The New York Times magazine reports on a young Jordanian man who wants to be a suicide bomber against the United States. He also wants to be a programmer.

''I want to be a programmer at Microsoft,'' he says. ''Not just a programmer. I want to be well known, famous.''

This guy is crazy, and not just for the suicide bomber part. He is also crazy because of the famous programmer part. I don't think most people could name a single influential programmer. (I can name a few -- Guido van Rossum, Linus Torvalds, etc. -- but I'm weird that way.) In general, wanting to become a famous programmer is like wanting to become a famous plumber.