December 2008

Get shot at the GeekAustin E-nauguration Party

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 1:00am
in

With all the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming year, many folks are updating their resumes. Why not get a new head-shot as well? Even if you are not in job seeking mode, you can use it for your LinkedIn profile.

To help you out, crack event/portrait photographer Michael Cummings, of The Creative Space, will be offering free head-shots during the GeekAustin E-nauguration Party. Normally, you would pay for a sitting with Michael. However, E-nauguration Party co-host, Piryx, will be picking up the tab. All you need to do is show up and smile for the camera.

Free Head-Shots by Michael Cummings, courtesy of Piryx
at the Geekaustin 2009 E-nauguration Party
co-hosted by Piryx and the Austin Electronic Music Grid.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 6:00pm - ??
Location: Union Park Austin - 612 W. 6th St.
Valet parking will be available.
RSVP at Facebook

The Geekaustin 2009 E-nauguration Party

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Mon, 12/15/2008 - 1:00am
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For the first time, we'll have a president who has used a blackberry, a laptop, and is personally conversant in new technology. This is significant. The tools that we, the geeks, have been creating -- to help facilitate communication and consensus -- are making their way into government. Indeed, MIT's Technology Review argues that it was the Obama campaign's use of technology that helped seal the campaign. Following the election, the appearance of change.gov suggests that the incoming administration intends to use social networks not only to secure and retain the office, but also to facilitate the process of governing. Can there be any turning back now?

To celebrate this change, GeekAustin is hosting an E-nauguration Party.

This is not a partisan affair. All you folks who used Twitter, Meetup, Facebook, Myspace, and similar tools to mobilize and communicate with your fellow voters, and to help educate your candidates, this party is for you.

Our co-host for the E-nauguration Party will be hometown startup, Piryx. When I read their corporate philosophy and manifesto, I thought: "These guys would be the perfect co-hosts". Fortunately, they agreed.

We'll be announcing more details in the days to come, but for now,
here is the date to put on your calendar.

Geekaustin 2009 E-nauguration Party
co-hosted by Piryx and the Austin Electronic Music Grid.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 6:00pm - ??
Location: Union Park Austin - 612 W. 6th St.
Valet parking will be available.
RSVP at Facebook

The return of Product Camp Austin

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 1:00am
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  When I found out that Product Camp Austin Winter 09 was on the calendar, I immediately sent a note to the organizer, Paul Young, asking for the details. Take the day off for this event. This is going to be a good one.

Lynn Bender: The first Product Camp Austin was a huge success. You had a good crowd, and folks came away raving about how useful the event was. Given the word of mouth, I expect that you are going to have a bigger crowd for Product Camp Austin Winter 09. Will the venue be larger? Do you anticipate having to cap attendance?

GeekAustin free classes for 2009

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 1:00am
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Daniel and I have been busily working on the curricula and materials for the upcoming GeekAustin classes. Tentatively, these are the free classes we will be offering in 2009:

1) MySQL Associate Certification Prep
2) MySQL Administrator Certification Prep
3) Introduction to PL/SQL
4) Basic Unix/Linux for DBAs
5) Intermediate topics in SQL
6) Basic SQL Performance Tuning.

The classes vary from 3-10 sessions. We will be offering each of these free classes only one time in 2009. We are considering offering the basic SQL class one more time right after the beginning of the new year. We will only offer it once on 2009. We limit the class size, and despite the fact that we haven't yet made a formal announcement, most of the classes are already half full. If you are interested in any of the above classes and would like to get on the list, send me a note at linearb@gmail.com. The free classes are taught downtown on weekday evenings.

We also offer the basic SQL class on-site for local companies. For rates, contact me at lynn.bender@gmail.com.

GeekAustin Saturday Coffee at Blu

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 1:00am
  For the last few months, during my morning walk, I have been watching Blu emerge at the foot of the 360 Towers. Blu finally opened last weekend. Blu is a beautiful space. In the morning, it is a cafe. In the evenings, it is a lounge. Blu is located at 360 Nueces (corner of 3rd and Nueces).

This Saturday, GeekAustin be hosting an open house at Blu from 9AM-Noon. Daniel will be on hand, and if Michelle gets back from Paris, we'll drag her jet-lagged body in as well. If you're in the neighborhood, please join us for coffee/espresso, or if you've been up all night, a Grand Marnier. The bar will be open too. You can rsvp on Facebook.

