MetaFilter posts tagged with geeks

A Geek Itinerary

netbros — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:58:14 -0800

Technology innovation will be a large part of late 20th century American history. Now the gearheads can explore the roots of all that geekdom. The Geek's Guide to Seattle is a virtual tour of some of the region’s most interesting and notable technology locations. A Geek's Tour of Silicon Valley hits hotspots there. Don't forget The Tech Museum and the Computer History Museum. Back east, there's Research Triangle Park (pdf) in North Carolina, and The Computing Revolution at the Museum of Science in Boston.

Geek feminism

velvet winter — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:21:39 -0800

“...the Platonic nerd is invariably male. The stereotype is flexible to incorporate women and girls on an individual basis, but few people conjure up the image of a woman when they think about nerds.” Feminist blog Pandagon reviews two books about nerdiness and geekery, Jason Tocci addresses the question of why female involvement in geek culture seems to call for a special explanation, and two feminist geeks set out in search of an egalitarian future.

Nerd Herd!

ocherdraco — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:09:46 -0800

A group of middle-school-aged self-proclaimed nerds from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, who won the New York City FIRST Lego League Robotics Championship with their motorized robot called Thingamajig are embarking on a trip to the Robotics World Festival in Atlanta. After a lack of funds nearly scuttled their journey, they've been bailed out by British vacuum cleaner exec James Dyson, and have been given the kind of sendoff most young nerds can only dream of: an all-school nerd-cheering pep rally.

Video Games and The People Who Love Them

Happy Dave — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:00:12 -0800

A Life Well Wasted is a new podcast about video games and the people who love them, created by freelance writer Robert Ashley. Tightly edited and fascinating, it's been described in comment threads as NPR for gamers and something you wouldn't be surprised to hear on BBC Radio 4. Ashley talks about his project on last week's Gamers with Jobs Conference Call.

Ann Arbor Smackdown

mathowie — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:57:07 -0800

There's a showdown in Ann Arbor, MI between geeks and suits. It starts when local public tax-funded parking garages start posting the number of available spaces on their site. A few geeks decide to make it more useful while driving so they code up some asterisk hacks to scrape the page and bridge the web content to a phone and presto! you can call to hear which garages have the most spaces available for parking. Not so fast says the city and they shut down access to the site from the app and stop publishing real-time stats (mostly grumbling about a loss of "control"). Geeks are in an uproar (mostly trying to teach the suits what "public domain data" means). This long ass blog post tells the entire tale from both sides of the fight.

Wiring the Castle

Miko — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:09:16 -0800

Circuits are flipping on in the nation's attic. A couple of weeks ago, 31 "digerati" -- like Clay Shirky, Chris Anderson, and George Oates -- dropped in to the Smithsonian Institution for the invitation-only conference "Smithsonian 2.0: A Gathering to Re-imagine the Smithsonian in the Digital Age". Dan Cohen of the Center for History and New Media provides a great summary (and continues to pose provocative questions) on his own blog. Those whose invitations were somehow lost in the mail can play fly-on-the-wall by watching the keynotes, paging through the Flickr pool of envymaking glimpses of their behind-the-scenes lab and collections tours, reading the blog (where Bruce Wyman of the Denver Art Museum lays out a succinct road map for museums using social media), and poking around in the SI's website gallery. Want to cheer on the USA's favorite 163-year-old "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge" without taking the trip to DC? Thanks to their recent efforts, you can now follow the SI on Twitter, listen to its podcasts, watch its YouTube channel, visit the Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life, or use the FaceBook gifts page to send your best friends their very own pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers, Hope diamond, Negro Leagues baseball, or coelocanth.

Playing pretend for grown-ups

MrVisible — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:46:13 -0800

Want to play a swashbuckling pirate, space opera hero, or monster-fighting Victorian dandy? How about a supervillain fighting against alien invaders? Or a mutant snack cake? Welcome to Savage Worlds. Do you just want to have fun with a role-playing game without having to spend your life savings on books that make your college calculus textbook look like as much fun as Rocky and Bullwinkle? All the rules you need to play fit into a small, cheap book. There are a bunch of supplemental sourcebooks, but there's also tons of fan-created content. The system has an active community, with enormous amounts of resources available for players and GMs. Want to give it a shot for free? Try the Test Drive rules(PDF) and a scenario (20MB download) or two. And on March 9th, for all those of you who grew up wanting to be John Carter (or just dress like him), Savage Mars gets released. Role-playing the way it was meant to be: fun. _{_{Yes, I know, I'm a geek.}}

People doing strange things with electricity

funkiwan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:59:04 -0800

Dorkbot is a "monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties who are involved in the creative use of electricity." Started in NYC in 2000 by Douglas Repetto, Director of Research at the Columbia University Computer Music Center as well as one of Wired's 10 Sexiest Geeks, there are now dozens all over the world. Past presenters have been featured here on the blue. For instance Jeff Han presented his multi-touch interface at dorkbot-nyc in April of 2006. Miru Kim presented her naked city spleen at dorkbot-nyc in October of 2006. Bummed that there's not one in your own city? Start your own! The NYC meetings (first Wednesday of the month) are very casual and draw an eclectic range of presenters. A great mix of software and hardware mixed with various artistic influences. Would love to hear how they are run in other cities if anyone's been.

Fo Shizzle My Nizzle

gman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:12:44 -0800

Search Engine Battle.

