VP Dick in town for Mardi Gras?

US VP Dick Cheney is in Sydney town for talks with Australian politicians (here is why). I doubt he will meet with the real Australian hoi-polloi. Mardi Gras ends next weekend, so I am expecting Dick to stick around.

This week has been total traffic chaos after the shenanigans of the two Queens arriving in Sydney. Strangely, one of ships was also called Mary.

Avril and I have friends from Adelaide who were staying in The Rocks last night. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney-town, in the heart of the central business district. The Sydney CBD was locked off from Market Street down to The Rocks at 11pm – so they had to walk at least 2kms to their hotel.

Not Tourist Friendly. All this for one man.

Scoble Interviews Young Geek

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?  

A geek girl book to read

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?

start to be a geek, today!

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.

Technorati Profile

Gates and Jobs. No, not that pirates movie

Oh, and not that Pirates movie either. I just cannot see Bill Gates as Capt’n Jack.

Thanks to Michael, who passed on this link, (Sir) Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are going to talking at the same conference: Wall Street Journal’s Fifth Annual D: All Things Digital Conference. (May 29 to 31 near San Diego, CA

Us geeks may look at this co-appearance as two industry heavyweights attempting to out-pitch each other.  Mere A vs B characterisations are too easy, and downplay the historical impact of this event.

I rather think about the echoes both Billg and Stevej have on the future of this planet. Bill with his philanthropy including the desire to cure many of the forgotten third world diseases; and Steve with the heart warming kid’s movies and changing to the music industry. Maybe they will have more in common than the world expects?

How will our descendents remember these men, the giants of our time?

Sydney goes Ga Ga over a big Cruise Ship. Or Two.

The big boats Queen Mary II arrived in Sydney this morning, and the Queen Elizabeth II arrived late this afternoon. And Sydney came to a screeching halt as people oggled the sight.

Now, if Princess Mary was on the Harbour. Wow. The productivity of the nation would fall by 2%. Now, I would even get out of bed early to see her.

You will want to visit MIX07

Michael Arrington Will Mix it Up at MIX!
Michael Arrington, founder and editor of TechCrunch, will be joining Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie and many more web luminaries at this year’s MIX. Via TechCrunch, a weblog “dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies”, Michael is known for being one of those most likely to identify the next big thing. Fans of Michael and TechCrunch should not miss this opportunity to see him join the conversation and share his insights.  

I wish I could go. All the cool people are going.

Can I Frank?