back to article Boring BOFHs want cash prize more than space flight

IT professionals would rather win a wad of cash than a trip to space, the company behind a space flight competition said. Red Gate, which is running a competition to send one lucky database administrator on a suborbital space flight, asked its 4,000 Twitter followers if they would rather take see the wonders and glory of space …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    They're probably smart enough to realise

    that being strapped tightly into a seat for a few seconds of a high altitude arcing manouevre will get them laughed at if they try to tell any of their peers they've been 'into space'.

    Unlike the marketing dingbats who thought up the competition, who'll believe any old crap they're fed.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Whereas you are not smart enough to know

      That the official definition of space is anything about 100km. The flights go above 100km, so you do go in to space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

      Just because you don't go in to orbit, doesn't mean you haven't gone in to space.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Is that the Wikipedia article that says

        'However, there is still no international legal definition of the demarcation between a country's air space and outer space'?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Holmes

        "The flights go above 100km, so you do go in to space".

        Not when the only viable transport they have available is a stripped 727 they don't. Try looking up the prize provider.

    2. Mike Flugennock

      into 'space'...?

      Actually, at least in a technical sense, they'll have been into 'space' if their parabola meets/exceeds the official FAI definition (100km, as I recall). Still, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as spending a day in orbit.

      I'd be hard-pressed to choose, but given the economy, I'd end up holding out for an orbital trip and going for the cash. The five minutes or so I'd actually be in free space at the top of the arc would hardly be enough to dig on the zero-G and get some video footage. Orbit is really where it's at; you'd get sunrises and sunsets -- really freakin' awesome ones -- every hour and a half.

      A few years or so back, the company that handled all the ISS "space tourist" flights was kicking around the idea of offering circumlunar flyby (non-orbital) trips with surplus refurbished/upgraded Soyuz hardware, but I don't think that ended up going anywhere.

  2. Testy McTester
    Holmes

    Obvious?

    I'd have thought that would've been obvious. Perhaps if you think of the question slightly differently: if you could afford a space flight, would you do it, or would you spend the money on something else? Considering what else you could do with the money, compared to how short a space flight would be, I'm not surprised.

    1. Misoriented
      Thumb Up

      That's what I thought...

      ...though I'd reword it a little. If you won $102,000, would you immediately blow it all on a single vacation, regardless of the destination?

      I agree with that 2/3 of 60%. Use it to pay off the mortgage. Even better, donate it to a food bank or a school or something. That money could do a lot of good somewhere.

      Ok, maybe keep a little to the side for a weekend in Las Vegas if you want to get out of the (newly paid for) house.

  3. jake Silver badge

    Twitter followers are considered "IT professionals"?

    Can you see the problem with the survey yet?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Would the money buy a space flight?

    If you could get a suborbital flight for that money, and especially if I expected the price to come down in years to come, then the money would be the rational choice. Plenty of opportunity to change my mind and get the spaceflight for myself.

    1. Mike Flugennock
      Thumb Up

      Whoa, good idea...!

      Right now, iirc, 100k woudn't quite cover a seat aboard a Virgin suborbital jaunt, but, yeah... take the 100k, invest it wisely, and just wait until Virgin Galactic (jeez, what a pompous name) gets going and the price of suborbital trips comes down a bit; if all went well, your 100k would've earned itself a nice chunk of interest and you'd be able to buy that seat aboard SpaceShipTwo and still have a good bit of cash left.

      You'd have to be patient, but it'd be a win-win in the end.

  5. Silverburn
    Facepalm

    Excuse me...

    ...but what use would a DBA be on a trip to mars???

    Surely a 'generalist' but with excellent problem solving skills would be more effective use of a mission seat, if they were that flush they could afford a seat to an IT bod in the first place.

    I suspect a mission to mars will outsource 90% of the IT function to earth anyway (the other 10% required to maintain the radio link would be trained into other mission staff), thus not requiring a seat at all.

  6. Roger Kynaston
    Linux

    Boring BOFH?

    Well, I am a bit of a BOFH - or I aspire to being one anyway but, yes I would probably take the money and run rather than ride on Dicky Branson's toy.

    The money - well it would fund a bit of a refit on the boat and a decent cruise across the pond.

    Penguins for obvious reasons.

