A Monopoly On Nerdiness?

So now another AARP aged Microsoft billionaire, Charles Simonyi, supposedly claims he "might be the first nerd in space". Hah. So now Microsoft is claiming a monopoly on nerdiness? Please.

First of all, if he were really that nerdy, he would've figured out a way to make Excel and Word more efficiently coded. Secondly, NASA really stands for "Nerds And Scientific Astronauts", i.e. they have sent nerds in space from the get go. Every shuttle mission has engineers and scientists. And those aren't nerds?

But since it sounds good, BBC covered it as did Slashdot and they're willing to let a few little facts slide I guess, and assume this guy will be the first official "nerd".

I remember learning at Space Camp that the shuttle main computers had a total of 64k between them back in the day. (They've since been upgraded - maybe they're up to 256 now.) That's pretty nerdy. I doubt those people ever left the computer buildings they worked in (back in the days of huge rooms being needed for one computer) but still, they should've at least gotten an honorary astronaut commendation.

I'll only say one thing - if I had billions, I'd spend the $90k or whatever it costs to buy a spot in a rocket from the Russians or on a Virgin Galactic flight in a heartbeat, so more power to him. I hope he has a blast. (Pun intended... it's late as I write this.)