Geeks have intense interests. They border on obsessions. They know EVERYTHING about those interests. And argue vehemently for them, about them, and against others. These habits bleed over into other non-geek areas such that it felt like an intrinsic part of the culture. For decades I doubted you could have geeks without arguments, so I…
Nerds are a special breed. Not all of us discover we are one at an early age. Some may even deny it for a long time. So the late bloomers who discover they are a nerd have a lot of catching up to do. Step one:Â What do you love? Make wishlists. Step two:Â Work your way…
This blog is often my external brain. If I find something interesting, then I ought to blog about it. Later, when I need to reference it, then I can find it here. Failing to write it down can result in spending lots of time trying to reinvent the wheel. I guess part of the problem…
I gladly embrace being called a nerd. Not always. There was a time when I solely thought of myself as a geek and distanced myself from nerds. A jock-y coworker professes to hate nerds. Even as he works with computers all day, enjoys checks, and spends hours figuring out how to improve his strength numbers.…
Alan Turing was born today one hundred years ago. WIRED UK has a couple pretty good post on his legacy and timeline. I wonder what he would think about computers today? Especially the idea that his Turing machine lets us play Words With Friends or chat with someone near instantly on the opposite side of the planet.
Four lessons on how to be more human learned from robotics. If the video below does not work, then try Ken Goldberg: 4 lessons from robots about being human.
I added a new page, Teeshirts, to this site. It joins my other pages: Reading, About Me, and Quotes to Make You Think. It documents my teeshirt collection from sites like Thinkgeek, Woot, and Threadless. Yes, I already track my shirts with photos tagged with the term “teeshirt” on Flickr or Teeshirts I Own Pinterest board. Unfortunately, people do not seem…
Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. So naturally the fanatical fans were devastated, the normal fans were sad, and the rest of us understood. Comparisons made to Martin Luther King, Jr, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Edison, and yes even Tony Stark seemed maybe somewhat exaggerated. Though not by much. He possessed intense curiosity, powerful intuition, great vision and…
From Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don’t Know How to Use CTRL+F: This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don’t know how to use…