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Standing ovation for Steve Jobs

It’s that time again, one of those rare few days of the year when all gadget bloggers leave their home offices and head out to downtown San Francisco to bask in the excitement that is… an Apple event! This year, I’ll be joining the flock too, congregating with the rest to see what’s in store. Our heads are filled with important questions that will only be answered in the secret no-video-allowed conference room in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts between 10 and 11am — Will the original iPod go extinct? What will the new Nano look like? Could this be the debut of the enigmatic tablet? Will Steve Jobs make a comeback? Who could the musical guest possibly be at an event titled It’s Only Rock and Roll ? And perhaps most importantly, who will live blog the fastest? Will it be Gizmodo or Engadget or Ars or GDGT or…. well, it definitely won’t be us, because we’re not live blogging it, but I will be live-Tweeting the important details — plus some random trivia, factoids, and observations on the whole fiasco — from ground zero. So keep up-to-date by following me on Twitter or checking back here for updates to this post. Join me as the mysteries unfold — it’s gonna be fun! Follow our live-Tweetage of the Apple event

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BBG’s Live-Tweeting the Apple Event today

Available on a t-shirt for $20 . [via Kevin Kelly ]

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The Venn Diagram of Social Media

When Woz appeared on Dancing with the Stars , you may have noticed this shirt. Funny, but what’s it mean? Geeks on Board is a feature-length doc that was shot in 2004 on a 7-day Caribbean ” Geek Cruise ” using only prosumer gear, including a Panasonic DVX100A. I found out about the doc as it was being filmed because my wife was actually on that MacMania III cruise (my father-in-law is a big Machead). The doc, which was cut together using only 27 hours of footage, didn’t receive wide distribution at the time. However, filmmakers Abe Forman-Greenwald (currently producing ” In Their Boots “) and Nate Smith (drummer for the band Shy Child ) eventually self-published their work via CreateSpace . Best part, imho, is what’s around the corner. Says Abe: We want to make all of our raw footage from the cruise available through a Creative Commons license so that anyone who is interested in repurposing the footage can do so. Here’s an outtake of Woz explaining his relationship with gaming, followed by the trailer:

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Geek Cruising with The Woz

GDGT (pronounced gee-dee-gee-tee), the gadget crowdsourcing-meets-social networking site created by Pete Rojas and Ryan Block, launches now. I had the chance to play around with it last night &mdash it’s really cool! The interface is beautiful and easy to use, the features are fun, and in a world where talking about gadgets has become a common icebreaker, it seems completely natural that something like this would exist. Now, a brief inside look… This is my profile page. It’s vaguely reminiscent of my Facebook profile, with personal info up top and recent activity below, except it’s a lot better looking and easier to navigate &mdash also, it has squeezed my existence down to gadgets I have, want, and had. If you can’t find a gadget you own in the database, you can add it yourself. Right now, I have three friends and two followers. This part reminds me of Twitter &mdash I’m hoping to have more friends and followers by the end of the day because it will make me feel popular. Community updates and gadget news show up like this. Just imagine, you could be talking about gadgets all day. GDGT is prepared to host hundreds of thousands of conversations about gadgets, so if you want to geek out about your 3GS, this would be a good place to do it, better than at the dinner table with your luddite friends and family. You can also use GDGT to find gadgets… …or to compare them. So now that you know all this, you can sign up and check it out for yourself. GDGT main page

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First look: GDGT

The L.A. Times profiles Utah’s Neumont University , said by some to be a “geek heaven”, but also known as a school that exacerbates their students asocial tendencies. Some of Neumont’s female students, who make up about 5% of the 266 enrolled this year, are on a mission to get their peers to tune in to the world around them. In October, one posted a message on Neumont’s Web forums protesting what she called “offensive odors.” “The truth is there are people in this school who just don’t smell pleasant at all,” she wrote. There’s a lingering sneer throughout the whole piece (typified by the unflattering picture of this poor student) that makes it seem like something from thirty years ago, before geeks were an identifiable subculture unto themselves and before the business world figured out it was best to leave them alone and let them get to work. Neumont is an accelerated programming school, pushing students through a degree in two-and-a-half years—you’re gonna get some kids who enjoy a little dungeon crawling. If the worst you can claim is that they’re awkward and occasionally smelly, you’re not telling anybody anything they didn’t already know. Leave mocking geeks to other geeks. We’ve evolved far less subtle and infinitely more powerful mechanisms for inoculating ourselves against the slings and arrows of regular folk. (c.f. Something Awful ) (Although I’m going to have to back Alana Semuels on the stink thing: Geeks—and in my experience this applies trebly to those of the core gamer variant—can occasionally smell like a sarlacc’s vagina. Take a shower every single day . I don’t care to hear your excuses about sensitive skin or brittle hair. Wash yourself with soap every day, perhaps even twice if necessary, and wear clean clothes. You’re not just embarrassing yourself—you’re embarrassing the rest of us.) [via The Awl (which is read by dicks, judging by the comments. Mean ol' dicks!)]

