Not just any jackpot winner, but Jack Whittaker -- the largest single jackpot in U.S. history. He was the only ticket holder for the Christmas 2002 Powerball, winning $314.9 million. After taxes, and taken as a lump sum, he was handed a check for $113 million. He promised to donate 10% of his winnings to charity. (Oddly, he did not specify at the time how he would frivilously waste the other 90%.)

I don't know the guy, and I haven't read his life story. But recent media reports do not paint a rosy picture.

Last year, poor Jack almost lost $500,000 when his car got broken into in the parking lot of a strip club. The $500K cash was contained in a briefcase in the front seat, while his car was left running for more than 2 hours. Thieves must have got cold feet, though, as the briefcase and the money were found in a dumpster down the street a short time later. But the incident raised questions about (a) what a multi-millionaire was doing inside a strip club, (b) why he had $500,000 in cash on him, (c) why he left it in his car, and (d) why he left his car running for 2.5 hours.

The manager of the strip club and his girlfriend were charged in that case, for both the robbery and druggng poor Mr. Whittaker while the theft was going on. I suppose Jack isn't going back to THAT club any more.

So, maybe the media attention taught him to turn his life around? Rich guys don't need strippers. Rich guys date supermodels. Or, since Jack is married, maybe rich guys like him have supermodel mistresses. He's been quoted as saying, “I'm trying to be the good guy.“

Poor Jack has seen his car, business and home broken into “repeatedly”. In January 2003, his car was broken into an $100,000 was taken. In March 2004, within three days, both his vehicle and business were broken into and lost $2,000.

In the latest break-in, three men broke into his house and stole $15,000 worth of Jack's stuff. They “found” a dead body in the house, and called police after the fact. It turns out the robbery suspects are friends of the deceased, and the deceased was friends of Mr. Whittaker. At least one of the suspects had permission to be in the home, as there was no break in. Police believe the man died of a drug overdose.

Lots of questions are again being raised (by me, primarily): (a) why would Mr. Whittaker's friends rob him, (b) did Mr. Whittaker know his friend did drugs in his home, and (c) where was Mr. Whittaker at the time all this was going on.

Add in the facts that, in the last couple of years, he has been sued for assault by a racetrack employee (where he was gambling with a “female friend“), charged with drunk driving, and charged with threatening to kill the manager of a bar.

It must be strange to be in possession of so much money. Who can you trust? Is someone being friendly because they like you or because they are trying to get at your money? Money changes people, no doubt. Maybe Mr. Whittaker hasn't changed at all - but his friends and associates have. Everyone is trying to rob him. He doesn't seem to mind it though, as he continues to leave large amounts of cash in his car. Maybe winning the lottery is a curse.

It seems I am last to the Seth Godin party. But reading blog entries like this one makes me want to go out and buy his books. Two of the more popular recent ones are "Purple Cow" and "Free Prize Inside!".

From Seth Godin's Blog: Lies to protect the status quo

1. Canadian pharmaceuticals are dangerous

2. Piracy is killing the ongoing creation of music and movies (notice I didn't say anything about the movie and music businesses)

3. Dental work lasts forever

4. A bottle of Evian is dangerous to airline security and must be surrendered

5. The Microsoft monopoly pays dividends to all users (like IE, for example)

6. You can't start a business without venture money or a big bank loan

7. Working hard for your boss and following instructions is the best way to get ahead

8. We need to spend taxpayer money on support for traditional factory farming

9. It's impossible to make a fuel efficient automobile Americans will accept

10. Who you know is more important than what you do

 

The question you need to ask is, who stands to gain from perpetrating these myths? Some of the richest companies in America. Drug companies, movie companies, brokerages, oil companies, agri-business... the list reads like a list of George Bush campaign donors.

I just stumbled across the phrase, “Memento homo”, while reading WilWheaton.net. Not knowing what it meant, I found a couple of Google references, and I must say it is one of those phrases that I would love to paint in large letters on my office wall.

From Wikipedia, which is a site that constantly impresses me for its depth of content:

“Memento homo”: from the latin, “Remember that you are human” or alternately, “Remember that you are mortal”.

I love that. Cool.

Mark Cuban, internet billionaire and sports mogul, has posted an interesting blog entry about the keys to success in business (and life, I suppose). Makes an interesting read:

1. Time is more valuable than money
2. Random Acts of Kindness
3. No Balls, No Babies
4. Work Hard Play Hard
5. Don’t let fear be a roadblack
6. Expect the unexpected, and always be ready
7. It’s ok to yell and be yelled at
8. Everyone gets down, the key is how soon you get back up
9. It’s not if the glass is half empty, or half full, it’s who is pouring the water
10. It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing
11. Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered
12. You only have to be right once

Read the article for the full descriptions of each.

I thought I'd be smart this time. I installed Virtual PC 2004 on my Windows XP Pro desktop. Inside Virtual PC, I installed a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro and Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1.

Well, the good news is, everything works.

The bad news is, it runs as slow as a 95-year-old in a buffet line. What should take under a minute drags on for 10 minutes. Visual Studio takes 10 minutes or so to start, and a 95-year-old takes 10 minutes or so to take a spoonful of potatoes and put it on their plate.

(With apologies to 95-year-olds.)

Part of this is not a surprise. I recently saw some benchmarks comparing Virtual PC to VMWare, and VMWare was an order of magnitude faster at most tasks. Overall, the article gives VMWare a rating of “166.5”, and Virtual PC a rating of “131.4”. VMWare is 26% faster overall, but this masks some tasks (2D graphic) where VMWare is 400% or more faster.

So to summarize, I have not been able to play with Visual Studio 2005 as much as I would like, primarily due to the enormous amount of time required to do anything with it.

I guess I am going to have to either find a dedicated machine for this, or try to install it alongside my existing version of Visual Studio. My fear is that this “beta” software will be hard to remove, or will do something horrendous that requires a complete machine repave. And I don't want to do that...

Hmmm.

It's been a great few days, and I do not want to jinx it by talking about it, but my mood is excellent.

* My book deal is becoming official. The book was originally going to be about J2EE, but has now changed to be about Visual Studio 2005. I am way more comfortable talking Microsoft technologies anyways, so this is a good thing.

I have a separate blog that deals with my progress in writing two (soon to be three) books here. Activity on that blog should pick up once the ink is dry on the contracts, later this week.

* I transitioned from one project to another at NewCo. My new project leverages the skills and knowledge I have developed here, and takes it further. I'll have to remember to write another blog entry about how great it has been working here.

My 6 month contract is coming to an end soon, and so I think this means I will be renewed. Yay!

* I tried an online game called BlogShares, and I am addicted. I went from $500 worth to $27 Billion worth in one week, thanks largely to the gift of $15 billion from a couple of players. But I turned $15 Billion into almost $30 Billion, so some of the credit goes to me. ;)

Sadly, this money is only virtual and not real. But it's fun once you get the hang of it.

* I was in Vancouver, Canada the weekend before last, and loved it. Have to go back. My wife and I even half-joked about moving there. It's definitely pretty, although I am not sure I can stand the weather. Although the weather was great when we were there, bad weather seems to be the norm.

Anyways, I have to get back to work. I didn't want this entry to degrade into a sappy love letter to myself, but it did. Forgive me, I'm not my normal self.

A special hello to Paul Wakeford, who lives near Leeds, UK.

Paul has me listed under his “People I Don't Know” category in his blog roll... sniff, sniff. Brings a tear to my eye.