For more details on blu, visit www.bluaustin.com or the blu Facebook group.

Geek Austin “…putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back”

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 1:00am

Who said this?

a) Steve Ballmer
b) an AISD middle school teacher

(BoingBoing - 12/10/2008) A teacher in Austin sent an angry, accusatory email to a local Linux collective ("HeliOS Project, which builds and provides Linux computers to disadvantaged or 'exceptionally promising' students") accusing them of piracy for distributing the free operating system and excoriating them for encouraging her students to do the same. She threatened to have the group's organizer investigated by the police, too.

For the full story, see Slashdot (ouch), Boing Boing, the Austinst, and the original post at the HeliOS Project blog.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, when I read the story. I had a similar experience earlier this year when I attempted to donate a truckload of Linux-based computers to a few large charitable organizations who purport to help the less advantaged. After an afternoon of phone calls, the first organization told me that couldn't accept the free computers without discussing it at their board of directors meeting. I went to the next group on the list. The 2nd organization told me that they were trying to teach useful job skills to their students -- and that meant teaching them Windows. While this made sense, their follow up didn't. They went on to inform me that they didn't even want the computers for free.

If it weren't for Linux, Perl, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other free open-source tools, there would be no Geekaustin. Nor would I be able to host the few dozen local websites that I host free of charge. Nor would Daniel and I be able to teach the free database classes downtown, because you can't have truly free classes without free software.

Expect to see some Linux/open-source initiatives from GeekAustin in 2009.

-Lynn

What is it about techies and Frisbee?

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 1:00am

Jason Cohen, of SmartBear software, recently mentioned to me that Austin Ultimate frisbee was looking for a sponsor for their upcoming winter league, and this led to a larger discussion about techies and frisbee.

I first became aware of the link back in the 90s, when I was managing the computer/tech book store (RIP) at the University Co-op. It was quite common to see students walking in with frisbees, grabbing a couple of books on Perl or TCP/IP, and heading off to lunch. I got a kick out of the look: Jeff Spicoli with flip-flips, frisbee, and......Knuth's Semi-numerical Algorithms -- or something like that. Not wanting to let on that I wasn't part of this elite club, I never asked: Hey, what's up with the frisbee?

Although Ultimate Frisbee started in New Jersey, it caught on big in the Valley around the mid 80s. Tandem employees regularly played by the Cupertino Library on their lunchbreak in the mid 1980s. This being Cupertino, the notoriously competitive Apple employees were soon joining in. Because many of these folks worked 12 hour plus days, a two hour lunchbreak for a pick-up game of Ultimate could be considered as physical therapy.

It wasn't long before the game spread among the tech community. Greer Park in Palo Alto become well known as a good place for a pickup game of Ultimate. Flash forward to 2008, and the sport shows no signs of decline. In fact, if you want to see Google, Apple, and Yahoo employees square off on a field and throw things at one another, visit one of their Ultimate tournaments. It's not just a West cost thing. The young Harvard engineers from Facebook beat Google their first year. Ouch.

The tradition extends to Austin. Want to meet UT CS Prof Calvin Lin? Don't try his office hours. Instead, catch him on the field at Texas Ultimate. He's one of the coaches.

This brings me back to Jason's suggestion. If you're looking to meet a bunch of chronically overachieving techies, you might consider being a sponsor for the upcoming Austin Ultimate tournament. It's going to be way cheaper than buying a round of drinks at the next techie happy hour. The organizer Gary Breaux is really good about promoting the sponsors, both at the top of all-hands meetings and during game days. For details, ping him at breauxgary@aol.com. Don't wait too long. Austin Winter League begins in less than two weeks.

Tori Breitling on the Austin UX book club

Submitted by Lynn Bender on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 1:00am
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  For the last few years, I have seen a tremendous growth of interest in User Experience, or as it is more commonly called UX. Unfortunately, there were few opportunities for local UX pros to gather to discuss their craft. Last last week, Tori Breitling, of Launchpad Coworking, announced the formation of a local UX reading group. I suspect that this is going to be the beginning of all kinds of good stuff.

Lynn Bender: I was excited to see your formation of a local UX book club. Where did you get the idea?