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Microsoft's Charles Simonyi to be 1st Nerd in Space

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the flying-high dept.

Richard L. James writes "The BBC are reporting that Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi, a 58-year old Microsoft billionaire software engineer is set to become the first 'nerd in space' on board the Soyuz TMA-10 when the spacecraft launches on Thursday 09th March 2007. Charles oversaw the development of Multiplan, Word, and Excel among many other achievements. He has launched a website detailing the 3 goals he wishes to achieve on the trip: advance civilian spaceflight, assist space station research, and involve kids in space sciences. Jó szerencse pölö Charles!"

22 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. First nerd??? by the_humeister · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought Mark Shuttleworth claimed that title (the Ubuntu guy)?

    1. Re:First nerd??? by rblancarte · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would disagree - http://web.vee.net/stuff/geek-vs-nerd.html

      --
      It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
    2. Re:First nerd??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      As always Microsoft coming late and saying they are First.

  2. Yuri Gagarin by Airconditioning · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't he qualify as first geek in space? I mean, the Russians didn't send a painter up did they?

    1. Re:Yuri Gagarin by roystgnr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wouldn't he qualify as first geek in space?

      No; he's not even the first geek in space this fall.

      According to The Fine Article, the "first nerd in space" moniker is actually Dr. Simonyi's speculation about himself, not just the mistake of some clueless reporter - in fact the reporter mentioned three previous nerdy space tourists. My mind boggles - surely before deciding to spend millions of dollars on this trip, Dr. Simonyi thought to learn a little about his predecessors?

    2. Re:Yuri Gagarin by booch · · Score: 5, Funny

      He's a Microsoft engineer. Obviously his delusions of grandeur are not limited to work.

      Nor are unfounded claims of originality.

      --
      Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
  3. first nerd in space? by motank · · Score: 5, Funny

    yeah, cos everyone that's gone to space so far has been a football jock right?

    1. Re:first nerd in space? by kfg · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, the first couple of batches were fighter jocks, actually, hard men with extensive combat experience; but that didn't preclude them from being geeks/nerds as well.

      The first American in space, Alan Shepard, had a Bachelor of Science from Annapolis.

      Or take the first two men on the moon (please). Neil Armstrong had a Bachelor of Science from Purdue and a Master of Aeronautical Engineering from USC (and had been accepted at MIT). Buzz Aldrin majored in Science at West Point and eventually earned a PhD from MIT.

      Jocks with slide rules. It happens.

      KFG

  4. His first question to the Russians by edwardpickman · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Okay this'll get me laid, right?"

  5. science nerd by arun_s · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft bashing aside, this is the guy who's founded the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Richard Dawkins is the current head. I guess that qualifies him pretty much as a (science) nerd.
    He still didn't have to put up a Flash 9 only website, though.

    --
    I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
    1. Re:science nerd by Protonk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, this is the guy who donated enough money to have a tenured position named after him. The real prevailing factors here are money and some sufficient amount of respectability--Oxford wasn't waiting around for Ghandi, but the chair wasn't to be named after Pauli Shore.

  6. they read my mind by rifftide · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've often thought, whoever came up with this convention for naming variables ought to be shut in a Russian spacecraft and sent far, far away.

    1. Re:they read my mind by Sqwubbsy · · Score: 5, Funny

      So will this make him a spcExplorer?

      --
      $30 Off All Plans: Use code TRIPLESAWBUCK
  7. Termination by joe_n_bloe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Being fired is one thing ... but being fired into space?

  8. Re:First?! by mastropiero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Exactly, he is as much the first nerd in space as IE7 is the first tabbed browser....

  9. FYI by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Charles Simonyi is the Hungarian in Hungarian notation (you know, m_lpszUsrTxt and the like).

    To be entirely fair to him, it wasn't intended to make variable names inscrutable, it applied to a language with weak type checking and few real types, and it still has valid uses today if you use it to mark information about the type of data instead of the "type" of variable.

  10. Oh come on Charles... by hvnarsana · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .. do you really really think that to achieve either/or of the 3 goals you need to spend a truckload (or 10) of cash to go into space? Why not use the money to advocate better education, books, and a series of talks by prominent astronauts or the like? I find this to be a colossal waste of finances and time, which could be better utilized.

    --
    Usability Engineer, Master in Human Computer Interaction
  11. Re:He invented Hungarian Notation by yo_tuco · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Why it's a good idea to embed the type of a variable in its name has forever been lost on me."

    szBeats szMe. szBut szMaybe szHis usHungarian szRoots szHad szSomething szTo szDo szWith szIt?

  12. Geek Farm by deathy_epl+ccs · · Score: 5, Funny

    4 eyes good, 2 eyes bad.

  13. He'll have a new job up there by cyclone96 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I work for NASA supporting the Space Station, and the irony of a Microsoft guy going up is pretty amusing.

    The crew has a network of laptops running WinXP to do non-critical support tasks, chiefly email. While they work pretty well and generally can be maintained from Houston, the crew does spend a fair amount of time keeping them working. You can often hear tales of woe with the network interspersed with operational discussions on the space to ground audio.

    For example, this is from the September 8, 2006 ISS status report posted at http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21998

    Jeff's attempts yesterday to set up an Outlook email account for Soyuz taxi crewmember Anousheh Ansari were not successful. This is a repeat of a problem seen with previous email accounts for Soyuz taxi crewmembers. Plans are in work to give the SFP (Space Flight Participant) a regular ISS email account.

    I have the feeling that he is going to be jokingly dubbed the "new on-site IT support" by the commander as soon as he arrives.

    --
    Worst...sig...ever!
  14. Exact translation: by Gorimek · · Score: 5, Funny

    "My hovercraft is full of eels"

  15. could you guys fix the hungarian text in the post? by darkeye · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Jó szerencse pölö Charles!" just doesn't make any sense. If you wanted to right: "Good luck, Charles!", you would say: "Jó szerencsét, Charles!". BTW, you'd rather say: "Jó szerencsét, Károly!" - as the name Charles is Károly in Hungarian. And yes, his original name is Simonyi Károly, written in this order as per the Hungarian custom of naming.

    I just wonder how the "pölö" part came into the sentence - as it's not a word in our language. The closest I can think of that it's the pronounciation of the abbreviation "pl.", which is short for "például" - meaning: "for example". I guess you guys asked someone: "How do I say Good Luck in Hungarian?", and the answer might have been: "Jó szerencse, pl." meaning: "For example: Jó szerencsét".

    Ákos
    a native Hungarian (speaker)