Geek Cruises are an initiative of Neil Bauman, a 42-year-old entrepreneur who used to work as a computer consultant for American pharmacies but decided to change his profession after attending a Star Trek cruise. The first-ever Geek Cruise set sail from Vancouver last Memorial Day for a weeklong passage through Alaska's Inside Passage. The theme was 'Perl Whirl 2000', a name just as juicy as future cruise themes like 'Database Discovery', 'Linux Lunacy' and 'Java Jam'.

The huge Holland-America ships used for these Geek Cruises carry about 1,500 geeks and 300 non-geeks. Activities on a typical cruise include a workshop for the spouses of 'work-obsessed individuals', stump-the-hacker quiz shows, and screenings of sci-fi B movie classics like Barbarella and The Tingler. Classes with names like 'Cool tricks with Apache', 'Multitasking: Managing Process and Threads', however, are the main activity on board.

For information regarding future geek cruises, see www.geekcruises.com. Citing:

"relaxation for the body (and) stimulation for the mind"

"You're having breakfast on the deck of a luxurious cruise ship ... Caribbean breezes blow gently as you savor your first cup of coffee. You check your watch. Great, you think, it's almost time for the next XML seminar."

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