Humans v. Zombies Post-Virginia Tech.

longdaysjourney — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:47:26 -0800

Commando Performance: (Toy) Guns on Campus Post-Virginia Tech - A fun game of tag for campus geeks? Or a celebration of immaturity and glorification of war and violence? Playing Humans v. Zombies after the Virginia Tech Massacre. Previously on MeFi.

Hack and slash

JHarris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:12:29 -0800

Remember old D&D? What, 3rd edition? Pah! Not 2nd edition AD&D either, nor 1st edition. Not even "original" Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal. I'm talking really original D&D, based off of Chainmail wargaming rules. OD&D! Read about it at Delta's D&D Hotspot, which discusses the development of a game system that is almost 35 years old. So you know, he really doesn't like what he's heard about 4th edition (and I think I agree with him). Some of the more interesting OD&D posts: No thieves until the first supplement! Monotheistic clerics! The evolution of clerics from wholly defensive spellcasters to having lots of attack magic! The original intentions behind Stone To Mud and Silence '15 Radius! The strongest monsters! The good and bad of the system. More information on the pre-Blue Box history of the game is at the Museum of Role-Playing Games' Review of White Box D&D. For use in starting a game is Philotomy's OD&D Musings, thought you'd have to turn to eBay or other sources for full rules.

Equal Opportunity Geeks

FunkyHelix — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:44:07 -0800

Move Over Alpha Geeks, Here Come the Fangrrls an article about thousands of women gathering for a sci-fi convention, and what it means in fandom circles. Interested in more essays on feminism, gender, and fandom? Start here.

So white

sveskemus — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:19:48 -0800

Record your bad (or good) raps, share them with the world and add to other people's raps at RapHappy. Via Projects.

SFW, if you W as half-naked warrior

jfuller — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:45:35 -0800

The portrait of Maris, from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, raises yet again the age-old question.
(img, without which this thread is useless, from llbbl.)

Knitting for Geeks

orange swan — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:29:42 -0800

The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations If you've ever felt knitting was in danger of getting too sexy these days, the people at Threadbanger have provided an antidote. They've compiled a list of the ten geekiest projects on the net, which include an Atari 2600 system (on which you will never max your Pac-Man score), a knitted Hogwarts (though it appears to actually be crocheted and needlepointed), and a scrollbar scarf. And if anyone wants a crocheted yoda hat and matching light sabre, I am not taking orders.

Judd Apatow's Family Values

ColdChef — Sun, 27 May 2007 21:10:24 -0800

Judd Apatow's Family Values A look inside the comedic mind that brought us "Freaks and Geeks", "Undeclared", and "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Apatow’s childhood hero was Steve Martin. On a summer trip to L.A., Apatow persuaded his grandparents to drive by Martin’s home until Apatow spied his hero in the driveway. Martin wouldn’t give him an autograph, so Apatow wrote him an angry letter saying it was his patronage of Martin’s projects that allowed him to live the high life. A few weeks later, Martin sent Apatow a copy of his book “Cruel Shoes” with an apology: “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was speaking to the Judd Apatow.” Also: Judd and Seth Rogen at play.

GEEK FIGHT CLUB

tkchrist — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:55:31 -0800

The Gentleman's Fight Club: Armed with Dust Busters (Warning dopey MSNBC anchor and video ad.) How do you blow off steam after a long day of coding? Why smack your buddy over the head with a toilet seat, of course. Higher consciousness through harder contact (.WMV LINK - LOUD).

Geeks gone wild!

delmoi — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:41:16 -0800

Geeks gone wild! The ten most embarrassing silicon valley, according to Valleywag. Totally NSFW.

People with lots of time have novel takes on Star Wars

nevercalm — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:18:03 -0800

Two new takes on the world of Star Wars: "The public choice economics of Star Wars: A Straussian reading"; and "A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope:Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III." Were the Jedi actually useless and powerhungry? Was R2-D2 the true hero of the rebellion? Most importantly, where do people find the time to come up with this stuff?

She's Such A Geek!

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:11:05 -0800

Back in 2005, they put out a call for submissions. The call was answered, and a book was published, the the world now knows that women can be geeks, too! "She's Such A Geek!"

Geek Girls??

jpburns — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 05:47:48 -0800

What goes together more than geeks and hawt (ok... some scary), comic-book costumed girls?
(mildly NSFW??)

Exploring autism and technology

Milkman Dan — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:09:57 -0800

Autism is growing, especially in the Silicon Valley. We’ve talked of this twice before, but what are we missing about the connection between autism, geekhood, and the Silicon Valley? Let’s talk about this more [inside].

Relive Nerd Camp!

MattD — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:31:00 -0800

Slate Remembers Nerd Camp. I'd thought all parents everywhere were sending their kids to turn-pro-at-18 camp now, but it seems that CTY is bigger than ever. (Albeit subject to accusations that the standards have been watered down.)

Geekdom

splitpeasoup — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 13:11:59 -0800

This 'How Geeky Are You?' quiz illustrates how geekdom today means something completely different from what it used to. Out with unwashed hair and actually programming, in with mindless purchase of consumer goods.

Can you spare a dollar or two billion for the lesser off?

Mijo Bijo — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 20:57:43 -0800

Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Who is changing the world more for the better? Some people believe Bill Gates and Microsoft are the Spawn of Satan, while others praise him for his philanthropy. [subs. req'd] Steve Jobs has more buzz on the internets than Bill Gates and a near religious following for his products with Apple. One might not give like the other, but one definitely is much more Zen-like.