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An Example of Geeks for Good

Last week South Australia celebrated Water Week. As a previous resident in the driest state on the driest continent, water and water conservation was drilled into us from a young age. The current water restrictions in many states pale into insignificance compared to living on a farm with limited water supplies.

Geeks for Good is a thought-seed planted by Cameron Reilly on G’Day world 299, and his subsequent call-out to the Podcasting world at podcampperth.

Two previous school associates, Dr Paul Dalby and Chris Hobart – along with a former work colleague, Mike Seyfang; have taken the power of the internet, borrowed an idea from WebJam and created Water PitchFest.

Using flickr, twitter, youtube, blogging, rss and podcasting – getting the story out about water projects.

The litmus tests: comments, emails, project executions but most importantly connections.

Toshiba Hard Disk Upgrade

As my internal 100Gb hard disk on the Toshiba M400 (T2400) had only 5% free space: even after archiving photos and podcasts, I could not reduce the free space to under 10%.

Time for a new HD. Purchased from Auspcmarket, 200Gb 7200 RPM Seagate Momentum drive.

As much as this Toshiba has limitations that are starting to annoy me (read: screen real-estate: can I have a new XPS now, please. ta.) – adding and deleting the hard drive was extremely simple.

Process

  1. Windows Vista “Windows Complete Backup” (in Backup and Restore) to second hard drive
  2. Physically remove old drive, install new drive
    1. remove two screws holding in the plastic cover
    2. use the plastic tab to remove the hard disk in it aluminium bay
    3. remove four screws holding the SATA hard disk in the bay
    4. insert and replug new SATA hard disk
    5. reverse install procedure.
  3. PXE boot from network, where we have a network based, System Recovery
  4. A pleasant UI appears; only confusing part was ensuring I had a copy of my disk drivers on USB
  5. Restore from the backup, onto the new hard disk.
  6. Reboot from new hard disk
  7. Using Computer Management>Disk Management, Right-click “Extend Volume” to the full 200Gb
  8. Done

Performance of the disk drive: 4.9 to 5.4; that is a10% increase.

Australian Politics on G’day World 299.

Debating with Cameron Reilly is like fighting an intellectual tornado. Thankfully I was being grilled after a bottle of merlot.

In the instance of this podcast, I am speaking for myself not my employer (which I make clear in the podcast)

In retrospect, the discussion could go on for another 30 minutes: the concept of Geeks for Good is a concept that is rattling around in my head.

PodcampPerth07

podcampperth07 006

The Perth posse have it down. They know how to organise community meetups, get the people along and exchange information.

Some months ago, the Perth contingent cared enough about having Podcamp in their city, they outvoted other larger cities. And the result was another well run, well attended and though provoking event.

Apart from the personal name brands such as Cameron Reilly, Stilgherrian, Duncan Riley, Leslie Nassar, Bronwen Clune, Richard Giles, Myles Eftos, Gary Barber, Nick Cowie… the conversations and discussions made me think.

  • What is a brand?
  • Separating brand from name
  • Being critical of your employer: is it OK.
  • Transparency/honesty
  • Geeks having a responsibility to use technology for good

Attending conferences is important. It’s the talking within, before and after the events where you get to know your peers in this industry. Pass on advice and listen to honest feedback. Question them and be questioned. Rethink your strategy. Move with the industry.

It seems that podcasting is now the term that is used for both audio and video casting over the internet. We are in early days, and have yet to fully exploit the iPods, iPhones and PCs. Just watching or listening passively runs counter to the web 2.0 read/write-ness of this media. We need offline write (iPod). More innovation is required. Competition will help.

There are a stream of videos and photos appearing. tag: podcampperth07

Unconferences are the right style. More discussion and less formal sales and marketing. In retrospect and over beer discussion, an un-panel (thanks Sue Waters for this. excellent idea!) at the end would have made more feedback and greater exchange of learnt ideas. Too formal one-way, questions only at the end sessions are a mode of the past.

Cameron Reilly has really moved my thinking on some points. A part of me working for Microsoft is about being a part of being a Geek for Good. Movember is just a small example of this. His thinking on our future in relation to a virtual worlds and lives, attention and intention is really starting to gel. And more than gel in his head.

Listening to Duncan Riley also cleared up my thinking on the personal branding side of blogging. I doubt that this is a major strategic change for this blog, but I have yet to think the feedback through.

The Always Awesome Leslie Nassar

Leslie Nassar, full of robot awesome, presented ID3v2.3 tags and what that means specifically to mp3s; and as always educated me. I miss Leslie in Sydney. Come back, dude.

Stilgherrian, a geek and now journalist for crikey.com.au discussed the internet and the impact on the current election in Australia. Who are the 30%? What impacts them when they vote? I am going to enjoy reading his next article, and I’m waiting for his cat picture so I can lolcat it. Yes, I am using it as a adjective.

Other places to read people’s feedback and thoughts: