A Cyber Hug. One of the interesting facets of life at Sun was the way in which international teams can be created and people work together who are based in different locations and timezones. The teams keep in touch via conference calls, instant messaging and e-mails. It is possible to build quite close working relationships over a period of years with people whom you never meet.

I have been part of such teams for several years, and the team I was in until a few months ago managed to build quite a remarkable team spirit. Thursday was my next to last day and one of my colleagues from the old team arranged a conference call for the former team members to get together and share reminiscences about our time working together.

We had a good old chat, and after it was over one of my old colleagues referred to it as a "cyber hug".