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GnomeDex 3.0
HackerStickers writes "The Fellowship of the Geeks - Aka Gnomedex 3.0 is the geeks conference of the year. This weekend-long geek-a-thon has had upwards and over 500 attendees all having the common love of technology. Des Moines, Iowa is where the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure. The lockergnome crew will be there and the list of speakers keeps growing with great topics by Jim Louderback, your very own slashdot man - Rob Malda, Tim O'Reilly, and not-so-decided topics by both MS and Google."
is if I am looking for a place to pick up chicks this is not it?
"the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure"
I'm going to say that the pleasure is going to be limitted to "computer related" joy, and not associated with the female gender.
Why slashdot? Why not?
I'm sure this will end up being the 30th post about this but, Des Moines? I guess the Des Moines tourist board lobbied hard to get GnomeDex. It probably came down to a choice between Des Moines, Bryan Texas, and "that little town outside of Salt Lake that no one can pronounce". I guess they are offering attendees all the corn they can eat and a free plastic pig snout? Is the conference being held in the back of a general store? Cheap rates at the Motel 6 Des Moines?
Gnomedex is not the geek conference of the year, or even close. Saying geek 6 times in your article won't change that fact. I'm not sure I know what the geek conference of the year is, but I know this isn't it.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
The best thing about this conference is it is run by small business "net geeks". The whole total amount of this is $99 and instead of being either on the West Coast or the east cost, they are smack dab in the middle of the country. What more can you ask for in a great conference?
Can someone please take this out of the GNOME section? It has utterly zip all to do with the far cooler, arse-kicking, totally Free Software GNOME Project.
:-)
Thanks.
500 attendees is very small compared to the mega shows like JavaOne and RSA. What could one learn at this show that's not covered by the bigger shows or information that's above & beyond the standard press release/documentation of the products.
Des Moines, Iowa is where the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure.
;-)
Bet you NEVER thought you'd ever read that sentence in a non-fictional sense, did ya?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Will Cmdr Taco be going for the title of Miss Gnomedex?
Why do I h8 apple?
Even if you can't make it to the mecca of excitement that is Des Moines, you can still get your Lockergnome-approved daily dose of gnomish fun here...
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Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I find the use of the word "Geek" derogatory. Why do such
people find it necessary to define themselves by their group?
Or even to bind themselves to a group or character in the
first place. Is it not sufficient to leave yourself undefined
and be responsive to your environment in your own right.
Calling oneself a "geek" wreaks of embracing oppression as a
means to feel liberated. This is insane.
The most talented programmers and technical people I know
don't call themselves anything at all.
It's run by a guy named Chris Pirillo (who's from Des Moines, but since moved to California), who has a web site called lockergnome.com because someone tagged him with the nickname "Locker Gnome" in high school. It's nothing to do with GNOME, and when I was at GNOMEDEX last year about all there was to do with Linux period was a good talk by Doc Searls; aside from that it was M$ all the way. I can't vouch for this year, though.
The third bullet point on the Gnomedex home page is Why Des Moines?.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Guess that means I won't have to pack any toilet paper, I can just use the Gnomedex itinerary sheet.
As admin of help.lockergnome.com I know that the popularity of Gnomedex increases greatly every year. And this will only be the third year. Soon, it may be too big to be held in Iowa. I do think that this is a worthy thing to attend, as it isn't so much about the speakers and lecturers. It's about the people. The people there are some the friendliest and nicest people you'll find.
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
Isnt it about time slashdot updated the GNOME section icon to the new GNOME logo?
Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
Sweet, finally I will be able to compile detailed information on all 151 different gnomes! Awesome! I love you guys!!
This is not the greatest sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
Is it really fair to stick all of those geeks at the end of the single 9600 baud modem feeding the 'innurnet' in Des Moins?
Beep beep.
I don't go any place where people still use the phrase 'them city slickers'.
The lockergnome himself, Chris Parillo grew up in De Moines. Then he went to SF and joined tech tv, then got let go last month. Now he's back in Iowa.
Go hawkeyes?
are, to put it mildly, very distubing. I am not sure which is worse, the naked guy or the wannabe pirate...
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Last year we went to this strip bar called the lumber yard -- "were you go to get wood" my wife commented on our way there. $15 cover, bring your own beer, pool tables and $7 large pizzas - not to mention all the naughty bits you can stand. It's one of the only places where a buck is still worth something. Oh yeah, the conference speakers were great too plus you got to TALK to anyone you wanted too. IMHO First year was 75% windows 25% linux. Second year was 50% windows, 25% linux, 25% Mac.
