KWTV Live is … well .. LIVE !
Sep 22And we are LIVE : KWTV LIVE September Edition is in full swing. You can watch the livestream, interact with us via the chatroom or meet fellow “Wiseguys” on twitter with the hashtag #KWTVLIVE
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"Yo Nerd" .. is not the way to talk to a geek.
Sep 21
“Hey Nerd !” where the exact words this conversationalist opened up with. Patting me on the shoulder and beaming a broad smile he stumbled into a conversation about technology, that was nothing more then a fluffed up support question. I smiled at him, as he cut through the niceties of his elaboration, sighing quietly inside myself. This was obviously another technological troglodyte who had stumbled into the 21st century and decided to converse with one of its long time residents. ” Hey Nerd ” .. What kind of an opening line is that ?
I’m looking for some analogies here. Imagine some diplomatic mission where the initial ‘first contact’ between two parties is a delicate but important moment: For example a trade mission between a western country and china. You don’t see the Chinese diplomat point , laugh and yell : ‘yo Fisheyes !’ while addressing the other guy ? The simple fact that people still use the term “Nerd” or its terrible twin “Computerfreak” to address a ‘technofilical superior person’ is beyond me. I have pointed out to people who refer to me as a “computerfreak” if they call their gynaecologist a “pussylover” and address the police officer as “Yo Coppah !” but it did not seem to sink in.
I do think popular culture is to blame. Series like CSI, Bones and others have somehow ‘pimped’ the definition of “nerd” to “anyone who knows how to operate a computer, wears glasses and solves a crime by just licking a random toenail. This was not always the case. Remember “revenge of the nerds” ? No crime solving toe licking heroism there.
Explaining to the troglodyte WHY his initial address could be interpreted as offensive is like trying to talk to a tree. 150 words into the conversation I appear to suffer from “Sheldon Syndrome” (see ‘big bang theory’) where the very point of educating a ‘technologically challenged’ fellow human feels about as pointless as talking to a tree. I have no superiority complex, but the sheer fact of trying to point out WHY its not nice to call a “geek” a “nerd” is just beyond some people.
Halfway through this internal mental monologue I’m having with myself, I’m interrupted by the silence of this techno-troglodyte as he has apparently arrived at the “inquiry” part of his social elaboration. As he looks at me with raised eyebrows, I focus on my “inner geek” (the one with the social skills that defines me from the socially in adept nerds” and ask him to elaborate. With that very twist I manage to have him refrain the question that I completely missed back there and avoid an “awkward” pause in a fluent conversation. So there ..another difference between nerds and geeks. Try explaining that one.
If you want to try to educate people about nerds and geeks, try this nice info gram.
PS : My oneliner on the difference between nerds and geeks ? Geeks can hook up their linux machine in order to stream and transcode video from their homebuilt linux server to their Xbox in the bedroom so they can watch Battlestar Galactica (and porn) with their girlfriend. Nerds don’t have a girlfriend but can translate this entire scentence in Klingon… on the spot.
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I present to you : the worst fight scene ever.
Sep 20Browsing the web this week, I came across an article celebrating the 45th anniversary of the original airing of the Star Trek Series. I was amazed at how fast time flies on the one hand ( I must have been traveling faster then light at some point) and how cool the series still are, on the other hand. So many years later then its original airing date, episodes like “The Cage” and “Where no man has gone before” still form the pinnacle of some geeks afternoon, kicking back watching old scifi. Few to no series have ever accomplished that. With the 4th generation of Star Trek Fans taking over the torch from their grandmothers and grandfathers, Star Trek is still very much alive. Even the original series still have compelling storylines and every time I watch them I find new details .. or just enjoy re-watching those classic moments that have slowly distilled into pure popular culture. I was reminded of just such a scene when we watched the movie PAUL last weekend. Two sci-fi nerds on their roadtrip down the mid-west meet an alien and hilarity ensues. But NOT BEFORE they visit the site at Vasquez Rocks where an epic battle took place .. between Kirk and the Gorn. Dubbed “the worst fight scene in history” (Although the one where he fights Spock to the Death for a woman is also not bad) this lizard vs human brawl is indeed .. pretty terrible. I’ll leave you with the clip so you can judge for yourself. After 45 years its no longer bad .. its Culture ! 🙂
Wikipedia
Wikipedia on the ‘arena’ episode.
