Jim Gray Is Missing 283
K-Man writes "Jim Gray, Turing Award winner and developer of many fundamental database technologies, was reported missing at sea after a short solo sailing trip to the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. Gray is manager of Microsoft's eScience group. The Coast Guard is searching for his vessel over 4,000 square miles of ocean, and there have been no distress calls or signals of any kind. Gray is 63 and a sailor with 10 years' experience."
Oh, bullshit. (Score:1, Interesting)
When you go out singlehanded, part of the thrill is it being just you and nature. I don't need some weenie tracking me, 24x7. Yes, I may die. But that's part of the risk. My fate is in my own hands, and I don't want to depend on some momma's boy back on shore who will shit bricks at the thought of getting wet.
Let me clue you in. If something bad happens, you don't want to depend on the Coast Guard. By the time they get out there, the odds are you'll already be dead. Survival time is about 15 minutes in that water. The Coast Guard is more interested in tearing up boats arbitrarily doing bogus drug searches than they are interested in jeopardizing their fat asses looking for lost sailors.
In short, if you're depending on the Coast Guard for a rescue, you shouldn't be out there. Period.
What probably happened to him is either a freighter hit him, or a sneaker wave got him as he was coming back in. Or he fell off the boat.
There's some chance that his boat was disabled, but I'd think even the Coast Guard would've spotted it by now.
But those are the risks you take. One knows that, and accepts it. That's part of the fun.
I know this is a strange, scary thought to most of the momma's boys here, whining about how this crap would be good insurance. God, what pathetic whimps.
I salute you, Jim Gray. And I hope you're still alive. But if not, I'll raise a toast to you. Sailing out to the Farallons is fun and exciting. You were a real man.
Re:technologist needs to use technology? (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of these are designed to float out of their holder in case of a sinking and are water activated. The lack of a signal for this size vessel is a good sign it's still afloat. Whether he is alive or onboard is to be seen. He could have had a medical emergency or fallen overboard which would not activate the beacon.
Not sickening, only human (Score:5, Interesting)
So what are we to do? Those who have a connection with the man (knew him, worked with him, admire his work, etc.) will have serious and informative comments to make. But for the rest who've never heard of him, there's just nothing to discuss -- the story's not about technology in any way, it's just about a human being who happens to be related to technology. And death is easiest thing in the world to come up with jokes about -- "I bet he died because [a common failure in whatever area of technology he is related to]...ha,ha". Yes, the Microsoft/bluescreen jokes are pretty lame, but the SQL/database ones get a chuckle out of me.
What's the harm?
Re:Penguins (Score:5, Interesting)
MySQL [mysql.com]'s mascot is a dolphin.
And it seems like this guy worked on databases.
Re:technologist needs to use technology? (Score:2, Interesting)
Sailing in the SF Bay (Score:5, Interesting)
Just a couple bits of information for those not familiar with sailing in the SF bay. I used to own a small sailboat in the SF bay, a Cal-20. Just about the smallest (and slowest) real keel boat you can find. The SF Bay has some of the finest sailing in the world. Between April and October, the wind at the gate is a nice steady 7 to 10 knots all day long.
Most people think of California and picture the sunny beaches and warm water off LA. This doesn't exist north of Santa Cruz. California north of Santa Cruz has a rocky cliff shore. The water off SF is chilled by a current that comes down from Alaska. This time of year, it's probably 40 deg/F (4.5 deg/C), in the summer, it's not much warmer. The cold water kills people very fast. You fall in this time of year, and you have maybe 15 minutes before you're dead. They've lost experienced sailors to hypothermia inside the bay, where the water is slightly warmer, in the amount of time it takes the crew to pull down the sheets and do a man overboard 180. If he fell overboard without some kind of wetsuit or thermal protection, he's done. A 40 foot boat set up for solo would probably have some kind of steering autopilot, and would sail outside the initial search area on it's own in just a few hours.
The sea will try very hard to kill you. A fellow geek made the good life, and appears to have been settling in to enjoy his golden years. Most of us have similar dreams and aspirations. I don't know him, but I'm going to think good thoughts for him and his family, and hope for the best.
Re:Was using MS Sailor 2007 XP (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe he WANTED to go missing?? (Score:3, Interesting)
None of the guests had any idea they were being "Shanghaid". He didn't give them any choice.
See his book titled after his boat's name.
Re:I know what happened.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, I find it useful for generating test data. I've also found it useful for generating "zero records" where one wants records to exist for say every department whether they supplied data or not. You join them to a record of zeros. Left joins can do it also, but sometimes return unwanted nulls, so zero-records simplify things.
But I did wish SQL didn't make it so easy to accidently create a cartesian product. It would be nice if it required an explicit keyword like CARTESIAN or the like.
Possibly hit by a "rogue wave" too (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:If you are that old, ACCEPT IT! (Score:3, Interesting)
Not that it needs saying, but these people all swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and then ran a marathon (26.2 miles). Also keep in mind there are cutoff times that every competitor must achieve in order to be allowed to continue and everyone who finishes made each cutoff time.
All three parts of the race, on their own, would be beyond the capabilities of most 20-somethings. Most can't even swim 1 mile, let alone 2.4. Most can't ride 50 miles, let alone 112. And most can't run 10 miles, let alone a whole marathon.