Category: technology

As posted by Anna Liu, Frances Allen won this year’s Turing Award.

This whole industry has been created by two very famous women:

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace: when Charles Babbage invented the hardware known as the Analytical Engine, Ada started programming -or- the software. A century out of time, these two very smart people collaborated not via email – but letter writing.

Admiral Grace Hopper: whilst Lady Lovelace did not get to see her ideas come to life, Grace Hopper invented many terms, computer programming languages and an industry.

Question: who is the Turing Award named after?

Tony Sarno has posted an update on the Geek Gear Store live e-commerce experiment underway at APC.

On Issue 7 “Where is the word ‘Nerd’ in the branding?” … the nerd/geek four letter word divide is best characterised by the movie “Revenge of the Nerds“. ‘nuf said. In NZ, nerd might be an OK term, in Australia – you are going to get decked.

Phrogamming: the telling a computer (rather than your brothers/sisters/pets) what to do is both fun; and a potential career choice.

Languages that you may have read about: C# (that’s cee-sharp), Java and C++  (cee plus plus) are big first steps. Like learning to drive a car: you start with some of the basic rules, and progress on to the Indi-500 as you gain more experience.

To get the basic rules down, its good to start with a different language: that’s where KPL comes in.

Go ask permission to install this onto your computer: ask your parent/teacher. Time to have some fun.

Question: name a learning programming language that starts with “L”

From the Scoble Show, View of a Young European Developer:

Sebastian Moser, a 20-year-old Austrian developer who has been programming since he was 14. He’s working on starting a company, you can read more about that at looocal.wordpress.com, and tells us his view of all things geeky and European.

It is a 44 minute vodcast.

Creating a web-based business is very easy. With some programming knowledge, you can take a random idea and build an online, revenue generating organisation within weeks or days. This business, being based on the internet, has an instant world-wide customer base.

Question: When building an instant, world-wide business: what are some of the key considerations?  

This link is thanks to our geek-father, Robert Scoble.

If you are a geek-girl: you are not alone, and there are plenty of female geek-ers around. Go to amazon, and have a look at this book called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff. Better yet, get your library to order it in so many people can read it.

Question: do you think it is easier for males or females to get a geek job?

Technology Evangelist exists in Wikipedia, therefore I exist. Or at least, I can now put “Evangelist” onto my tax returns, customs forms and other official documents and know that there is an independent source.

What is start_geek?

Let me start with a story; my story. Growing up in a small town in the country (or, outback) of Australia – I though I was the only geek in the village. I loved books, science, computers, radio, electronics, model making, lego and basically everything that all my fellow classmates detested. Now I work for Microsoft. But now I know there were others. Being geek is not the way to be insanely popular or cool — except when other people’s computers go wrong! Then you are everyone’s friend. Strange that.

Some TV shows attempt to put a pretty face on being geek. Sadly, TV is not real-life. Being different is tough, and you have to be courageous, and be yourself.

Here is the good news. We geeks have inherited the earth. I think that someone misheard the famous Sermon on the Mount.

Your first mission as you start_geek is to find the quotation in the geek canon of Monty Python that mentions this phrase.

And be proud to call yourself a geek. I do.

note: I’d like to thank Dr. Neil Roodyn for the inspiration to start. Visit his web site and see his story.

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