The Spolsky-Babbitt Connection

September 8, 2005

I noticed something strange in a Windows ME screenshot embedded in a Joel Spolsky article I linked yesterday:

spolsky_desktop_qantas.gif

Notice the Qantas icons? Those are shortcuts to a now-defunct unix machine at Joel's company, Fog Creek Software. You can find evidence of it at the bottom of this forum post (search for qantas). It's also shown in some of the screenshots that depict command line interfaces in Joel's UI book.

So Qantas is an Australian airline company, and the name of a UNIX machine. That's when it clicked: the whole thing is a pun on a Raymond Babbitt, aka Rain Man, quote:

Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man

Charlie: Ray, all airlines have crashed at one time or another, that doesn't mean that they are not safe.

Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed.

Charlie: QANTAS?

Raymond: Never crashed.

Charlie: Oh that's gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn't fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles!

Pretty funny, Joel.

Even if I don't always agree with him, the guy has got to be fun to work with.

Posted by Jeff Atwood
6 Comments

That's awesome. Now, Aeroflot would be an awesome name for a Windows server in a naming scheme like that.

deadprogrammer on September 9, 2005 7:24 AM

ltarver@gmail.com
ltarver@idlemind.net
ltoney@idlemind.net
ltarver@msmoc.com

none on September 9, 2005 12:30 PM

On the other hand, the Internet Movie Database entry for Rain Man tells us that "There have been eight fatal crashes involving QANTAS aircraft (all of them between 1927 and 1951)," and ASN tells us that Quantas' most recent non-fatal accident happened in 1999.

liveprogrammer on September 10, 2005 3:09 AM

Oh Rain Man, why must you vex us so?

http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=4842

3 incidents, and 0 fatalities. Maybe by "never had a crash" they mean "never had a *fatal* crash"?

Jeff Atwood on September 10, 2005 5:47 AM

I don't understand the above.

Did you send me an email?

Sometimes my emails get erroneously tagged as spam and thrown in the deleted items folder by the bayesian spam filter. I do try to check them all before deleting them.. so if this is about email, email me again!

Jeff Atwood on September 10, 2005 6:41 AM

Windows ME ====== China Airlines

Peter on September 16, 2005 3:26 AM

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