Cruising with Microsoft

I know this is going to sound insane, but I am writing this from a cruise ship, courtesy of a Microsoft conference on games and computer science. I am currently on the $100 wireless internet plan – you spend $100 and then when you’ve used up all your minutes you get to spend another $100, unless you forget to click logout, in which case they continue to charge you even while you sleep. All thanks to the miracle of the internet!

As I type this there is a comedian next door in the “Celebrity Theatre” making bad cruise-themed jokes. He is so bad he’s good. Well, ok, that’s not really accurate. He’s so bad he’s bad. Meanwhile, today I gave my talk on the topics of inexpensive interfaces for science-education games, procedurally animated virtual actors and universal programming languages. The usual. People seemed to like it.

Oh my god, the comedian is now making bad jokes about Hurricane Katrina. Words cannot begin… He just made a joke about the antisemitism down in New Orleans after the hurricane – it seems they were all against the Levis… OK, you had to be there.

I’m going to be on this ship for four days. Rumor has it we are headed to Cazumel. Sigh. The things I do for computer science….

5 thoughts on “Cruising with Microsoft”

  1. “courtesy of a Microsoft conference on games and computer science. I am currently on the $100 wireless internet plan – you spend $100 and then when you’ve used up all your minutes you get to spend another $100, unless you forget to click logout, in which case they continue to charge you even while you sleep. All thanks to the miracle of the internet!”

    This part ^^^^ is what lets us know its Microsoft. The fact that they make you pay for internet, and then if you forget to log out it still charges. Very, very Microsoft.

    Say, do you ever spend time in NY?

  2. Hi,
    Can you point me to more info about inexpensive interfaces for science education games?
    Thanks, I saw your previous blog posts about universal programming literacy and your page on procedurally animated virtual actors.

  3. The Internet plan belongs to the cruise ship not to Microsoft. They didn’t have any discounted plan for the Microsoft people involved which is why I decided to go a few days without email.

  4. Thanks, I should have pointed that out as soon as Sally posted her comment. Microsoft is a not at all at fault for the $100 internet plan – it’s part of the whole cruise ship thing. The cruise line makes the people from Microsoft pay the same $100 too. Just part of life on the high seas I guess.

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