Category: Geek

Geek

Today on “Global Nerdy”

Friendster’s Recipe for Mediocrity: “If you had to reduce the New York Times article on Friendster, Wallflower at the Web Party, down to a set of bullet points on how to destroy a promising social software application, it would look something like this…”
Superspyware Me!: “Last week, we reported on a red MP3 player whose proceeds go to help people suffering from infectious diseases. Now we have a story about a red MP3 player that comes with its own infection…”

Update on the Deadbeat Ex-Housemate Story

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 16, 2006
3 Comments on Update on the Deadbeat Ex-Housemate Story

(You might want to read the entry titled A Special Message to My Deadbeat Ex-Housemate first.)

As of this morning, a Google search for deadbeat ex-housemate, both with and without quotes, returns the weblog of my deadbeat ex-housemate as the number one result in both Canada and the U.S..

I also got an email from him last night, in which he explained his current situation. Hey, I’m a nice guy and am willing to wait a little longer, but I want my replies to my questions and some guarantees that I will be paid back. That money could buy a lot of appliances for the home that the Ginger Ninja and I shall eventually buy.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with a comment. I’ve made a note that there are still some legal options available to me, but I also have a “nuclear option” which I have not yet disclosed. Yes, I know that I’m beginning to sound like a James Bond villain.

Anyhow, I am pleased. Sastified grinning will commence in 3…2…1…

Geek

Over at "Global Nerdy"

Steve Jobs, clean-shaven and wearing a tie. What the hell?!

Over at Global Nerdy, the tech news blog that my buddy George and I write, here are the latest stories:

Blog Juice Calculator: A tool for finding out how much influence and credibility your blog has. The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century has a 6.6 rating, putting it just behind the New York City gossip blog Gawker.
Keyword Assistant for iPhoto: At last, iPhoto gets what Flickr users have been taking for granted.
Well, Someone’s Gotta Move Those Bits: Thoughts on Internap’s purchase of Vitalstream and moving those bits through the Great Series of Tubes.
(RED)pod: Oprah and Bono push the latest iPod, a portion of whose sales will go to the Global Fund, a fund to help fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa. How come Microsoft didn’t come up with this idea, given all the money Chairman Gates has earmarked to such causes?
Two Great Tastes That Taste Great (via Bluetooth): In which we point to the BlueEye, a gadget that a connects Bluetooth receiver, control pad, headphones and (as a special touch) FM radio to any of the 5 most recent iPod models, allowing you to make, receive and ignore phone calls from your iPod.
Apple’s iWork to Lasso Spreadsheets: Apple’s own “Office” suite, iWork, edges closer to Microsoft’s turf now that it’s including an app code-named Lasso, a spreadsheet application.
Compare Rental Rates in Your ‘Hood with Rentometer: A great Google Maps mashup that lets you see what rental rates in your neighbourhood are.
Flash Drive-Equipped Laptops Appear in Japan: The move away from hard drives towards solid-state flash drives is starting…in Japan only, at least for the moment.
Back to the Future: Steve Jobs Demos NeXTSTEP 3: The features that Steve Jobs demonstrates in the video may be common today, but in 1992, they must’ve looked like alien technology. Make sure you set aside a lunch break to catch this NeXTSTEP demo video.

Geek It Happened to Me

Today on "Global Nerdy"

George was the Best Man at my wedding; this is us at my wedding rehearsal dinner.

Pictured above is the writing team at the new techie blog Global Nerdy. On the left is my buddy George Scriban, whom I met back at Crazy Go Nuts University. He’s a research director at a New York-based private think tank serving senior technology executives from the Global 200. The handsome dude on the right is Yours Truly, and I’m Technical Evangelist for Tucows, a Toronto-based supplier of Internet services and download libraries with a global distribution network of 6,000 service providers.

Together, we write a techie blog with both our perspectives , with George as the “top-down” enterprise computing guy and me as the “bottom-up” web developer, and I think the combination will be a potent one. Go check it out at www.GlobalNerdy.com!

Articles on Global Nerdy thus far:

Geek It Happened to Me

www.GlobalNerdy.com

There are still some rough edges (well, actually a lot), but what the hey: Global Nerdy, a new tech news/editorial blog created by my pal George Scriban and me, is up and running. Go give it a peek, watch it evolve, and expect great things.

(In case you’re wondering about the guitar pictured to the left, that’s today’s first story on Global Nerdy: the tracklist for the upcoming videogame, Guitar Hero II).

Geek Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Meeting with ICT Toronto on Thursday

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 2, 2006
No Comments on Meeting with ICT Toronto on Thursday

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, a number of prominent Toronto tech bloggers and I will be meeting with the people from ICT Toronto to provide suggestions on how they can do a better job reaching out to and support Toronto’s tech community. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please leave them in the comments!

Geek Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Meeting with ICT Toronto

Squeaky wheel, meet grease!

In response to my last article on ICT Toronto, in which I cast some serious doubt on the efficacy of the initiative to boost Accordion City’s profile as a high-tech hub, a meeting has been called. I was contacted by local techie consultant and DemoCamp regular Mark “Remarkk!” Kuznicki, who was contacted by ICT Toronto’s project manager, Alicia Bulwik. He told me that she’d proposed a meeting with prominent Accordion City tech bloggers to solicit our input on what’s really necessary to support a vibrant and world-leading tech industry cluster in Toronto. Among those invited:

The meeting will take place on Thursday, October 5th, and we’ve all agreed that in the interest of transparency to the local tech community whom we claim to represent, we’ll blog our thoughts and the ideas that we’re going to take to the meeting. I look forward to this meeting and the chance to meet with the people from ICT Toronto — and if we’re very lucky, make the first steps towards realizing their stated goal.

Over the next few days, I’ll do just that. I also want your input — if you’ve got a stake in the local tech community, whether you’re a programmer, engineer, marketer, business development type, entrepreneur or even just someone who wants to contribute to a vital sphere within this city, please let me know what you think, either via email or in the comments!

In case you’re looking for articles I’ve written about ICT Toronto, here they are.