Hey hey, stop ripping on DM so badly. It's really a pretty good place to hang out...
And a few places you may want to check out while here is Java Joe's on 4th street just off Court, and the Spaghetti Works ((515) 243-2195, 310 Court Ave)
Court Ave is a great place to hang out basically.
"Shut up about my driving. You're still alive."
I am glad that us in the midwest will actually be able to have an event that we can drive to in a couple of hours. I see all the posts blasting Des Moines, but these people don't seem to complain when the events are within shooting distance of where they live -- L.A., New York...etc..
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
There's a lot of nice bars downtown, too. On one side of Java Joe's is a really comfy (but smokey) English pub called the Royal Mile, and on the other side is The Lift, a smoke-free bar with art on the walls and amazing martinis. Spaghetti Works is often really crowded, but the food is good, and there's often live bands, and Nolen Plaza is a great place to sit and chat with friends.
Des Moines (or Iowa, for that matter) has a totally unjustified reputation as being full of nothing but hicks and uneducated bumpkins. Come to GnomeDex, and you just might change your opinion.
Read about it on his blog here:Frankly, I'd Rather Not.
I really enjoyed his newsletter, called Penguin Shell. He's a good writer and it was helpful for a newbie. Shame he's gone now, but I'll be interested to see what his new site will be.
Scott Plumlee
Um. Because all humans do?
My answer comes in three points.
-
Though Geekdom isn't a religion for me, religion is one of the best examples of these things. My little town has a eight little churches, and not a day goes by that you can't go to some kind of church event at one of them.
I've talked to a large number of the folk that attend these gatherings. Their knowledge of the history surrounding the church and the flaws/merits of the different belief systems is rarely a match for mine. What it seems to come down to more often than not is that the congregation at their church has people whose company they enjoy and a preacher/minister/priest whose sermons speak to them at a personal level. Subsets of those same crowds gather based on enthusiasm for various sports, from the standard: football, baseball, soccer to the less so: curling, hopscotch, and rugby.
-
Geeks play or spectate on the Technology Sport. It truly is a game. It has big teams like HP, Apple, and IBM, and little ones like
/., and MandrakeSoft. It has whole teams of ear-biters [we know who they are], and heated but friendly arguments over MVPs like Bruce, Eric, and Richard.
-
Every group of fans/players need an identifying group or logo to ease the job of finding like minded folks with which to congregate. If you want to talk sports with someone they can say they are a Chargers, Red Sox, and Brumbies fan. If you want to talk religion, they can say they are a formerly Jewish, briefly Catholic, Buddist. As in any other label these don't define all there is to a human, but like modem negotiation tones, they really do help you sync up in the beginning. This leaves those who fit the geek category with the task of picking a descriptive term. Technologist sounds too religious. HP fan, doesn't quite catch it. Hollywood has stomped on the more obvious terms with such generes as Revenge of the Nerds (I-MCLXII), and movies like "Hackers." So what is left to us?
In summary, people like fellowship, technology is a sport, people who seek fellowship with fans of the Technology sport need a name. In my RandomHouse unabridged, the second definition of Geek is simply, 2. person, fellow.P.S. Iowa, in late July? How about we put the next one in scenic Barrow, AK in December?
The inward pressure that the Des Moines Metro exerts is lower than it used to be--the buses run until something like 11 at night now. (Before, they folded up shop around 6:30-7:00 p.m.) Still no buses on Sunday, though. (Woof.)
Say what you want about my home state, but Iowa did have the first state-wide fiber optic network in the U.S.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
Gnomedex is fun and all, but if any developer thinks it's the "conference of the year" they need to get out more.
Check out MacHack. MacHack is the conference Gnomedex desperately wishes it could be. Just ask Eric Raymond.
Ummm ... this is where Slashdot should've been noted as News for Geeks, so the appropriate Nerd title can be given to Lockergnomies.
Don't get me wrong, I rate them as geeks too, but there is a certain Nerdiness about their philosophy.
I wonder if there will be a witty little ad for something useless between each and every seat, just like their painful to read but useful newsletters.
Iowa is the holy grail of Internet connectivity. Most towns of over 10,000 people in Iowa have cheap broadband via DSL, cable-modem and fixed wireless. For Internet access, you won't much better.
It's easy to bash Iowa, but not on Internet access. But nice try at being funny. (Oh yeah, it's also ranked top 10 in education for the last decade or so and one of the only places in America with pretty much no accent so you missed there too). Sorry.
--- Don't be a player hater: I meta-mod ALL negative mods as Unfair.