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Is social Media killing my blogosphere ?
Sep 19Before you sigh and note that “this is yet another self reflecting belly button staring article about a Blogger pondering the justification of his own activities and writing about ‘writing’ “, let me stop you there. Most of you know, i’m not an ‘active’ blogger, i’m more of an incidental one. So your sigh might not be justified : This might just be an objective observation.
I used to be an avid blogger with an almost daily routine of posting articles about what was going on in my life. But over the years, and as the general topic and target audience of my blog shifted from “life” to “tech” .. that blogging routine has gone a little bit south .. One could call upon the excuse of having “a busy life” as to why not to blog. But in a busy life, lots of stuff happens , so there should be plenty to write about. Or you could also call up “the lack of inspiration” as a possible excuse. But when I see all the things people post on Facebook and Twitter, there is plenty of stuff milling around in their heads, urging them to speak their mind.
So I ask : What IS at the very core of my (personal) decline in posting articles like these ? After reading Peter Hinsens book “The new Normal” one could say that the general message of an article is just “too long”. With the information age speeding up, the attentionspan of our readers narrows down to 140 characters or less. Twitter, Sms, textfields of 1000 characters in Facebook .. All of these call out for a quick and intence form of “blogging” or “microbloggin”. Sift aside the useless messages like ” I just had pizza ” , the endless “@_ discussions” going on between people who should resort to IRC instead of twitter and the foursquare checkins, what are you left with ? Links TO posts, short smart quotes copies of some random websites and loose thoughts that fit into a tiny textbox ? There appears to be no added value over typing out (or reading) a well thoughtout blogpost.
My initial thoughts to blame Twitter and the like for my “blogging atrophy” don’t hold any ground. Twitter (and Facebook AND Google plus) are addictive shortcuts to self expression. “Why write up a whole post when you can just tweet the core message.”, at least that is what I used to think. The truth (for me) is , that Twitter, Facebook and Googleplus offer easier “interfaces” to post my content, but are by far suited for ponderings with a wordcount like this article. But still I use them a lot. Some of my time is spent by interacting with the community, some of my time by respoding to tweets and conversations, but MOST of the time I spend on Social Media are used to “promote” articles, events, podcasts and other things ON the social media. Twitter, Facebook, Googleplus, instead of taking away the very need to blog, they add another layer of work to the very writing of a post. Not only do you need to write it, you also need to cross post it on your serveral social networks in the hope that somebody comes down to read about it.
And then there is the ultimate question : Will people still offer up the attention span to READ through your article ? Will this 140 character based community be able to focus is Information-overloaded-ADD cybermind on your writings ?
Rounding up I find no answer to my question, just a paradox. We don’t blog because we tweet. But tweets cannot contain the message of an entire blogpost. So we DO blog and THEN we tweet. But do the peeps who love the tweets click on your link ? I why do THEY read tweets ? Because blogposts are too long ? So if they click the link in your tweet, do they read your post all the way through ? Well, if you followed this link from twitter, and you read THIS LINE
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KWTV RETURNS !
Sep 17We are very happy and proud to announce the return of KWTV LIVE. The geek-friendly friday morning LIVE webcast from the Knightwise.com headquarters. I’ve you haven’t had a chance to catch one before make sure you join this one, for every last friday of the month we will be geeking out with Live Music, Interviews and plenty of interaction with our community members via the chatroom, twitter, Skype and more.
You can tweet about it using the hashtag #KWTVLIVE or tell your friends you are joining by signing up to our FACEBOOK event page. Watch Twitter, Googleplus and Facebook for the lineup of topics and guests.
Ps : If you want to see what it’s all about, check out last years ARCHIVES (or watch the clip below)
