly go down to your local Wal-Mart and buy one (*). Then you have to decide whether to get the nice wood one or a cheap metal one… and whether you want to have ITSF Regulation Size. And once you get it, you’ve gotta figure out where to put the damn thing!

Getting a bunch of engineers on the same page about anything has been likened to 'herding cats'. Getting them to agree on a development platform and language standards may as well be likened to 'herding tigers'. Read the fictional story of Global Amalgamated Worldwide Designs (GAWD) and learn why you should probably spend the energy.

Have you ever built a widget? No, I’m not talking about one of those Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets, as cool as they are. Nor a Confabulator Widget, or a Yahoo! Widget. I’m talking about a good old-fashioned widget.

What’s that, you ask? Surely you don’t need me to explain a widget to you.

Oh, OK. Fine.

Actually, a widget can be anything. A widget something made out of something that does something. Happy now?

Software people build widgets all the time.

It sure would be nice to be the President of the United States.

You get to have limos take you everywhere. You never have to worry about traffic. You have your own private 747 to fly you around the world. Actually, scratch that, you have two of them. The best chefs in the world are eager to cook for you. You have a veritable army of staff and attendants ready to provide you with whatever you need to do your job.

In an ideal world, being a programmer ought to be a little like being the president. You’re free to focus on your job, with minimal distractions.