I worked for Garry Kasparov, who many people think is the greatest chessplayer who ever lived. For example, he came in first in ten ultra-strong chess tournaments in a row.

This is quite a "brush with greatness" geneven. Would you be at liberty to say more about this? I know sometimes people one works for might make you sign non disclosure statements. My wife worked indirectly for Paul Allen on his new boat Octopus. It was in dry dock in Northern Germany. She had to sign such a form, but after the work was done it was OK to mention it.

Hedgecore: funny story about Bruce Willis. I can imagine him reacting like that. It would be really odd being that famous I would think. People would start acting funny around you like this.

Neil

Ooo sungrove! Do tell more about Paul Allen's boat!

You reminded me: years ago I was working for Stanley Tools in product data management. I forget why, but I had to report something to some firm's security department. Imagine my surprise to get an email from (brace yourself) STEVE WOZNIAK!!! Holy cow, I almost framed the thing in gold. I had to breath deeply and slowly for quite a while before responding with what I'm sure to him was a silly, gushing reply. Anyway, he was very gracious in handling my issue and for a little while there I was walking with giants.

mmmm...a pre-married Danny Bonaduce once tried to hit on my then-fiancee years ago....

Really Texrat! That's very cool. Kind of hard to frame an email, but I imagine that it is saved somewhere somehow.
Well, just now I asked my wife if she wanted to write something about Octopus. She says she still is concerned about the non disclosure papers she signed even though I don't think it's a problem here. Anyway, I think I'm free to write what I can about it. Besides, it's just you and me and a few friends sitten around chattin', right?
So, she works occasionally for an interior designer here in Seattle. She went over to Germany to help him place all the furniture and decorative art pieces. She has an eye for this sort of thing since she has been working as a display artist for many years. By 'decorative' I mean three demensional types of art. So, she spent her time basically setting everything up as far as bedding and tables and the expensive tchachkas. As you know, there are on line photos of the boat. It's larger than a football field in length. He wanted it to be the largest personal boat and it was for a while. She says it's quite a beautiful boat inside and out with navy blue colors on the outside. On the inside she says it looked like a fine hotel , like you couldn't tell that it was a boat. She says that the submarine goes right into the boat and then you disembark from it from there. ( as opposed to swimming ) The carpentry is quite beautiful done by German Carpenters from the Black Forest including perfect wood matching . Of course it's public knowledge that Paul is a guitarist. He had a three story working guitar built into the boat that basically was like a huge guitar neck but didn't look like a guitar other than that. She never did meet Paul Allen, so really, your encounter with Steve Wozniak was more significant. But I think it was fun for her to see the boat first hand and do the work she did there.

Neil

I've shaken hands with George Bush, Sr., George Bush, Jr and his wife, Condi Rice, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, and numerous Army generals seen on TV daily as well as the last three Army Secs and one SecDef.
Also worked PSD for many, many celebs overseas on their USO tours.

Hmmm....trying to figure out who you are???? Apparently someone stradling the aisle anyway Any comments about any of them? Who was most interesting to you?

Neil

- was at a geek swap meet in Dyncorp's parking lot a few years ago (following a NOVALUG meeting), and met Vint Cerf... a buddy of mine who had worked at Worldcom introduced us...

- Cerf had given us a presentation on interplanetary networking, explaining why even IPV6 won't be adequate in the distant future (finite number of IP addresses), new methods of packet integrity, and how the Rovers and Rover satellites are now remote nodes and will be used in future expeditions to get around 'out of line of sight' dark comms periods...

(albeit with a tad bit of ping latency)

:-)

Paul Van Himst was the coffee supplier (Brésor brand) to my bar for several years. He actually came around himself a few times a year (I always flattered myself it was because of the ambiance[*], but most likely because he practically lived around the corner).

"Paul Van Himst?" I hear people ask bewilderedly, "Wasn't this supposed to be about famous people?" Well, you need to know football (that rules out every USanian on this board, because they think it's called "soccer") and you need to know a bit about Belgian football history...

Okay, Okay, he's in Wikipedia.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia article doesn't mention the factoid that Van Himst is the only Belgian footballer ever to feature in a Hollywood production, the 1981 football flick "Victory" (AKA "Escape to Victory"). You know, the one with Sly Stallone and Pele and the Nazis.

And no, I never met Stallone. Or Pele. But Paul did bring Eddy Merckx[**] along once. But I knew him already (he was born in the next village from mine), so I figure that doesn't count. Oh, Paul and Eddy are best mates. So maybe they did come for the ambiance after all, although there were no fights at all that afternoon.

____
[*] A serious bit of wishful thinking if you're exploiting a Polish bar in Brussels years before Poland joined the EU.

[**] <sigh!> Eddy Merckx? World-famous cyclist? Nothing? Oh, go look it up in the 'Pedia, you pillocks.

- you've met the Cannibal?!!!

(i'd rather meet him than that a55 LeMond)