Geek Cruises are an initiative of Neil Bauman, a 42-year-old
entrepreneur who used to work as a
computer consultant for American pharmacies but decided to change his profession after attending a
Star Trek cruise. The first-ever Geek Cruise set sail from
Vancouver last
Memorial Day for a weeklong passage through
Alaska’s Inside Passage. The theme was ‘
Perl Whirl 2000’, a name just as
juicy as future cruise themes like ‘
Database Discovery’, ‘
Linux Lunacy’ and ‘
Java Jam’.
The huge Holland-America ships used for these Geek Cruises carry about 1,500 geeks and 300 non-geeks. Activities on a typical cruise include a workshop for the spouses of ‘work-obsessed individuals’, stump-the-hacker quiz shows, and screenings of sci-fi B movie classics like Barbarella and The Tingler. Classes with names like ‘Cool tricks with Apache’, ‘Multitasking: Managing Process and Threads’, however, are the main activity on board.
For information regarding future geek cruises, see www.geekcruises.com. Citing:
“relaxation for the body (and) stimulation for the mind”
“You’re having breakfast on the deck of a luxurious cruise ship … Caribbean breezes blow gently as you savor your first cup of coffee. You check your watch. Great, you think, it’s almost time for the next XML seminar.”
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