Geekery

Ninjas unbox the new Google Nexus 1

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Ninjas are trained in ancient Eastern martial arts, not boxing.
But, while they don’t know all that much about boxing, they are very good at unboxing, as this cute new animated ad proves. If this doesn’t go viral I’ll eat my iPhone. Nice one, Google, this is the way forward if you want to promote your new phone!

Thanks to Engadget for the pic.

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Google vs China

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Google vs China is threatening to take over from past rivalries such as 50 Cent vs Kanye West and Microsoft vs Apple as the world’s most newsworthy beef.

The latest news in the whole debacle is that Google have postponed the launch of two of their new cellular phones using the Android operating system. The monolithic web company and China’s government are apparently in negotiations, and Google is reluctant to release the phones until the terms of their remaining in China have been agreed upon.

For the four people in the world who don’t know, it all began when Google was hit by a series of cyberattacks in China, and as a consequence threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market altogether, particularly because the attacks aimed to collect information about Chinese dissidents and human rights activists. Google reacted by slamming the censorship imposed by the Chinese Government and threatening to withdraw from China.

The next little twist in the story was when it was determined that Google staff could have been involved in the attack. It was claimed by ‘unknown sources’ that hackers targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google’s networks, with employees based in its Chinese offices helping to facilitate the hackers.

But the latest and most interesting twist in the story is that, since the whole debacle started going down, there has been a marked increase in those using Google in China. In China, 60 percent of all internet users utilize massive Chinese search engine Baidu and only about 35 percent use Google. Since the controversy, however, recognition of Google has risen in China, which has led to more users. Their share price, however, is down as a result of the possibility that they will leave China.

For an interesting article clearing up misconceptions regarding the search engine’s involvement in China, see here.

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Google’s Nexus One Released, But Not in SA

Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Not too long after the iPhone was met with mixed reviews, Google released their highly anticipated Nexus One Phone last week, and already some at the CES 2010, the world’s most influential international technology trade show, have declared it ‘an iPhone killer’. The phone, which does seem to pick up where the iPhone left off, heavily influenced by its predecessor if not a direct copy, is so far only available online, and whether it will suffer due to its lack of availability in retail stores, where you will find the iPhone, remains to be seen. Even if the Nexus One will be released in stores eventually, some have suggested that Google will have missed out on the buzz, created by people queuing outside stores to buy the phone that benefited the iPhone so much.

Bad news for South Africans, as pointed out by MyBroadband.co.za is that on visiting the Nexus One’s official site right now one is met with the tragic statement “sorry, the Nexus one phone is not available in your country”.
But, don’t despair. As the MyBroadband article helpfully points out, Vodacom may bring the phone to SA soon, as Google have signed an agreement with Vodafone that covers all of the company’s countries.

But, even if Vodacom don’t release the Nexus One in SA, the phone, which is not network locked and has no APN in the handset, can still be purchased oversees (you will have to get it shipped to SA, though, and since there is no APN accessing all of the services in the Google suite will be a problem unless, like me, you are clever enough to install your own APN. Perhaps I should post a tutorial on how it’s done, so we can overcome Google’s decision to neglect the Southernmost tip of Africa together!

The phone, which uses the Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 Operating System, is available in the US and UK on the online Google Phone Store. It will set you back $529 (or roughly R4000, making it almost half the price of the iPhone when it was initially released). For full specs, go here.

Thank you to Engadget for the pic!

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Speaking geek

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Jake.

I often hear poor jealous non-geeks complaining that geeks have their own language – a difficult and unique patois that can’t be understood by outsiders.

I went online to see if a n00b would be able to learn to speak geek using nothing but Google.

There are various sites offering dictionaries of geek terminology. Many of them, like the Webopedia, offer nothing more than boring IT definitions – and let’s face it, if you are a true geek you probably know what DHCP, OEM or CMOS means already, and if you’re not chances are you don’t want to know. Of much more interest to geek and non-geek alike are the definitions on Mainfraim.org’s GeekSpeak – it has definitions of some hilarious and uniquely geeky phrases, many of which perfectly capture the geek’s tendency to apply terms that used to be reserved for computers to everyday life.

Selected highlights:
Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. “Ask Larry, he’s the alpha geek around here.”
Doorstop: A computer that is no longer considered fast enough or to contain insufficient storage, etc. for use in normal work. All 286’s and 386’s are doorstops. Most 486’s are now doorstops. Soon we’ll see Pentium doorstops.
Egosurfing: Scanning the net, databases, print media, or research papers looking for the mention of your name.
Let’s take this off-line: Let’s talk about this later, after the meeting.
Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired.

For a comprehensive list of internet acronyms/ chat slang/ jargon, click here.

Sure, everyone knows what it means to LOL, and most people are familiar with the phrase WTF. But there the list includes some truly obscure examples, my favourite being :

BSEG – Big sh*t eating grin
DDSOS – Different day, same sh*t
IANAL – I am not a lawyer (expect an uninformed opinion)

So yes, we do have our own language, but don’t despair, with the help of Google even the greenest n00b will be talking like an uber-geek in no time. Good luck.

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The Best Geek Quotes Ever

Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Jake.

Just for the craziness of it, today’s Top 10 has to be the world’s nuttiest Geek quotes. Read through these and laughed, cried, laughed some more, and then wondered to the fridge for a Coke and wondered why the world stereotype’s us so. Oh well…

1. 1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d  – tee shirt

2. Microsoft: “You’ve got questions. We’ve got dancing paperclips.”  – Unknown

3. My pokemon brings all the nerds to the yard, and they’re like you wanna trade cards? Darn right, I wanna trade cards, I’ll trade this but not my charizard.  – Unknown

4. There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.  - Unknown

5. If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0  - T-Shirt

6. I’m not anti-social; I’m just not user friendly  – T-Shirt

7. When Life Gives You Questions, Google has Answers  - AJ Carpio

8. Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.  - Unknown

9. The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it’s twice as big as it needs to be.  - Unknown

10. I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code   - Unknown

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