Back to Basics
Oct 22
1 > 0
It’s the title of a very impressive YouTube video made by Gary Vaynerchuk in which he presents you with a verbal weapon of mass destruction against any form of procrastination whatsoever. In short it breaks down to “whatever you do, it’s better then doing nothing;” and “only by doing small things do you get to the big thing.”
It has been kind of my mantra in the last couple of months. In a time of my life where I’m trying to make heads or tails of the many simultaneous “program threads” that I seem to have running in my mind. Running my own company has drastically changed my life over the last two years. It has been both a successful outlet for my creativity (I give talks about IT to entrepreneurs, which are basically stand-up versions of podcasts with slides) and work full-time as a consultant with my main client. Aside from that there are various “side projects” running around with smaller clients that require my attention. The overall result? My creative energy has been scattered across many channels and the knightwise.com website has been pushed to the wayside a little.
But aside from you guys not getting your daily dose of geekery, I have also started to loose touch with the most important part of Knightwise.com: its community. That crazy bunch of geeks across the world that I can call my friends. And for that I am truly truly sorry. Because your friendships and your support are the one thing that make Knightwise.com worth doing. So this week (after some soul searching and a long talk with both kdmurray and our resident photog Konrad) I think it is time to pick up the geek gauntlet and get cracking.
Reset!
Whenever you think you are lost, just backtrack to the last waypoint that looks familiar. It’s a handy trick for not losing your way in the woods or in the 340th level of some Dungeons & Dragons game. I kinda got “lost” as a geek. Not really knowing what to do with my geeky energy any more. The blog has gone by the wayside and so have many of my geeky projects. Instead I have degenerated (yes !) into scrolling Facebook, watching TV shows and scrolling 9gag! My God, I’m almost mainstream!
One of the things that I have been listening to in the car (I do long drives to work again) have been episodes of the Daily Source Code. The ORIGINAL show that got me into podcasting way back in 2004. For those kids who are oblivious: It was a show hosted by former MTV VJ Adam Curry and marks the very beginning of what we call podcasting today. What it perfectly communicates is the raw energy that ensues when you give a geek a mic and let him talk to the world without any rules or regulations.
One of my favorite episodes (and the very first where the name “Knightwise” is mentioned in a podcast) is where Adam pops on a lapel mike and leisurely takes us on a drive to the local mall to have a coffee and check his emails. Back in the day this was called ‘a sound-seeing tour’. Today’s podcasts are mostly scripted, have a steady ‘form factor’ and sound more like satellite radio than satellite radio, but back in those days it was different.
The most important lesson that I learned from re-listening to those old shows is that the most boring, dull and mundane things might be the most fascinating to share. One of the reasons I haven’t blogged for a while is because I thought I had nothing to share. Turns out there are things that i’m working on (as small as they may seem) that might be of some importance to the listeners. Hopping back to 1>0: ANY content is better then NO content at all.
Blog Reset.
So I’m gonna turn back the clock a little to 2004 (and before) and try to share simple geeky things with you that happen in my life. The fact I got a new monitor, a little app I found to listen to audiobooks in the car, a link to a nice Star Trek fan series on YouTube and so forth. Some of it might be utterly uninteresting to you, so you can just skip it. At least its better then total radio silence. But hey… one IS greater then zero.
Related Posts
Movie week : Movies every geek should see (2 of 5) : Revolution OS
Oct 14Its movie week on Knightwise.com where we suggest 5 movies every geek should see because they teach us something about the history of the technology we use everyday. “Revolution OS” is one of those documentaries that give you an insight on “Where things come from”. Things, in this movie/documentary being “Linux”. How did the open source movement get started, where did it come from and what is the relation between Richard Stallman and Linux Torvalds. We found the full version of this documentary on Youtube .. enjoy and don’t forget to look for Stallman’s great quote about “Han Solo” .. enjoy.
Related Posts
Movie week : Movies every geek should see (1 of 5) : Pirates of Silicon Valley.
Oct 13Technology and geekery are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives. Where the internet used to be something only used by university students with beards and open-toe sandals, it is now an integral part of everybody’s life. So it is no surprise that some of the persona’s who have made that technological evolution happen , have found themselves portrayed on the big screen. Once the silver screen was the exclusive domain of fictional characters portrayed by superstars like Jean Claude van Damme and Silvester Stalone .. These days a movie about how a 17 year old college kid invented a social media network .. is a blockbuster. “Jobs” “The Social Network” … its hard to believe that silicon valley has become so rooted in popular culture that Hollywood has embraced its shady heroes. But those are the movies that get the limelight , the big productions. This week in “Movie Week” we focus on some of those movies that never “made it big” but that Every geek should see. 3 2 1 … action.
Pirates of Silicon Valley. (IMDB 1999)
Who, in the history of technology was responsible for bringing the PC into our homes. What events transpired to bring a super expensive technology, reserved for boring enterprise calculation work to the bedroom of every teenager in the late 80’s. Who was involved, how did it happen and what is so important about a garden shed. “Pirates of Silicon Valley” shows a young Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Balmer in their struggle to change the world as we know it. An entertaining movie featuring a young Noah Wyle (ER, Falling Skies) in a more unbiased roll as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates.
We found this rather blocky trailer on Youtube, but you can watch the entire movie on Netflix HERE. Or you can try the torrentz 🙂 .. but we didn’t tell you that :p
Related Posts
kw502 : A history of Transformers with @Jaspio.
Jan 17We warp back into our childhood and go off the deep end in the land of Cult and Sci-Fi. Expert wiseguy Jaspio tells us about the history of one of the most popular toylines of all time : Transformers. We celebrate 30 years of Silicon Civil War with this great interview and bring you music from Scann-Tec, brought to you by Ultimae records. Don’t forget that this episode is also available as a Google hangout recording.
Shownotes.
- Archonia store : http://www.archonia.com/mangashop/en/
- Transformers Wiki : http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page
- Scann-Tek : http://www.ultimae.com/en/composers/scann-tec/index.html
- Ultimae records : http://ultimae.com/
Related Posts
The dawn of Mario and the history of Nintendo.
Jan 13With the advent of Nvidea’s Shield project, their days might be numbered, but Nintendo has written a big page in our collective history. From the first barrel thrown by Donkey Kong to the last time you smacked your sister in law out cold with your Wii-Mote .. Nintendo made a mark on all of us. So sit back and enjoy a short history lesson in 3 minutes.
Links : Nvidea Shield.
