So I stumbled into this article this morning .

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/nerd-and-geek-should-be-banned-professor-says/?partner=rss&emc=rss

And well, David Anderegg thinks I have been damaged by this or my son will be damaged by it.  Well here is my response to Mr. Anderegg.

Mr Anderegg,

Many words can have a negative connotation and when I was a child, nerd could have been one of them.  But now Geek and Nerd are words of power to my culture.  You coming along saying that they are word of damage proves that you haven’t worked to really understand the culture of nerds or geeks.  I love being a Geek.  I work in the land of IT. I do amateur photography as a hobby.  I tear apart tech to make it do things it wasn’t meant to do.  I play video games.  I love to work with wood and build things.  I love knowledge.  I am married.  I do what I can to be the best father I can.  I am working to do what I can to instill the geek into my son.  I have a solid core of friends that I can trust with my life.  I live in Mid-Michigan, certainly not a geek mecca.  I am not perfect. I have flaws but damn it, it wasn’t being called a geek or nerd that built these flaws.

I am tired of this crap thinking that we need to protect people from hurtful words.  We need to instill and build our children with the power to identify hurtful words and know how to grow from them.  I remember as a child one day clearly someone from a class older than me called me a faggot.  Now, I know didn’t know the slang of it was meant to be a hurtful words for homosexuals.  Heck, I really doubt she knew what faggot meant at that time either.  It hurt to be called that.  But it was from tone of voice and actions that made that word hurtful not the word itself.  Because of that, any word can be harmful.  What is next in your mind are we to ban the words Grease Monkey because to often in the media Grease Monkeys are reflected to be simple people working on mechanical devices?  I respect my Grease Monkey/Mechanic because he has knowledge that I do not.

It seems that the only people that sling around Geek and Nerd (or even Dork) in a hurtful way anymore are people that are jealous of the Power of the Geek.  Are you jealous of us Geeks?  Are you wishing to remove the power from us that we have build for ourselves by accepting label but then remaking the label to be one of power and status?  Are you trying to attack us and what we want of our children to be proud of what we are?

I am a Geek, a Nerd, a Dork and I am proud.  I wear it on my sleeve without fear.

Good Morning everyone! Today I think I will engage in some armchair predictions of the tech world, just because I have the urge to splurge my thoughts out.

So I have been watching this little fun stuff with the update to OS X that has borked Hackintoshs, seems that support for the Atom chip has been removed from 10.6.2. Now I don’t have a hackintosh, but honestly it has been a big draw to me. It is something that is right up my alley of doing. I love that type of stuff and it would be actually fun for me.

But since I can armchair this one, I think there is actual reason behind this happening. I think Apple is going to release a line of netbook-like and/or tablet systems come January. Now I know people have been talking about this for what a year now? But I think this killing off of the Atom support shows that it is coming. Why?

Intel has a new line of Atoms coming out: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-next-generation-pineview-atom-cpus-to-be-released-in-late-december-2009119/

Nvidia CEO praising Apple: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-next-generation-pineview-atom-cpus-to-be-released-in-late-december-2009119/

Current Atom support being killed off: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/confirmed-snow-leopard-update-kills-atom-hackintoshes/

This shows it all that we will see a netbook-like system with the new Atoms and Nvidia Ion (or something that is a custom Ion) chipsets. Killing off the Hackintoshs of this subset (since non-atom based hackintoshs are still functional) is going to leave a void in the market that Apple will want to fill with its own creation. Apple doesn’t like competition. We have seen this with its reaction to Mac Clone builders. They are about control, be it for making things simple or be it for them to just “take their ball home.” Making this void now is going to leave people in the place that in the next 6 months they are going to want to upgrade and why not just buy the official Apple product. This seems to be SOP for Apple and those that purchase their equipment.
Now to really fly off in my ideas…. I think we will see a netbook device that will have about a 10 inch touchscreen that will be able to fold flat to the system so it will be able to run in a tablet mode. They will have these approx 1.5 GHz CPUs, 1 gig of ram, no optical, type N wireless, with the option of 3G wireless, 2 usb ports, a webcam and some custom uplink/charging port. The unit will be ultra thin when folded closed. We will see an update to iTunes that will allow the downloading of eBooks into this machine. Really, the eBook market is too big for Apple not to take a bite out of it.

