And then, just a few seconds later, it's over as fast as it began. Kind of like the rise and fall of the dot-com economy: Blink, and it's done, but you know something really exciting just happened.

But the driver of the RX-7, Gonesilent.com co-founder Cody Oliver, doesn't really speed. Nor does his partner, Gnutella coder Gene Kan, who is driving the modified BMW 540i behind us. While Oliver and Kan will gun their engines for a few seconds on this deserted strip of highway in San Jose, neither will break the speed limit for any concentrated period of time. Too many risks -- both bodily and legal.

The two programmers don't, however, have any compunction about breaking the law when it comes to drag racing. For the past two years, they have been spending their spare cash souping up their numerous cars, and their Friday nights skulking around the back streets of Milpitas, looking for illicit street races. In deserted suburbs of San Jose, on darkened streets peppered with office parks for high-tech firms such as Cisco, Paradigm and Creative Labs, hundreds of fast-car aficionados meet every week to gun their engines and flash their mods. Kan, Oliver and other high-profile Silicon Valley programmers, like Napster's Shawn Fanning and Winamp's Justin Frankel, can often be found here.

After all, what else do you do with all that newfound cash but buy a fast car; and if you are going to own a fast car, where else would you want to show it off but in front of other guys with fast cars?

So, tonight, we are looking for a race. I have been warned ahead of time that things just aren't the way they used to be -- even drag racing, it seems, is suffering from the malaise that has struck Silicon Valley like a pernicious winter flu. But here in Milpitas, the villain isn't a stampede of jaundiced investors fleeing from NASDAQ. It's that more familiar foe of young men out on the town -- the police.

The police are cracking down on street racing, shutting down the favored hangouts and racetracks and judiciously handing out tickets to anyone who has a dubiously "modded" (or modified) car. But even though it's midnight in January and freezing cold, moods in the Bay Area are grim and FuckedCompany is crammed day after day with tales of start-ups gone sour, these two are still optimistic about encountering some speed. There's nothing like accelerating to 115 mph in 13 seconds flat to get that adrenaline pumping and hearts beating again. It's almost as good as conquering the universe with a can't-miss start-up.

The Free Software Project
Read Andrew Leonard's book-in-progress on Linux and open source -- and post your comments.