When it came time to kick StoryServer 3 out of the nest, Vignette did it in true style with a giant release party in San Francisco. Ross and Neil shipped a *bunch* of us out there, and I brought my wife along with me. It's always risky to let the engineers out of the cage, but I think we behaved ourselves reasonably well. I forget what hotel we were staying at, but it was a nice spot. Anyway, as Eric mentioned in the book, the Moscone Center was blanketed with Vignette swag: you couldn't turn around without seeing the Vignette logo somewhere. We were all wandering around trying to make sure that we picked up on everything that everybody else was doing, and then in late afternoon we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening's festivities at the Thirsty Bear. Before we headed out, several of us went up to Sherry Atherton's room and had a drink and waited for some other folks to show up. After that we headed downstairs, and I don't remember how this came to pass, but somehow we corralled a stretch limo to take us over to the Thirsty Bear. Naturally, it had a sunroof, and it was open. Somebody -- I'm pretty sure it was Charlie Wood -- took advantage of the sunroof to let that part of San Francisco know that Vignette was in town. At one point, we went through an intersection and made a turn around a pedestrian island, and who should be standing on the island waiting for the light but John Spencer, on his way back to the hotel. We all rolled down our windows and yelled at him, and Charlie yelled at him from the sunroof, and I imagine that what we were yelling was mildly inflammatory. Spencer mustered up the most serious face he could, then raised his arm, and then his middle finger, and just stood there glaring at us and flipping us off. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.