  7. Thecowking
    Alien

    Sod the nay sayers, if I win it, I am going sub-orbital!

    Space damn it! Is this not why we sat in our rooms reading sci-fi stories whille the Speccy beeped and booped its little loading song?

    Is this not why we sat agog as Kirk slept his way across the Alpha quadrant?

    Is this not why we became nerds?

    Space!

    Seriously, I cannot say how much I'd rather be able to say "I went to space!" than "I paid off my mortgage!"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Thecowking

      Take the money. Pay off your mortgage. Keep making the payments into a fund, buy gold, whatever. Price of suborbital flights come down, when your fund crosses the falling price line take a flight. You can still be a nerd but one that knows a bit about money management.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I suppose if we're ever going to determine the presence of intelligent life up in space...

      ...we'll need to put a control subject up there.

      [Sorry, you were just first in line ;-) ]

    3. Mike Flugennock
      Thumb Up

      Spaaaa-aaaaaaace!

      "Is this not why we sat agog as Kirk slept his way across the Alpha quadrant?"

      Seriously, man -- and with that slim, lithe green hottie, too. Talk about Love Knows No Color; nailing Lt. Uhura is one thing, but that hot-assed green alien dancing chick... boo yah!

      Wild green alien chicks, FUCK YEAH.

  8. Silverburn

    Dads

    Much as I'd love a trip 'round the block', I love my family more than that.

    I suspect that was the reason most of the money-grabbers gave the answers they did - they simply want some security for their family over the coming years, rather than blow it on a risky, short-lived trip in space.

    I'd have taken the money too, because II know I could pay for my daughter's university fees etc etc. And that's worth more to me.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Space flight

    It's not really a space flight is it, you go up, float about for a bit then come back down again. I can have the same experience every Friday night and $102,000 will by a lot of flights.

  10. Jacqui

    videos not exactly well hidden

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAKWl72r08&feature=youtu.be

  11. Atonnis
    FAIL

    What's the point?

    Seriously - getting pelted into a sub-orbital visit for a short trip, and possibly browning one's pants at the same time - is really nothing when compared to the minimising of 30 years of interest/debt payments.

    It's all very well to talk about the 'trip of a lifetime'...but once I've paid off my mortgage/debts I can easily save up to make many 'trips of a lifetime' to 5*+ resorts across the world - in comfort and luxury.

  12. Jacqui
    Happy

    Almost wet myself laughing at the start of the first vid

    PFG and Miss CFM! :-)

    The only real question is - is the video is "RTD" or "Russell Grant"?

    Anyone know which agency is responsible for the vids?

  13. Fuzzysteve
    Angel

    Space? Space. Wanna go to space. Gotta go to space. Space. Space.

  14. JulianB
    Pint

    Maybe I'm boring...

    but like many respondents above, if I had a spare $102,000 a space flight wouldn't be the first thing I thought of to spend it on. It's not that unexpected that most people have other priorities or more pressing needs.

  15. Pat 4

    It don't matter to me, apparently they don't want any French Canadians in space.

  16. jonathanb Silver badge

    Ask the question a different way

    If you had $102,000 to spare, would you

    a) Pay off a bit of the mortgage

    b) Take a trip to space

    c) Do something else with the money

    How many people would select option b). If you did fancing blowing the lot on something, I reckon a $102k holiday on this planet would be much more fun.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    But.....

    How are you ever going to meet the nubile space vixens if you never go into space??

    Mine's the space suit on the hook over there.....Houston, I am ready for my EVA!!

  18. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    If I had £64678.2 then I wouldn't spend it on a space trip, but if I was GIVEN a space trip I would jump at the chance.

  19. Graham Marsden
    Pint

    Trip of a lifetime...?

    $102,000 and it's Beer o'Clock...!

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What I would tweet?

    "Take a good hard look at my m*th*rf*ck*ng spaceship."

    1. Mike Flugennock
      Pint

      re: What I would tweet?

      Well, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" is under 140 characters, but it's already taken.

      How about:

      "Space! I'm in fuckin' SPACE. HOLY LIVING MOTHER OF FUCK. SPACE. Eat it, Earthworms!"

      83 characters. Sweet, I'm in.

  21. NomNomNom

    there are much cheaper pills you can buy that send you to space. well kind of but who is to say what the real space is

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