I was in Stockholm on 9/11, eight years ago. Hapax was a new company, with a brand new product called FindEngine, an NLP-based search engine. I was sitting in a board meeting when Emil, our long-time Senior SysAdmin, stuck his head in the door, and said, "Mike, I thought I should tell you: it looks like a plane hit one of the World Trade Center Towers."

Bummer, I thought. Hope it's nothing too bad. "Thanks, Emil, appreciate the heads-up." After all, I was in a board meeting. Let's get our priorities straight, I was thinking.

A little while later, Emil interrupted again. His face said that something was wrong, very wrong. "Mike, another jet hit the other tower. They're both burning."

Meeting adjourned. We ran downstairs to the TV room, and sat in utter disbelief as it all unfolded. My friends and colleagues, among them current colleagues Sandra, Emil, Kalle and Mark, could only sit helplessly, shocked themselves, but also aware of what I was going through. They knew I was from New York. They knew that my brother was in New York, and most of my best friends, too. They knew something bigger than just two burning buildings was taking place. Nobody said much, but we all knew. And we were all so helpless.

The three days we all spent right after 9/11, working all-nighters at the request of the Swedish Secret Police to analyze a huge body of web intelligence, made us feel a little less powerless. My brother escaped the carnage, as did my friends, but every one of us knows somebody who lost somebody.

Eight years later, Emil, Kalle, Sandra and many ex-Hapaxians are still my friends and colleagues. We inhabit a different world, but the basic ties that bind us all together are intact and, if anything, more important than ever.