[Update: Lots of pictures are being uploaded to Flickr, too!]
 |
I am siting in the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle, Washington, attending one of the premier tech geek events on the planet: Gnomedex. It’s a gathering of roughly 300 movers and shakers in the tech community. There are lots of familiar faces, names, and reps here, including people from Microsoft, Seesmic, Bing, Mashable, and more. Robert Scoble is here! The conference is run by my old friend Chris Pirillo, who’s been trying to get me to come for years, and this year I finally did.
Now, true confession time: I’m an idiot. I should’ve known he’d be streaming it live, but I’ve had a lot on my mind lately (I remember last year when I thought I was busy; I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to me minus one year, walk out, and slap myself). I just gave my talk — Online Skepticism, plugging various groups (including the JREF of course) that spread the word of critical thinking online. So, it’s too late to see me, though I suspect video of this will turn up eventually.
There are a LOT of great speakers here, and you should head over to live.pirillo.com to watch everyone live. While the conference is on, here’s the live stream:
If you’re on Twitter, people are tweeting madly using the #gnomedex hashtag, so you can click that and see what folks are saying (I had some nice comments on my talk, though some folks hated the font I used, which made me laugh).
So watch the stream, and enjoy the conference!
August 21st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Damn, and I could have watched you live from just about anywhere since I’ve been working on my laptop all day. Would have been a nice break.
Do post the video when it turns up. I hope you had some thoughts about rumor mongering on the net as well as the skeptical presence. Too often skepticism is a response and the myth or misconception has already been widely propagated. After all, we can’t challenge myths that don’t already exist!
Unless the psychics are right… Hmm…
August 21st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
So you’re probably too busy to have seen this yet:
“LOIRP and LRO Confirm That Humans Walked on the Moon”
http://www.moonviews.com/archives/2009/08/loirp_and_lro_confirm_that_hum.html
August 21st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I guess we could say that Phil has fallen through an event horizon, then?
August 21st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Phil, if you’re going to be doing anything social while you’re here in Seattle, let us know.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Is there going to be a place where one could stop by to meet and have beer with a lofty individual like yourself? That is place that is not conference you are at.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Gnomedex? Geez, Phil – for a second I thought you were at Blizzcon.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Sometimes I am sort of sad that nerds are a group of people who actually regularly live up to their stereotype(s).
August 21st, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Can I be a member of the order of the Fez?
Phil Plait, you got a pillow or you told when to stop?
August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Loved Phil’s skeptic talk! I wanna be a skeptic chick!
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 am
Joym, come find me at the convention tomorrow and I can point you toward the Skepchicks! Or go to http://www.skepchick.org.
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 am
I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to me minus one year, walk out, and slap myself).
Oh come on – what good would that do you? There are far better and more helpful things you could do with a time machine than that! Like make more time for instance ..
I wish I had a time machine too …
(I had some nice comments on my talk, though some folks hated the font I used, which made me laugh).
Well ppl have got to complain about something after all! Some ppl just live to whinge about things.
BTW. What font was it? Wingdings? Script? Japanese Kanjii? Cryillic? Hmm .. afe suggestions for next time in an FU Orionis type mode?
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 am
I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to me minus one year, walk out, and slap myself).
Oh come on – what good would that do you? There are far better and more helpful things you could do with a time machine than that! Like make yourself more time for instance ..
I wish I had a time machine too …
(I had some nice comments on my talk, though some folks hated the font I used, which made me laugh).
Well ppl have got to complain about something after all!
Sadly, some ppl just live to whinge about things.
BTW. What font was it? Wingdings? Script? Japanese Kanjii? Cyrillic? Hmm .. a few suggestions for next time in an FU Orionis* type mode?
—-
* Not being rude – its a real variable star similar to T-Tauri but brighter and more massive, a ‘nebular variable’ … or am I pushing my luck again?
PS. D’oh using another computer, mistyped my own email address & so might have ended up with a double post. Moderators please note – I’d delete that first comment myself if I could. Sorry mea culpa.
One day I’ll actually get things right first time & surprise myself.
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Okay! Time for an off-topic question. I’m at work, working away… like reading BA etc, and I get an email with this link.
http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5639/2020/1600/446839/GAMA.gif
So, it only took a moment to say WTH!? I’m no mathematician but can someone who is please explain to be why the area of the two rectangles do not equate? I mean, it was my understanding that math did not lie. Yeah, so my poor brain goes boom.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Roen, that’s an old math puzzle. The secret to it is hinted at by the unusually thick black outlines around the pieces –
The truth is that the pieces on the right don’t quite fit together smoothly, just enough to introduce extra area equal to a single square. The error is spread out well enough among all the joints that it’s hard to see.
It’s even possible to make a version of that puzzle out of wood. Since we tend to automatically grant a bit of error to handmade wooden objects, you can effectively pull the same trick when the person is holding the actual shapes in their hands. (Of course it’s not as effective if you use high-precision power tools to make the pieces.)
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, man.
September 1st, 2009 at 10:36 pm
[...] I’m at Gnomedex! By Phil Plait [...]