A funny Quokka made its way into WebJam Perth.
In light of a funny comment by myself in regards to “what does Quokka taste like?”…
… we now have a Quokka recipe: http://littlevoices.blogspot.com/2007/08/quokka-kiev.html
PhotoCamp{name your AU city}
BarCamps and PodCamps are the new clubs and groups.
Very little structure, just people getting together at a location at a nominated time to share experiences in a common interest.
So I am thinking of starting/organising a PhotoCamp somewhere in Australia. Similar structure to the upcoming BarCampSydney
Current thoughts:
- On a Sunday, as photographers are busy on Saturdays
- Still + moving image
- Pros, Pro-ams, Ams, Enthusiasts. No-ones equipment will be measured prior
What do you think? Comment here, or email me. Better, pop into the Facebook group.
Technorati Tags: photocamp
Windows Mobile 6, Treo 750 and Telstra
Thanks to some good friends I met at TechEd last week, I’ve received and installed a build of Windows Mobile 6 on my trusty Treo 750. Long Zheng talked about this last week.
After a few minutes of resetup (yes, I did have a data backup) my phone has leapt into 2007.
The Treo 750 UI feels faster and more responsibe. Which is a way cool thing. Thanks Palm!
The Geek Genes kick in
A Geek’s 4.5 Days in Perth – Part Deux
Spent yesterday at Silicon Beach House:
Interviews with Bronwen of PerthNorg and Richard of Scouta coming soon.
Scoped out more of the cosmopolitan area of Perth around King Street and found a hobby store and sci-fi book store. Geek-out!
Wedneday night: WebJam! Myles’ vector text and Gary’s Web 3.0 received my votes.
The 70+ people who attended WebJam saw 14 presenters go-orf! Good rollickin’ night. Go Perth.
LOLCODE went down a treat. One day I might have to evangelise Microsoft products. Nahhh, we’ve got smarter people doing that.
A Geek’s 4.5 Days in Perth
Whilst driving from Perth airport to the Hotel on Sunday, I determined that I haven’t been in Perth since late 2005. Nearly 2 years. Perth is greener now.
My first visit to Perth was in 1993. I think I’ve been here at least 27 times through my last 4 employers.
The Duxton Hotel’s high-speed internet access is wireless only, and keeps dropping VPN connections to work. As a video-blogger, I am constantly moving around multiple-hundred of Mb files around the world, and the lack of network stability is frustrating.
This danah boyd video is killing me. Note to self: choose a different hotel. And one that doesn’t think I am a Ms.
I’ve already captured two videos: one with Gary Barber and one with Stephen Price.
Stephen is the cartoonist who created my new avatar, and Gary is the geek-father of Perth.
My discussions with Gary revolved around “why Perth?”. Is it the tyranny of distance that forces Perth people together; which is like Australia. Why then do humans seek like minded people out and see a need to get together in meatspace? There is no doubt that Perth people have this innate drive to help each other in a way that you do not see in other cities. Maybe Melbourne at little. Adelaide should learn from Perth.
By strange coincidence, I ran into Nick Randolph and Brian H Madsen (and a bunch of .Net dudes) at the centre of Perth Silicon area, Tiger Tiger. Thankfully, they didn’t ask me some obscure .Net technical question. If they had, I’d probably called Joel Pobar.
On the return walk to the hotel, Stephen lead me astray into the Hay Street Border’s Bookstore. Yes, my book collection +1. And friendly staff. The geek-girl behind the counter loved my “geek” t-shirt. rscpt.
Tomorrow is more than another Wednesday for Perth: its WebJam day. Lachlan Hardy and Lisa Herrod land to get the Perth experience. I hope that WebJam is a two-way experience for all conference people in Australia, especially in the online space.
Just Blame the Phones.
There have been some calls to ban mobile phones at schools:
There are calls for mobile phones to be banned at schools, because of concerns they’re being used by students to film violent behaviour.
Thankfully, John Della-Bosca says:
NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca says the overwhelming majority of students use the technology responsibility with family and parental consent.
My thinking is that banning phones and cameras will not reduce violence. In fact, it may increase it as the “physical bullies” could act without evidence being collected.
How about stopping the violence in the first place?
From Skynews:
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. Short term suggestion is to collect mobile phones in morning, and return in the evening. Says that what NSW is doing isn’t working. Seems to be talking about the victims of cyber-bullying; compounds sense of humiliation of the victims; and talks about the costs.
Videos done out of school. Technique called “acceptable use policies”. Jurisdiction of the schools to police it. Parents should be, but cannot, monitor what is going on. Someone has to be the voice of reason. Someone has to police it.
TechEd 2007. Good luck, Frankarr!
Bye, bye Mr Developer Guy.
bye bye mr developer guy. Nigel Watson, Finula Crowe and David Safjar surprised and rocked out TechEd with this catchy ditty.
Frank Arrigo, a stalwart of Microsoft Australia is leaving for Microsoft HQ. He’s been kicked upstairs. He’s going to subvert a different hierarchy. Australia’s loss, Microsoft’s gain. Don’t panic! We have yet to see the full impact of Frank Arrigo on Microsoft. Redmond doesn’t know what it’s imported.
Personally, I am not sad at all. Frankarr and his family is ready for this, and he’s going to have a blast. Frank is still “with us”, just in a different timezone and headzone.
Delic8genius and Andrew Parsons created a wiki: http://www.whatdoesfrankarrigomeantome.com/wiki/
A one minute video with various people using a single word describing what Frank Arrigo means to them was used a the closing keynote. A labour of love, this single minute took at least 12 hours to create. Including writing the music. It’s been too long between music for me.
So, good luck to all the Arrigo-nauts. Australia will quietly wait here in the clear light of the south Pacific, underneath the Southern Cross for your return.
Adam Lindsay (Mr LOLCODE) on LOLCODE at TechEd
Adam Lindsay, the guru who had the genius idea of LOLCODE and its BDFL (see another esoteric language, Python for a definition of BFDL) has found out about Microsoft’s plan to take over the world with LOLCODE.
I can has video of this event, and will be encoding and uploading somewhere within a week or so.
Joel Pobar is one of those Australian .Net/C#/CLR gurus, and I am eternally grateful for his assistance and added weight in my presentation.
Next week at WebJam in Perth I’ll also be presenting LOLCODE, and LOLCODE.net. For the LOLz.
The more people that get involved, the greater chance we have a language across all environments: not just Microsoft’s.
It’s time for me to de-lurk from the forums and actively help the community make a language. LOL.
BTW @atl, we had fun and lots of LOLZ.