I have to give props to Sriram...I usually don't get the NYTimes calling me about being in a story. He sold them all on his own. Great personal effort on his part.
To be clear, Aarthi (arithmetic on HN) did more than half the work, both in terms of code and in PR. It turns out that being married to someone who can code circles around you has its benefits :).
Separately, I think that helped with some of the press - the fact that we were a married couple (and her being a leading female coder/engineer in an industry which doesn't have that many) added a human interest angle.