So is my hump day armchair tech reporting.

Lets start with this: Congratulations to all the time and effort put into Ignite Lansing by the volunteers. It was a fun and wonderful night. It was so much better than I expected, as this was my first time to one of these Ignites. I look forward to the next event, and ideas have been mulling around in my head to even submit a speech idea or two next time.

But what about my question. Are we burning up? I don’t think so just yet, but it seems a good pyre has been assembled. What needs to be done? We need to break out of the echo chamber. Echo Chamber? Yes. It seems to be that people there are just patting one another on the back, and it seems that very little good information is escaping from the event into the general population. I have seen only the article from the LSJ about the event, nothing on twitter or Google. The presenters need feedback, so we can all grow to be more effective for the future and igniting that pyre. Read more…

A post where I say Freelance Ad Guy a lot!

Over on Twitter I decided partly as an experiment and mostly just for fun to create a sub character to my already very decidedly caricature of myself.. I created Freelance Ad Guy and since his wisdom would be sporadic at best he became a sub character instead of having a whole new account. I like to think of my Twitter account as a sitcom with an ensemble cast. Why would there be a need for Freelance Ad Guy? Well he takes all that goes wrong behind the scenes not only in Advertising and Marketing but the whole creative workplace and then relates it in an entertaining manner. Now in doing this I have offended some people because he does hit a little too close to home for some and.. well… I get to see Freelance Ad Guy as an acronym.. some people are just not very nice. The more fun ones are when I get accused of giving out “trade secrets” sure sometimes Freelance Ad Guy gives acceptable wisdom but for the most part its a joke, not to be taken seriously. I wouldn’t hire Freelance Ad Guy and I would hope you wouldn’t either. Obviously people out there are because I would’ve ran out of material before I started if Freelance Ad Guy wasn’t getting work. I look at this little Twitter show of mine as an extension of what I try to do with my interns, I don’t so much focus on teaching them how to use particular software because they should already know that, I focus on trying to impart all the things I learned the hard way doing this for almost twenty plus years. Now if they listen I don’t know but I can at least say I tried…

Today I decided to start looking into some of the aspects of my life as a designer, I’m sure though the message is relevant elsewhere.. Please let me know what you think and if there are points you’d like to read about in more detail or even just ideas for topics you’d want me to explore.

The most critical aspect of the whole design process is communication, it is also disregarded the most often. While communicating should be a natural part of designer/client interaction it doesn’t seem to work out that way. I’ve had many meetings with clients where after they have left I go to my designers and ask “what is it they really want?” I’m guilty of not being clear myself and recently that point was driven home from my personal life and has me thinking about how can I more effectively communicate my intent where preconceived assumptions contradicts the words being said. Graphic design is all about selling the viewer, be it advertising or simply just a new company logo, you can’t just jump in knowing nothing of the product. More importantly you must know the client, what drives them. I’d say in my experience the rule has been clients rely too heavily on the creative team to read minds and know what to do, I’ll also go out on a limb by saying its due to them being afraid of the creative process. Just because in the past we designed something similar for that other company doesn’t mean “Just do something cool like you did for X” is going to mean you’ll see a finished ad campaign by 5 today. Every time a client came in and gave us total creative control without any direction and short deadlines the first draft has been completely rejected. It doesn’t stop with the rejection either, the deadlines are missed and the longer the project goes the more irritable the client and everyone becomes. Now when a client has a clear message, we have fewer redesigns and revisions and the project goes smoothly and on budget, the bonus being everybody is happier. Sure things are most typically a mix of the two extremes and thats where the knowing your client really helps because both parties are more relaxed and willing to discuss problems before they become major issues.

