Debating Myself

To think that less than 40 years ago man walked on the moon, and now X-Prize and Google are sponsoring a contest for a private entity to put a robotic rover on the moon by 2012. (Man first achieved that in 1966!)

Technology really develops fast. If the US thought the space race against the Soviets was tough, then this is the Indy 500 of space races—

The international group of widely diverse teams will compete to land a privately funded robotic craft on the Moon that is capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 1,600 feet and sending video, images and data back to the Earth. Since the competition was first announced six months ago, 567 potential teams from 53 countries have requested registration information…

All in all only 10 teams were chosen. A list and description of the teams can be found here.

And they’re off…

Only 384,403 kilometers to go. Good luck.

To kill is not to be a geek, but to be a geek is to kill. This Washington Post story discusses an Oakland, CA trial that has to rank as one of the more bizarre murder trials in recent memory. Some major figures in this drama:

• A mail-order bride gone missing
• An extremely successful asocial computer programmer indicted for homicide (Mr. Hans Reiser)
• Family von-Weirdo
  • The brother contends that he and his brother drive without front seats
  • The parents make obscure references to their son’s undergraduate thesis on reality and perception
• A cross-dressing/bondage enthusiast best friend (Sean Sturgeon… really, that’s his name)
  • Who also proclaimed he killed several people years ago
  • Who had an affair with the mail-order bride
  • Who was the “maid of honor” in the wedding
• And of course, Dungeons and Dragons

If all of this seems weird, that is because it is. You have to read the whole story to believe it, but here are a few choice quotes summing up the legal defense that the attorney for the alleged murder, a Mr. Hans Reiser, has developed:

“Being too intelligent can be a sort of curse,” defense counsel William Du Bois said. “All this weird conduct can be explained by him, but he’s the only one who can do it. People who are commonly known as computer geeks are so into the field.”

Of course it can! Computer geeks are silent killers waiting to be unleashed. Every one of them. It is definitely not more likely that sociopaths come from all walks of life (though perhaps disproportionately from Berkley, like Mr. Reiser), and it was only a matter of time that a computer program joined their ranks…

At least the judge in the trial seems reasonable:

The thesis [Han’s undergraduate thesis at Berkley] might apply to the evidence, which the judge in the preliminary hearing termed thin.

I guess I should be careful what I put in my undergraduate thesis as well. Seems to be a trend… (more…)

Bill Gates is one of the most successful and wealthy people on the planet, but did you know he has a sense of humor? Check out this clip from his CES Keynote this year. It is a video clip Bill put together about his last day on the job at Microsoft (coming up soon). He is planning on retiring and working full time on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—now the largest charitable foundation on the planet.

Thanks to Garr Reynolds for the heads up on the video clip, which I found while perusing his great blog on design in multimedia. For a critique of Bill Gates’ presentation style, and a few pointers on what makes a presentation better looking, head on over to this post on his blog and just keep browsing around.

If you are curious about Microsoft Bob, or have forgotten what it was, check out the Wikipedia Page.