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Geek of the Week: Marty Stepp, UW’s rapping lecturerAfter a brief hiatus, Geek of the Week is back with a rapping computer science lecturer from the University of Washington.
Read the full article HERE
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Read the article at http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/179372.asp?source=rssat
No. Really.
And programmers, if you have to match your skills against Marty Stepp’s, watch out. As he puts it in his rap lecture above, “My code eats yours for breakfast.”
P.S. — Stepp is right. Batman is a geek.
Have someone in mind for next time? Let me know.
Name: Marty Stepp
Title: Lecturer, University of Washington, Computer Science & Engineering Department
What do you do, exactly? I teach computer science and web programming at UW. Check out our textbook at webstepbook.com.
Geekiest title you’ve ever had: I dabble in rapping in some of my lectures under the name of “Vicious D Marty Slick.”
Geekiest thing you’ve ever done: I won a Nintendo competition in Phoenix when I was young. The games were Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris.
Favorite movie: “Memento.” It’s about a man with no long-term memory. After marathon work sessions, I can really relate to this character.
Favorite game: Guitar Hero 2. There is nothing cooler than devoting way too much time practicing a fake musical instrument.
Favorite book: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, all five books.
Favorite junk food: Trader Joe’s cranberry whole wheat cookies. Serving size: 1 box.
Favorite time waster: Browsing funnyyahooanswers.com or The Onion.
Mac or PC? I wanted to get a Mac, but I’m saving for a new kidney.
iPhone or Blackberry? I love my new Google G1 phone. You can use it to check your email, watch Youtube, surf the Web, and more. It also makes phone calls. As a handy side effect, if you are using it in public, it acts as a potent repellant to the opposite sex.
Star Wars or Star Trek? They’re both great (original trilogy only, por favor), but I cast my vote for Battlestar Galactica.
Coolest new tech venture in Seattle: Cloudera is technically in California, but they have a ton of UW and Seattle connections. They provide massive amounts of “cloud computing” power to enterprises who need to crunch big data.
When did you first know you were a geek? Describe that moment: When I was upset about the bad Wi-Fi reception in my mom’s womb.
Who are your geek heroes, and why? Batman is my geek hero. Yes, Batman is a geek! He invents all those amazing gadgets and wears them on a gaudy belt. I still treasure the model Batmobile racer I built in middle school.
Look into your crystal ball: What’s the next big disruptive technology/event/movement? Ubiquitous computing is the idea that computing devices will soon pervade every aspect of our daily lives. Soon you won’t be able to smile, sneeze, or cross the street without a device detecting it, recording it, and alerting the NSA. It will provide us with lots of valuable information and enrich our lives, and the only cost is a complete lack of privacy.
Final thoughts? Young people of America, be careful what you post on the Web. I have some embarrassing old Web sites I wrote in the late ’90s, including a space club site with pics of me stealing a golf cart from my high school. Now they’re online for all eternity.
Geek link: cs.washington.edu/homes/stepp/
Twitter: martystepp
Our last GoW, Stephanie Vasko, asked Marty what his theme song would be, if he could have one playing in the background as he walked down the street.
“My theme song would be ‘White and Nerdy’ by Weird Al Yankovic,” Marty responded. “I’m white, I’m nerdy, and as a computer scientist, I actually get the jokes in the song.”
To keep a thread going with future GoW’s, we asked Marty to submit a question for the next geek. Check back next week to find out what it is, and how it’s answered.
