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A Geek’s 4.5 Days in Perth
By Nick Hodge | August 14, 2007
Whilst driving from Perth airport to the Hotel on Sunday, I determined that I haven't been in Perth since late 2005. Nearly 2 years. Perth is greener now.
My first visit to Perth was in 1993. I think I've been here at least 27 times through my last 4 employers.
The Duxton Hotel's high-speed internet access is wireless only, and keeps dropping VPN connections to work. As a video-blogger, I am constantly moving around multiple-hundred of Mb files around the world, and the lack of network stability is frustrating.
This danah boyd video is killing me. Note to self: choose a different hotel. And one that doesn't think I am a Ms.
I've already captured two videos: one with Gary Barber and one with Stephen Price.
Stephen is the cartoonist who created my new avatar, and Gary is the geek-father of Perth.
My discussions with Gary revolved around "why Perth?". Is it the tyranny of distance that forces Perth people together; which is like Australia. Why then do humans seek like minded people out and see a need to get together in meatspace? There is no doubt that Perth people have this innate drive to help each other in a way that you do not see in other cities. Maybe Melbourne at little. Adelaide should learn from Perth.
By strange coincidence, I ran into Nick Randolph and Brian H Madsen (and a bunch of .Net dudes) at the centre of Perth Silicon area, Tiger Tiger. Thankfully, they didn't ask me some obscure .Net technical question. If they had, I'd probably called Joel Pobar.
On the return walk to the hotel, Stephen lead me astray into the Hay Street Border's Bookstore. Yes, my book collection +1. And friendly staff. The geek-girl behind the counter loved my "geek" t-shirt. rscpt.
Tomorrow is more than another Wednesday for Perth: its WebJam day. Lachlan Hardy and Lisa Herrod land to get the Perth experience. I hope that WebJam is a two-way experience for all conference people in Australia, especially in the online space.
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Topics: .net, technology, thegeekstories |
August 14th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Hooray for Perth. We are the greetest [sic].
Seriously, glad to see to at Tiger Tiger and I'll see you at WebJam.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Mike-- good to randomly meet you guys, too. Flew in just for that coffee
Nick
August 14th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Well it is good coffee
Tiger Tiger even has an Appeciation Society on FaceBook
August 14th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
re "Appeciation Society on FaceBook"
I facebooked ur coffee shop LULZ
August 15th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Doh! I was at Tiger Tiger all day today, in the only corner with a power-point (laptop battery has less stamina than human + 5 coffees) - would have said hi if I'd known what you look like
Hope to meet you while you're in Perth, and get you back here in December for Byte Me! Fest. Although I warn you, the drive from the airport then will NOT be green. And it will probably be 40 degrees. Ack!
August 15th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Geek-father!!.. HA HA .. now don't you go getting all uppity you young wipper snapper, you! Or I'll be forced to clobber you with my zimmer frame.
You know I have NEVER been to the tiger-tiger. We have FUDO, round the corner Free WiFI, good Coffee.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:54 am
It's far too early in the morning for me to grok what you meant by 'two-way experience', you'll have to explain it to me this evening over beers.
But we're utterly pumped to be doing this. It is going to be grand!
August 15th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Kat-- I saw you in the corner on your Dell laptop and mentioned to Brian Madsen I should introduce myself. But a dude wearing a "geek" tshirt intro himself I thought may have been a little creepy.
ByteMe looks great, by the way.
Nick
August 15th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Gary-- I think you'll find our ages similar
Nick
August 15th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Lachlan-- "two way event"; learning from Perth and taking that experience back to the narcissistic east. Nick
August 15th, 2007 at 11:34 am
lol... if I wasn't so intently staring at the laptop screen and looked up, I'd definitely have admired your shirt! In fact, at one stage I was looking up the binary-solo version of FotC's "The Humans are Dead": http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uLr3Ppz_Uxo