rbandrews

1. Who's your favorite author?
This one is hard. I've rarely been disappointed by a Robert Heinlein book, but his books aren't the best I've ever read. I really love John Steakley, but he's only ever written two books. I like Neal Stephenson, but I am the first to admit that his books are pretty bad. Probably Larry Niven, since he, more than anyone else, drew me into science fiction, which drew me into science and programming.

2. About what percentage of your friends would you guess are smarter than you?
Both "smarter" and "percentage" are difficult words to deal with here. "Percentage" means I have to know how many people are my friends, which I really don't. I think I am probably more intelligent than most people about some topics, but certainly not others. I don't think that means that I am "smart" though; just that I've read a lot and done a lot. The only measure of "smart" I can think of that's fair is how fast you think. Tucker thinks faster than me; which has been proven on many occasions. Andrew (for example) does not. So, going by the "thinks faster" definition, I'd say that maybe 25% (a gross estimate) of people I know are smarter than me; most of those either living here or being friends at NASA (astronauts are wicked smart. It's fun to hang out with them). Going by the "knows more stuff" definition, probably only 5-10%, since I know a lot of stuff and most people only learn something if they think it'll be useful to them. Going by the "gets better grades" definition, of course, pretty much everyone but you and Tucker, so 80%. : )

3. If you knew with absolute certainty you would get away with it with absolutely no consequences, what's the worst thing you'd do?
Kill someone. Not just someone at random though, a particular person who (in my opinion) has it coming.

4. What's the last idea you had that you were really excited about?
Probably how to do the parallel computation project. Once I figured it out, I was pretty excited since it was a lot of work to figure it out. Before that, probably the idea I came up with at Origins for redoing the programs that draw the graphs at work. Since I went to work there after my freshman year, it had always been done in Excel, which I hated since I don't know (or want to know) how to write programs in Excel. I was pretty pleased and excited that I had figured out a way to do it in C by using PostScript.

5. In the event of a zombie outbreak, would you prefer having a handgun with a silencer or a double-barrelled shotgun at your disposal?
What is this, a trick question? I've played Hunter: The Reckoning, I know shotguns rule. Gotta have the knockback effect. For anything but zombies though, the pistol; it's always better to not let them know where you are. Of course. the pistol won't kill zombies...