Humans - a lossy format

You may know by now that James Kim, an editor at CNet, died this week in the mountains of Oregon after he and his family got snowed in on a mountain pass. This story troubled me on so many levels.

Let me tell you my tenuous connection to James. I'm a fan of Tech-TV's Screensavers. Note that I don't say I "was" a fan. I "am" a fan. When Tech-TV merged to form G4, I quit watching because they canceled most of my shows and fired a lot of the people I really felt a kinship to. There was nothing like Tech-TV's shows that really called out to me. There were no regulars on The Screensavers that I didn't feel like would be welcome in my home.

I moved on when that show was canceled, but always kept a place for it in my heart. I had met Pat & Leo at various tours they did here in the south, and in person they were as affable and easy to like as they were on television. Plus, they usually knew what they were talking about, which is a trait that I really prefer.

After The Screensavers ended, I felt a little lost - but had a lot more free hours on my TIVO. Recently I discovered that Leo & Pat (And John C. Dvorak and frequently Jerry Pournelle, plus others) had a weekly podcast called This Week in Tech (or TWiT). On the show I found the same sort of lively, friendly tech-savvy discussion that had made The Screensavers so cool. In many ways, this seemed to be the pod-based resurrection.

Then this past week, tragic news came as Leo & Pat told that James Kim, a mutual friend of theirs, was missing along with his family. My first thought was that they were probably murdered by a wandering serial killer. It never occurred to me that they might have become snowed-in on a rural mountain pass.

Now comes the tragic news that James didn't make it. Going back to look at a video montage over at Cnet I realized that James was very thin. Going for seven days with no food and then setting out on foot to try and hike 30 miles for help in icy weather when you're skinny - that's a formula for trouble. Sadly, James wasn't fat and reportedly didn't have the kind of training and equipment that would serve him well in icy weather.

But fortunately his family was found and his wife and daughters will be OK. I wish he had made it. I'd have much preferred a Reader's Digest style "Drama in Real Life" where James walks 30 miles to get help - only to discover that his wife and kids are already rescued. Sadly, that's not what happened. Whatever caused Jame's death, he was doing the thing he thought most important - risking his own life to try and save his family.

I feel sad for his family, for Pat & Leo, and for Cnet. He seemed like a really nice, funny guy.