Are You a Geek or a Nerd?

This article Austin Nerds Vs. Austin Geeks|Austin Social Media got my attention. A good topic to discuss at the Elgin Tweetup on April 1st. Plenty of both types should be present.

Am I a geek or a nerd? Both, I was a nerd, now I'm a geek. IMHO

My Nerd qualifications:
Wore glasses since 3rd grade
Chemistry set
Electronics kit
Lane Tech High School (Why is it called College Prep now, tech not good enough?)
Slide rule club

My Geek transition qualifications:
High school computer science class. Fortran programming using punch cards.
TRS80 computer
HP41C calculator

Now, I'd like to think of myself as a Geek
iPhone
Twitter
Blogging
Attended PyCon this week. (Python programming conference)
Actually know what a lot of tech acronyms mean

Are you a Geek or a Nerd? Always one? More qualifying traits? Please comment and/or take the poll below.

Are You a Geek or a Nerd?

Earbud Zombies

I first noticed this phenomenon while parked in front of my son's dorm. Students filed out of the door and most were wearing earbuds or inserting them as they left. My second realization was on a Metra train. When I glanced at the upper deck, I observed that everyone was wearing earbuds.

The earbud is not new. I will regress, something I find myself doing in almost every post lately. This must be a sign. Anyway, my brother had a white, 7 transistor radio and it came with an earphone. Didn't need one for each ear since it was AM radio. We listened to WLS and WCFL. Dick Biondi was one of the DJ's, sometimes I think I still hear his voice on the radio, must be a lost radio wave out there somewhere. Another reason the earphone wasn't popular was because you couldn't annoy your parents with your music.

The earbud creates isolation for the wearer but it also limits identity. Lets examine this further. When people read newspapers and books on the train you could see which paper or what book they were reading. This gave you some insight into their being. Was it the Sun Times, Tribune or WSJ. Were they reading the sports section or finance. Was it a romance novel or a self help book. See what I mean. Now with the Kindle, iPhone ebook readers and earbuds you don't have a clue who this person is.

Wouldn't it be interesting if there were some device to allow you to see what people were listening to or reading? Imagine a cartoon bubble above everyone on the train. Tribune, Mozart, Sun Times, podcast, this blog post (highly unlikely).

This has inspired me. I'm off to the basement laboratory to create such a device. It could be worth millions. But wait, I wonder if the government already has something like this. Suddenly I'm not inspired anymore and I'll be packing tin foil on my next train trip.

Saturday Night at the Movies

Do you remember Saturday Night at the Movies? It struck me when I noticed the line of people at the Red Box machine. You know, the one conveniently located in front of Jewel.

Back to Saturday night. When I was your age, we didn't have OnDemand, Hulu, TiVo, Netflix, DVDs or even VHS tapes. Entertainment 24x7 ha, we had it 2x1 and it was special. You would take a bath, get in your PJs and plop down in front of the TV with a bowl of Jiffy Pop (no microwaves yet) and watch the blockbuster film that was in the theaters several years ago. And get this, the whole family watched it together. During the week there was the build up. Commercials promoting the event, the days passing and getting closer to Saturday. It was something to look forward to. There was excitement and anticipation.


Have I moved on? Yes, I use TiVo (love it), Netflix, DVDs, but sometimes when I'm browsing the multitude of choices and can't find anything to watch, I hearken back to the days when a network executive made the decision for me.

P.S. Full disclosure on the blog title, Saturday Morning Ramblings. Sometimes I'm inspired during other moments of solitude, shower, train, etc. but I only post on Saturday.

Twitter on Main Street

This past week Main Streeters from all over the country and the world traveled to Chicago to take part in the National Main Streets Conference. The theme was "Becoming Main Street 2.0", which focused on social media and the web.

Social media was also used to connect both attendees and interested netizens via Twitter and a blog. You can view the Twitter stream here and the Live Blog here.

Monday, I presented "30 Minute Crash Course: Facebook", to a group of eager attendees. I booted up a good 20 minutes prior to the session, got the projector synced to the notebook and had the PowerPoint up. Then I plugged in the power brick and bam, the demo gods stuck, reboot. Fifteen minutes later, back up again but missing left side of slides. The show must go on, already behind schedule and this is only 30 minutes to demonstrate how Facebook can put more faces on main street and how to create a Public Profile page. Enjoyed the expo reception and being introduced to the National Trust team by Norma Miess, the former ED of the Downtown Neighborhood Association of Elgin. Ran into, Dan Rinsema-Sybenga,  another CommunityWalk user from Muskegon, MI while chatting at the Google Maps booth.

Tuesday was Bash day for me, no presentations. Several hundred of us gathered at the River East Art Center, 435 E. Illinois Street to network, eat, drink and dance (not me).

Wednesday was the Breakfast Tweetup and one more presentation.

Tweeters at tweetup, Curtis Gibbs(CRA/LA), Andy Chapman(FoxWebCo), Marianna Hayes(HALO), Eric Richardson(blogdowntown.com) and Andre Natta(CMCS). This was my first live tweetup. I attended one in Springfield last week but that was virtual.

This time the presentation karma was good, New room with a good layout, microphone and first session of the morning. Plently of time to get everything set up.
No sooner did I finish my presentation than Facebook released a new layout for pages. That's technology. Good thing I didn't show an entire page, only sections, which are still the same. The crash courses seemed to be a hit. A good way to get a taste of social media.

I wonder how many communities will have adopted the Web 2.0 skills developed this week when the conference is held in Oklahoma in 2010.