Koozie Notes

Gnomedex 3.0 Day 1

I guess I'm still old school since I took notes with pen and paper instead of typing and beaming them to my blog. If for some sick reason you want to peruse my chicken scratch, just download the notes link on the left. Each PDF runs around 200-500 kb.

-Chris

• Nelson Minar - Google - Notes [PDF]
  Google: Relevance and Results
  
  Nelson was the first speaker of the conference and covered Google well. His company 'hires bright people' so they can 'work on things that matter' and 'solve problems with algorithms.'
  Google indexes 3 billion documents a month (some are updated more frequently like blogger and news sites). Google strives to provides your search results under half a second by leveraging their large linux cluster running Google's own http server called GWS. [netcraft reports GWS].




• Eric Sink - Source Gear - Notes [PDF]
  Experiences with .NET from a Geek CEO Perspective
  
  Eric started out his presentation on a funny note be declaring himself as Not a Legend. Next he dragged out a life sized cardboard cutout of himself. Really funny stuff. He covered his company's experiences with .NET. He also finally answered the question everyone on the planet wanted to know. What the Hell is .NET? The short answer is tools, components, and libraries -- just think Java.




• Rob Malda - Slashdot - Notes [PDF]
  Slashdot in 60 Minutes or Less
  
  Rob, aka CmdrTaco, took a different approach when he went on stage. No slides, no slogans, just ask what ever you wanted to know about Slashdot. I liked it. Rob was just being himself with his ramblings and antidotes about Slashdot. I liked the story that Slash started off running on a machine under his desk. This machine would also provided smtp (mail) services for the company as well and would sometimes get so overloaded that mail would not get through to the office.




• Kevin Unangst - Microsoft - Notes [PDF]
  
  Kevin is still excited to be working for Microsoft after 11 years. His sincerity shined through his entire presentation which covered Microsoft's audio and video goodies. He showed a pre-release demo of Halo for the PC. Very cool. Later that evening Microsoft showed two BMW films and a Surfer movie which ran too long. All the movies were displayed using Media Player 9 on a standard PC. Sweet.

Gnomedex 3.0 Day 2

Here is Day 2's stuff.

-Chris

• Chris Pirillo - Lockergnome - Notes [PDF]
  The Death of E-mail Marketing
  
  Chris announced on Friday he was going to squeeze in his RSS talk on Saturday morning at 9:00 am. Luckily I made it back to the convention hall at 9:05 to catch his presentation. Chris is very passionate about what RSS can achieve.




• Jim Louderback - Ziff-Davis Media - Notes [PDF]
  Building a Home Theater PC
  
  Jim showed how you could use a Shuttle PC and Snap Stream software to create a DVR like Tivo. Everything he showed looked promising, but it wasn't as polished as Tivo's interface. This is definitely for the Power-User.




• Tim O'Reilly - O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. - Notes [PDF]
  Internet Paradigm Shift
  
  I was real excited when I found out that Tim O'Reilly would be speaking at Gnomedex. My favorite quote is, "How many of you use Google? Amazon? Ebay? Congratulations you are all Linux users." Tim kept up the pace of providing great insight on how the Internet is already beginning to change things. Great stuff.[PPT Slides]




• John C. Dvorak - Technology Columnist - Notes [PDF]
  The Next Big Thing -- emerging trends that will reignite enthusiasm in technology
  
  John should have changed the title of his presentation to 'emerging comments that will incite bloggers and mac enthusiats.' When you listen to John, please take MOST of his opinions with a grain or more of salt. He was very funny and acted more like a standup comedian than tech columnist. He really had me laughing on how to steal a powerpoint slide from the Internet and make it your own.




• Dan Gillmor - San Jose Mercury News - Notes [PDF]
  The Rise of Personal Publishing (and RSS)
  
  Dan's talk was a complete 180 degree turn on Dvorak's style. He came across to me as a soft spoken and thoughtful. He pushed good themes like "My readers know more than I do," and covered different sites like gizmodo, feedster, and technorati. He also addressed the ongoing debate over digital content control and even suggested donating to the EFF as a way to get involved.

Gnomedex Photos

I finally got around to uploading my Gnomedex photos. [day1 day2]. Jason's are much better looking.

I really had a great time in Des Moines. I finally got a chance to meet most of the lockergnome group including Chris, Gretchen, Lori, Randy, and Sam. I accidently ran into Jim in the elevator and met Danny, the shareware guy, who is also from Austin.

-Chris

Tired

I got back home yesterday from Gnomedex. I spent most of Sunday night trying to get my damn pictures off my mac and onto my WinXP box, so I could show them to my family on the Tivo.

I've poke around a few sites and read some good stuff on Gnomedex. So my job should be easier transcribing all my hand written notes to this blog.

I spent most of today traveling to San Antonio to meet with a client. I'm just plain tired.

-Chris

RSS kills Email

Chris Pirillo is currently answering questions on his RSS Presentation he gave this morning at Gnomedex. He ended his RSS talk with "RSS is going to kill email publishing."

One cool thing I picked up from his talk is subscribing to RRS feeds based on frequent queries on Feedster. So if you search on "Gnomedex" on Feedster.com, you can subscribe to that query feed. Cool.

-Chris

Day 1 GnomeDex

I finally got connected onto I-spot's wireless network at Gnomedex. I had some trouble at first , but finally got logged on.

The first breakout session is completely packed on the first floor. I listened for a few minutes and decided to leave.

It is 10:25 am and I'm sitting on the floor outside of the main hall typing this post. The main show should start up around 11:00 am.

So far I've seen Gretchen, Chris, Sam, Lori, and Jake from the Lockergnome staff. I still haven't seen furo.

-Chris

Key Logging Passwords

Be careful if you use internet terminals at airports, libraries, or cafes. Someone in New York was caught installing key logging software and stealing 450 usernames and passwords.

Tips to Circumvent Keylogging
Richard M. Smith, a security consultant in Cambridge, Mass., said customers could also use certain techniques to foil keystroke loggers. When typing in sensitive information, for instance, he suggests cutting and pasting individual characters from elsewhere to form the password.

Today I'm heading to the airport to attend the 3rd annual Gnomedex convention in Des Moines, Iowa. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go.

-Chris

PowerBook

I'm enjoying working on the new powerbook. It's been a little rough but I'm getting the hang of it. Once again I know how a new windows user must feel.

I finally got some apps installed to play with like Fire for im and ThinkFree for MS Office documents. I've also loaded VNCThing which works great for connecting to my Windows box.

I still haven't tried out the wireless card. I'm guess I will have to find a free wireless access point or just wait until I get to Gnomedex.

-Chris

If Linux was a car...

If you been shot down or flammed for asking a question on a linux mailing list, this spoof is for you!

-Chris

Cleaning Hard Drives

I had a good laugh reading an article that describes how to clean your hard drive by dismantling it and running the parts through the dishwasher. :-)

-Chris