I don’t pretend to know how to be the greatest communicator on the planet nor do I have the answers on how to become better. What I do know though is it is something we all need to be aware of when we meet with clients and ask ourselves “Am I doing all I can to put the client at ease and allowing him to express concerns and explaining the process clearly?”

In a way its like what our parents would tell us when we were children “Those bears are more scared of you than you are of them”

Internet 08-06-09 = OH MY GOD, the sky is falling the sky is falling, twitter is down twitter is down.

Go the fuck outside and play or something people, or use email, IM, SMS, or cripes the phone people.

The internet is computers…..they fails.

That is All

Lately I’ve been seeing around the big media websites articles with this theme. A sensational title like the above plus a filling helping of horror stories in the body about some poor individual who lost out on that great career because of  that compromising photo and statement placed online.  The moral is always the same Myspace/Face book/Twitter/whatever social website your using is going to ruin you professionally and leave you pumping gas for a living.  Sure some caution needs to be taken with your online self and if your in consideration for a position with the Red Cross perhaps its best to not to post about how your a vampire and can’t wait to get your hands on all that free blood.  These articles though, I feel are going to an extreme bordering on an almost sort of censorship, they want you to be so afraid of posting any sort of humanizing details that we all revert to just blind consumers again.  The real power of social media and the internet in general is the low cost entree into being able to speak your mind about the important issues of the day.  Those who follow me online know I’m very opinionated and post things that they might not agree with and some stuff they would be terrified to post in fear of a potential employer or client find it and be offended.  Sure I’m concerned about such things but I also feel I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t say what was on my mind.  Advice for how to handle oneself online is something I find all these articles to be lacking so I will share the rule that I find works pretty much everywhere in life, Understand just what exactly TMI really means. A little bit of responsibility is in order when you post online, When you show photos of you and the neighbor’s dog doing keg stands every Friday night a company might not find you to be a reliable professional but if you have photos of you at a political rally high fiveing G.W.B they’re going to over look that.

Attempting something new…..making a podcast while I drive, my best thinkin time. http://bit.ly/38Tq4

So I thought I would test out recording my thoughts at the best time for me to think…..when driving.  Sorry for the quanity, I was an idiot and recorded at 8khz…..will fix that next time.

So here are my thoughts on the new Chrome OS.

 

 Communte Rant 001 [16:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Intro Music:  George Wood – Proteus

Outro Music: New Nobility Band – Better World

Talking with a friend today about Ed McMahon’s passing got me thinking how even though we’re not all talk show hosts we can use a sidekick.  I’ve always thought that Conan O’Brien was funnier with Andy Richter back in the day and now that the two are working together again I find myself watching late night television again.  Let’s not forget Paul Shaffer and David Letterman.  All these guys are stars in their own right and can be successful on their own but when they team up, the creative result is television ratings gold.  So why does my brian think that us little guys having a sidekick would be great? I know your thinking “If I wanted a middle aged man to sit at the end of my sofa and laugh at my jokes I would’ve let my unemployed brother in law move in” While that is a nice charitable act it’s not what I’m seeing in a sidekick.  Chances are you already have a sidekick or even multiple sidekicks be it your spouse, best friend, barber that kid who live in the apartment down the hall..  These people you see during your daily routines, you chat with them about this and that and through conversation ideas are generated, a new perspective is seen or the solution to a sticky problem is revealed. This is what makes having and also being a sidekick such an awesome cool thing. We take for granted that these people help us out all the time and don’t notice how hopeless our endeavors are without them.  Everyone want to be the hot shot star but it doesn’t matter what you do trying to do it alone is the recipe for mediocrity.  So let’s make room at the end of the sofa and get that conversation rolling who knows what greatness will come from it.