4 ms·

Ask HN: are there any "true" rockstars or celebrities who are programmers?

6 points by hoodoof 15y ago

Wondering if there are any well known music rockstars or hollywood-type celebrities who are also programmers?

mechanical_fish 15y ago
Jeff Robbins: http://www.lullabot.com/about/team/jeff-robbins http://www.lullabot.com/about/team/jeff-robbins I know that lots of other musicians program as well, of course, but not necessarily ostentatiously.
nostrademons 15y ago
Jordan Rudess (keyboardist of Dream Theater) has apparently released a couple of iPhone synthesizer apps, though I dunno whether he actually wrote them himself or collaborated with an experienced iPhone developer to produce them. Also, Tom Scholz (frontman of Boston) was a kick-ass MIT-trained mechanical engineer who's done a lot of hardware hacking, including a line of devices that give you smooth tube amp tone at non-eardrum-popping volume levels.
sc68cal 15y ago
Joel Thomas Zimmerman aka Deadmau5 does some programming for his Monome. Link: http://www.wired.com/video/dj-deadmau5-is-a-gear-head/20390630001 http://www.wired.com/video/dj-deadmau5-is-a-gear-head/203906... James Zabiela also plays his music on his iPad (Hooks up to Ableton Live) Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jasVTIHP4mA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jasVTIHP4mA On stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9st7RDn8oc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9st7RDn8oc
mthreat 15y ago
Wiley Wiggins is an actor - he played the kid "Mitch Kramer" in Richard Linklater's (excellent) 1993 film _Dazed n' Confused_ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused He's been in several other movies including Love & a .45, The Faculty, Waking Life, and Sorry, Thanks. Now he's working on a kickstarter project, an iPad game called Thunderbeam! - check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wileywiggins/thunderbeam-for-the-ipad http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wileywiggins/thunderbeam... There's also Ashton Kutcher, who said at TechCrunch disrupt that he had learned a bit of programming in college, but I'm not sure he would consider himself a programmer.
noahth 15y ago
If you're willing to call Max/MSP/etc work programming (I am but I'm sure some here will be willing to dispute that), you can add a lot of musicians to the list, including Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and a whole bunch of electronic artists.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
zerohp 15y ago
Todd Rundgren is an actual rock star (with a certified gold LP.) http://trconnection.com/trbio.html http://trconnection.com/trbio.html
turbojerry 15y ago
I'm not sure if Penn Penn Jillette has done any programming, I do know he uses Linux, wrote for PC/Computing and was in Hackers, so there is a good chance he has at least written a shell script.

6 points by hoodoof 15y ago

Wondering if there are any well known music rockstars or hollywood-type celebrities who are also programmers?

Jeff Robbins: http://www.lullabot.com/about/team/jeff-robbins http://www.lullabot.com/about/team/jeff-robbins I know that lots of other musicians program as well, of course, but not necessarily ostentatiously.

nostrademons 15y ago

Jordan Rudess (keyboardist of Dream Theater) has apparently released a couple of iPhone synthesizer apps, though I dunno whether he actually wrote them himself or collaborated with an experienced iPhone developer to produce them. Also, Tom Scholz (frontman of Boston) was a kick-ass MIT-trained mechanical engineer who's done a lot of hardware hacking, including a line of devices that give you smooth tube amp tone at non-eardrum-popping volume levels.

sc68cal 15y ago

Joel Thomas Zimmerman aka Deadmau5 does some programming for his Monome. Link: http://www.wired.com/video/dj-deadmau5-is-a-gear-head/20390630001 http://www.wired.com/video/dj-deadmau5-is-a-gear-head/203906... James Zabiela also plays his music on his iPad (Hooks up to Ableton Live) Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jasVTIHP4mA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jasVTIHP4mA On stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9st7RDn8oc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9st7RDn8oc

mthreat 15y ago

Wiley Wiggins is an actor - he played the kid "Mitch Kramer" in Richard Linklater's (excellent) 1993 film _Dazed n' Confused_ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused He's been in several other movies including Love & a .45, The Faculty, Waking Life, and Sorry, Thanks. Now he's working on a kickstarter project, an iPad game called Thunderbeam! - check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wileywiggins/thunderbeam-for-the-ipad http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wileywiggins/thunderbeam... There's also Ashton Kutcher, who said at TechCrunch disrupt that he had learned a bit of programming in college, but I'm not sure he would consider himself a programmer.

noahth 15y ago

If you're willing to call Max/MSP/etc work programming (I am but I'm sure some here will be willing to dispute that), you can add a lot of musicians to the list, including Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and a whole bunch of electronic artists.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

zerohp 15y ago

Todd Rundgren is an actual rock star (with a certified gold LP.) http://trconnection.com/trbio.html http://trconnection.com/trbio.html

turbojerry 15y ago

I'm not sure if Penn Penn Jillette has done any programming, I do know he uses Linux, wrote for PC/Computing and was in Hackers, so there is a good chance he has at least written a shell script.