Techno for Luddites

I've finally decided to add comments to my blog. Maybe this move will encourage me to post more often. A while ago I had an ill-fated forum, which was taken over by spammers - including some very disturbing individuals. It took a lot of admin to keep the forum clean and free of advertising material. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

I've heard of popular bloggers like Dooce, receiving a certain percentage of abusive comments. She published some of the standout posts for our entertainment, and most of them were low personal attacks along the lines of - 'get a life' or 'why do you think anything you write about could be considered remotely interesting to anyone?' Ironic, considering they bothered to read and comment in the first place. I guess that's the downside of being a celebrity blogger. I really do admire Dooce for sharing so much of her personal life with the world. Not only that, but she draws and income from her blog with her uncompromising writing style that shines a blowtorch on everyday happenings.

One of my favourite new sites to visit is lifehack.org. which outlines tips for living more efficiently and productively. I love the term 'lifehack.' It implies that we can change and improve our life at any time with a bit of tweaking here and there. After following a blogging tips article from the site, I decided to allow comments so that the blog didn't end up like some boring monologue. The next thing I've got to learn about is applying Technorati tags...

posted by deprogram @ 4:45 PM

Where I come up with my best ideas - in the garden...

posted by deprogram @ 3:56 PM

OK, all the album tracks are finished, but we haven't started our final bout of guerilla mixing. I've decided to stop tweaking and adding new parts - I want to approach them with a fresh perspective.

Now is my time to catch up on the local live music scene. My talented friend, Lanie Lane, is performing at the Basement in Circular Quay this Wednesday the 31st of January.



Lanie's voice and songs are so unique and individual, I can't wait to see her perform with her band. You can hear music at myspace.com/lanielanemusic

posted by deprogram @ 2:59 PM

While my European friends are experiencing wild weather and hurricanes, I'm expecting a 40 degree day here tomorrow. Think I'll wander along the beach, cause it's pretty hot tonight. Time to give the computer a break.

All week, Linux developers and enthusiasts descended on the University of NSW for Linux Conf AU 2007 to network and deliver papers, workshops and demonstrate the latest open source inventions. For a novice like me, the open day was a good way to absorb the latest technical innovations in free software. There were demos on how to build an open source segway; the one laptop per child scheme that offers $100 laptops to children's education in emerging nations; and a cool self replicating machine, the RepRap, http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome. It can make it's own parts from plastic, metal or ceramic materials and will eventually be able to make copies of itself.

Constellation was a cool installation that took a live video feed of people standing in front of it. It traces your movements, so you can move your body to create different formations of stars within a network of constellations. I don't think I'm describing it very well, but check out the photo in this link to see what I mean: http://www.goop.org/constellation/

Most of the conference talks are archived online at http://lca2007.linux.org.au/. Keynote speaker, Kathy Sierra, delivered an entertaining talk about creating passionate users. Kathy's offbeat and funny presentation style had us all captivated, even the non-programmers like me. By using simple, conversational language, she had me totally immersed and thinking about how humans' brains work around computers and why people stick to using certain software. Kathy Sierra's blog is at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/.

posted by deprogram @ 12:22 AM