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It’s 2009 and the L.A. Times is still treating geeks as mysterious others

Last week our pals at Gizmodo stumbled on an Instructables project for hacking a metal detector with a hydrocarbon sensor. The goal: use it to find oil you can extract and sell for $$$ OR locate underground toxins, so you can try to sue whoever put them there (win win, if you ask me). When I spoke with project founder Col. Jon Cohrs a few days ago, he was racing to finish assembling another 5 detectors for the Futuresonic festival in Manchester. But why? Cohrs* started today with a 3-day installation in which he’ll lead teams of volunteer prospectors around the streets, tunnels and back alleys of Manchester (a port city, like Greenpoint, where Cohrs first began urban prospecting ). Can’t get to Manchester, but want to experience Rush 2.0**? With help from the folks at bliin , a GPS-fueled social network, Cohrs is using mapping software to post the group’s findings in real-time : photos and, potentially, little derrick icons with specific readings representing any hot spots. There’s a Twitter feed , too. Still not interested? This tongue-in-cheek infomercial prob won’t help: “Being green has never been this lucrative & hip” “It’s a little bit over the top,” Cohrs admits, “But I do take the environmental part of this project very seriously. This device can remove a level of abstraction for people who want to discover what toxic deposits may be lurking beneath their communities.” *Disclosure: Cohrs is a friend of a friend; we had never met or spoke until now. **my liberal use of “2.0″ was meant to be ironic. I think. Probably. [Irony 2.0? – Ed.]

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Eureka 2.0: collaborative urban prospecting

Skip cookware, a new vacuum cleaner, or pink electrical devices this Mother’s Day. The gift of life is plenty. What a mom doesn’t necessarily need, but will cherish forever is artwork based on her baby’s first portrait, and even heartbeat. Companies like Baby Heart Art will transpose the data points from a sonogram onto paper, then place those BPM’s within an acid-free mat and 11″x14″ frame — all for $125 (or less if you skip the mat or frame). All you have to do is email a file, select a color combination (I like green/blue), and decide which data you want graphed : the more chaotic pulsed Doppler pattern or condensed M Mode pattern (tough call). Too pricey? Try a simple ultrasound art-y photo tweak. Sites like iCanvasArt charge $35 (?) to do some Photoshoppery to make your baby’s first pic look like a Warhol (sorta). No idea why you’d use one of these sites, unless you are strapped for time, or for whatever reason, are completely incapable of stumbling your way through consumer-oriented editing programs like iPhoto or Picnik . Too boring? Go for SonoArt. They’ll remix your sonogram in some amazingly odd ways. The “Robot” version of your baby might seem strange, but who doesn’t think of his/her baby as a “Future Leader” ? Warning : it is not advisable to conduct non-medical sonograms purely for “keepsake” purposes. [top image via Flickr ; note: Baby Heart Art sample is not based on top sonogram]

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Sonogram art & remixes for new/expectant/sentimental moms

Thanks again to Justin, who gives the impression that I know what I’m doing in these videos. Tonight’s meeting will orient mostly around planning upcoming projects: on deck are a bio-diesel-powered go-kart (although electric is also on the table), an evening of building your own theremins, and a lesson on distilling spirits. It will also orient around drinking beer. I may also break out that new smoker and smoke some dank meats, yo. Previously: Tonight @ Baker Boulevard Geographic Society: How To homebrew beer … Tomorrow Night in Eugene: The inaugural assembly of the Baker …

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Video: These are the sort of mistakes I make when brewing beer at the BBGS

Above, Patrick and Don of the Baker Boulevard Geographic Society generate a wall of noise from found objects connected to contact mics, a portable record player, and a signal generator. (Video shot and edited by Justin.) Not pictured: Me drinking way more than anyone else and then basically passing out right after everyone left. We’ll be meeting again this evening at 8PM, where I will attempt to brew my first batch of homebrew in about two years, whereby others may learn from my mistakes. Previously • Tomorrow Night in Eugene: The inaugural assembly of the Baker Boulevard Geographic Society (Includes a map.)

Originally posted here:
Tonight @ Baker Boulevard Geographic Society: How To homebrew beer