Author: admin

I CAN HAS LOLCODE.COM T-SHIRT

As the LOLCATS meme goes TechEd; here one of my submissions:

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Now, in the interest of learning new programming languages: I purchased a LOLCODE.com T-shirt. What was interesting was the non-geeks looking at me strangely. People already think I am “out there”, and the LOLCODE t-shirt just proves it.

Before you start dis’in my new language of choice, there is a Visual Studio 2005 with syntax highlighting and Intellisense and a .Net version on the way.

So, my question to the developer community: do we need a special BOF LOLCODE session at TechEd 2007?

Crowded House Ad for MSN thanks to Google

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The above blog post obviously shows Neil Finn at a recent LA gig from Crowded House.

“Ads by Google” on the right show a Crowded House advertisement. From liveearth.msn.com. Why didn’t MSN come to me directly and rid themselves of the middleman? I would, and have, posted about this concert for free! Now google are getting a cut!

Sadly, I will miss this concert as I’ll be in Japan on holiday. I am sure I’ll be able to watch replays across the broadband.

Jamming WebGeeks in for WebJam

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Twitter.com being down forced Sydney’s web geeks to get together. My first WebJam, and it r0x0red. Needed more cash to purchase the t-shirt. Sorry, ’bout that.

Andrew Muller from Builder.com.au on the night.

Stephen Collins on WebJam 3

GO WEBJAM Melbourne!

So, my rough notes from the night:

  • Bigbrother voting style on SMS with live results on screen
  • shout out to funkycoda, scenariogirl, rails t-shirt geeks, mick from tangler
  • Woohoo in crowd for everyone’s favourite web 2.0 in au tangler.com
  • Adobe funded drinks went in 20mins (thanks Claire)
  • More geekier people than web 2.0, but more “off” than “on” (as Mossyblog said, down-tools time)
  • WebFS the world
  • Mossyblog heckled by rubber chicken lovers at rear of audience
  • acidlabs; revolution social computing nice. Hello, Stephen.  I agree: web2.0 cultural change in corporations is going to be really interesting
  • singlebutton de-thetan machine was my second favourite
  • Silk Charm attended and started a new un-industry association, with goblins hodge and lachlan (first of three lachlans) as mascots.
  •  rails vs python in the crowd. I am a pythonic.
  • reactive dot net 2 global corporate challenge flash google maps dot net 2 my favourite as it mashed everything together, web2-style.
  • spice web2 geek dance. waiting for the <video> **winner**
  • vjloops logo flash director loopz for videos. Nothing wrong with AfterEffects, however many tools reach the same ends.
  • “and you can podcast it”
  • ai bot module for ecommerce sites. ask a question rather than clicking through
  • spaulds rockin’ demo. well trained by Mark Szulc.
  • Yes, Prime Minister: viral marketing from http://samesame.com.au. It appealed to my inner 14 year old.

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(heads down, pplz voting)

leslienassar and I had a great chat in SCRLTT on the way home

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The view down King Street at night:

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Welcome to 33% Wallflowers of Web 2.0 in Australia

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(none of the above are wallflowers!)

Other comments:

As people subscribed to my twitter.com/nickhodge feed experienced, I attended the Web 2.0 Futures Conference hosted by Ross Dawson at KPMG today.

Ross recently wrote an article for Read/Write web on the Top 60 Web 2.0 applications in Australia.

My random, assumptive breakdown of the audience of about 140 people:

  • 10% < 25 years old, 80% gen-x, 10% baby boomers
  • <20% female
  • 45% of men in suits, 15% wearing ties
  • 33% had money, 33% had ideas but no money, and the last 33% of us were wallflowers watching the first 66% in a subtle dance.

I met my first Web 2.0 celebrity (not including Microsoft’s Jeff Sandquist; but that’s being a little twee) – Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web. I have a feeling he’s enjoying the latter slightly more than the former part of his blog (ie: more writing than reading)

The first part of the day involved an interesting discussion on what is Web 2.0, and what is Australia? Is the notion of borders relevant, anyway? My assessment is that language and/or culture are greater than timezones and borders. The “digital natives” see borders in different ways than previous generations.

Being that there were many VC’s in the audience, and many people wanting their startup funded: the discussion around revenue models was also quickly covered.

The highlight of the day were the 5 minute demonstrations from the following Australian Web 2.0 companies:

Shout out hi to Bronwen of http://www.perthnorg.com.au, Lachlan “Hot Geek” Hardy.

Want to Study Gaming at University?

QuT has a Bachelor of Gaming and Entertainment. Coolness does not begin to explain this course. More than C++, it is also about the social aspects, history, design – the whole works.

Dr Ross Brown and Penny Drennan are really cool: passionate about their areas of expertise (and geeks from deep in their lives) – and pass on this to the next generation of games designers.

Dave Mustaine, Megadeath, likes Crowded House

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Dave Mustaine, lead singer of Megadeth.  In a column called My List, artists share what songs mean a lot of them and Mr. Mustaine chose Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” as his #1 pick.

“I hear this wherever I go,” says Mustaine of the melancholy love song off the Aussie’s band’s 1986 debut.  “I could be having the absolute worst time, but I hear this and it brightens my day.”

This is Crowded House all over. One listen to Neil Finn and my day gets brighter, too, Dave.