Archive for May 13th, 2008
It used to be a way of slamming someone to call them a geek. Then the underground geek community found a welcoming home on the internets, and over time we developed pretty well in the land of computers and chat rooms. Of course, in real life, we were still teased, misunderstood, and generally marginalized.
Now, since we (yes us geeks) did such a good job building, massaging, fixing, tweaking, and geeking the internet the rest of the world has become addicted to the online culture. With that addiction has come a bit of understanding and acceptance of geek culture.
That understanding, and acceptance has also led to the idea that being a geek is kinda cool. This is good in some ways and bad in others. An essential part of being a geek is that you are “outside the mainstream”, so if the mainstream becomes geek.. what does that mean? How do you define geekiness when everyone claims geek status.
I hold to the idea that that question will be answered differently depending on what type of geek you ask. For instance, a sci-fi geek will want to have you be able to answer obscure trivia questions about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and a computer geek will want you to translate binary without looking online. So, I guess on some levels, this transition to “geek being cool” may just lead to there being another type of geek. “The geek Geeks”. Confused. Yeah, so am I. Let me see if I can explain.
Computer geeks are computer geeks because they obsess about computers. So, a Geek geek, would obsess about geeks. Trying to be one, talking about them, and generally jumping on the recent geek bandwagon. That’s cool, I suppose. As geeks, I have found that we are a fairly tolerant group, except when discussing Star Wars Vs. Star Trek, or which OS is better, so we welcome and embrace this new brand of geeks. It is doubtful that they will hang around the clubhouse for long though.
Culture is a fickle mistress who grabs on hard and then quickly moves on. The Geek geeks are really more of a pop culture phenomenon and over time it will dwindle, leaving us to go back to our SciFi, Computers, Chemistry sets, algorithms and general world problem solving responsibilities. Hopefully maintaining bit of understanding and acceptance from the mainstream culture.
In the end we geeks will always be here, and we will always be making the world a better place, so, embrace your inner geek!
When somebody calls you a geek, don’t quibble about stereotypes, but take it as a compliment.
Discovery HD, in cooperation with NASA, has restored much of the historical footage from the the early space missions, and brought them up to HD quality. Using that it will be launching a new series in June called “When We Left Earth : The NASA Missions”. There are about 100 hours of footage, and given [ the trailer ]… it looks pretty cool.
This will definitely find a home on my Tivo.
I have been avoiding posting anything on this initially since there was so much conflicting information about what is happening over in China right now, but a few things stood out to me, and bear mention on this blog. First off, the news of the earthquake broke, not on CNN, but on [ Twitter ] . I find this interesting since so many people have given me a hard time about twitter. This, I think, proves the usability and reliability of Twitter. Emergency situations like this allow people to pop off a quick update on what is happening, and whether they are OK, without having to spend hours on the phone, or trying to find a computer.
Secondly, the area hit by this earthquake was predominate in China’s Tech industry. I wonder what long term effects this will have, and what impacts we will see in the US tech industry, since much of our tech products are made by the Chinese.
I also find China’s new found transparency to be very interesting. Back in the 70’s when China experienced a massive earthquake, taking the lives of more the 250,000 people, they blocked all assistance and provided almost no information about what was going on. This go round, they have been providing regular updates, and are requesting assistance.
Ultimately, the situation is pretty grim, and lots of lives have been lost and likely more are to be over the next week or so. As a hopeful adoptive parent of a child from China, I’m keeping a close eye on the situation, and hope for the best possible outcome of a horrible situation.
Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released and made available for download today. You can get it [ here ].
While I am still not a Red Hat fan, given their Redmond’esq philosophies, I do still support thier open-source adventured known as Fedora Core. The new release has some very nice new features:
• Includes GNOME 2.22, which has some significant improvements like the GVFS virtual filesystem abstraction layer
• Offers [ KDE 4 ].
• Firefox 3 is the default browser
• PackageKit, a universal frontend for package management that will helps bring a consistent user interface for software updates and installation to many Linux distributions.
More features, and information can be found at the [ Fedora Wiki ].
In the latest release of the of the iPhone SDK it was discovered that buried deep in the SDK are network setting and variables that apply to 3G connectivity…
From Gizmodo:
The settings are currently disabled in the firmware, but developer Chronic Productions found a way to enable a preferences screen, which provides an option to enable 3G networking. The setting also provides the warning, “Using 3G loads data faster, but decreases battery life.” It’s unclear if the switch to EDGE would happen automatically if 3G is unavailable, but guessing by current network switching behavior, the iPhone would use WiFi, 3G, and then EDGE in that order. However, if the EDGE connection in your area suffices, you could turn off the 3G radio altogether for a boost in battery life
Some rumors have been spreading of a May release of the iPhone with the June conference being saved for the “iTablet” release. I don’t see this happening personally. AT&T, which has continually gaffed in keeping iPhone news secret, has reportedly told it’s employees that no vacation time will be approved the week of, and following the WWDC in June. Hmmm. Wonder what they need to be at thier desks for. Also, on the AT&T website, spotted for about a day or so, was the indication that “Black” was only one of several color choices that would be offered for the iPhone. I think that is cool, but will likely stick with black, even when other options are offered.
In the end, we will all know on June 9th.
June 9 - 13, 2008 marks this years WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) and Steve Jobs will be speaking. No claims are being made on what Jobs will be releasing at the conference (cough cough 3G iPhone cough cough) , but the keynote is scheduled for 10AM PST on Monday, June 9, rather than the usual Tuesday. The assumption is being made that Steve will continue the trend of black turtlenecks..
Here is the “official” release from the boys in Cupertino.
CUPERTINO, California—May 13, 2008—Apple® today announced that a team of Apple executives, led by CEO Steve Jobs, will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. This year’s WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard® and OS X iPhone™, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.
The five-day WWDC event, which runs from June 9 to June 13, will feature the first ever iPhone track for mobile developers with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to fully explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod® touch users.
The iPhone track will also enable mobile developers to work side by side with Apple engineers to create amazing applications that leverage iPhone’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface, animation technology, rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa® Touch technologies, built-in three axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.
This year’s Mac® track will give newcomers and seasoned veterans alike the technical foundation and techniques needed to develop world-class OS X Leopard applications with sessions that discuss every level of the system, including interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking.
WWDC 2008 will offer over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers will go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power OS X iPhone and OS X Leopard. Developers can bring code to the labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices gained from sessions to enhance their applications.
Other activities at Apple’s WWDC 2008 include:
* presentation sessions led by engineers that provide an in-depth look at OS X iPhone, OS X Leopard and innovative tools and technologies such as the iPhone SDK, Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, Xcode® and more;
* practical hands-on sessions where attendees can learn Apple’s own coding strategies and techniques;
* technology labs where attendees can work one-to-one with Apple engineers; and
* special events, including the Welcome Reception, Apple Design Awards, Lunchtime Speakers and Stump the Experts.
Want to go ? I do, but I doubt I will be there. Two trips to San Francisco in less then two months is too much for this geek, but if your planning to be there, go [ here ] first.