did reasonably well. He didn't win the first round, but he came in 2nd and had a high enough score he made it into the semifinals. Did quite well there too, but messed up the Final Jeopardy question to get knocked out.

The two things I remember him commenting on re. his experience were:

1 - The game really isn't so much about knowledge. Anyone who makes it through the screening process to get on the show knows enough to win. What separates the winners from the losers is whether you can get the timing down on when to push the button. If you hit it too early, the system locks you out for one second (which basically means you are out of the running for that question). Those who figure out how to time pushing the button are the ones who win.

Which, incidentally, is why I wasn't all that impressed when Watson whupped the humans on the show. The AI that IBM came up with was certainly impressive, but it had the reflexes of a computer. The most critical element of the game (timing and reaction time) was completely taken out of play.

2. Since he didn't win, he also just got the consolation prizes. Some of them were kinda nice, but he also got 100 boxes of generic brand strawberry pop tarts. He was handing out strawberry pop tarts to anyone who would take them for several weeks after he came back.