For the second time, a close friend called me early in the morning and told me, with an overwhelming pain in his voice, to turn on the television.

For the second time in my life, I sat in front of the TV and listened to Dan Rather, and cried at what I saw.

For the second time, we'd lost a shuttle.

I've been following the Space Program since I was a little kid. To this day I remember sitting in front of the TV in the auditorium and watching men walk on the moon. I was just a kid. Age in the single digits. But those grainy black and white images are forever ingrained in my memory.

I know I'll never realize the dream of becoming an astronaut. IT Geeks don't fly in space, and I'm not rich enough to buy my way into orbit.

I have this deep seate dread that some moron in government will say "This is too expensive!" or "This is too dangerous!" and the Powers that Be - who are more concerned with preserving the obsolete business models of the people who bribe them, and who would rather fight a war no one else really wants - are going to turn their backs on the Space Program.

I know, all too well, that projects like the IIS often run behind schedule and over budget. But that doesn't mean they don't make incredible contributions to Humanity as a whole. I can only hope the short-sighted politicians won't turn their backs on the future, and let these seven astronauts die in vain.

Apollo 1
Challenger
Colmubia

You will not be forgotten.

Ok, ok, been over a week since I got back from the LISA 2002 conference in Philly. Overwhelming impression is "Where the hell is everyone?" While I ran into a few old friends from previous years, the real surprise was how FEW people were around that I knew.

The other minor surprise was how many people were using Powerbooks and iBooks. All running OS/X. Most of them running Jaguar. Three out of three tutorial sessions were done from a Mac, and at least half the technical presentations were Mac powered. I didn't take a scientific survey, but it appeared that Apple was the single most heavily represented manufacturer at the conference.

Attendance was down from last year in San Diego, and the Vendor room was slim. Surprise of the vendor room was RedHat NOT being there. (though KDE and Ximian were, and the *BSD folks were there as always) Surprise #2 was the total lack of hospitality suites. Not even NetApp put one on! Though Freshwater Software sponsored the reception/event at the Franklin Institute.

May be a good thing they had most of the displays closed. Otherwise they'd never have gotten the Geeks out of the place.