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The English have, no doubt, gotten a pretty raw deal in modern media. Look at any action flick or poorly written space opera, and you can be sure that the fellow in the over-starched grey uniform will give his orders with a terse, aloof accent that, while not one that can be found anywhere in the world, nevertheless is one that the World in General thinks the Brits have. The Brits also appear to be on the side of oppression in almost every historical epic worth mentioning. Even if it's say, Ancient Rome, you can bet your toga that Nero will have the flair of the Isle. It's as if America has some sort of ancestral memory of the Brits, scars of taxation without representation and taking orders from gentlemen with fancy accents and powdered wigs. I imagine that'd be a wound that wouldn't heal well. But in many ways the US still holds the English in powdered wig role. Anytime one needs the Authority on something, or A Real Serious Decision, it's always someone with an a...

Thanks to ~ RAYMOND for the photo. Below is my article for my work newsletter; this issue's theme is 'Style'. We nerds,-- the Basement Dwellers, Code Slingers, the Reviled Who Shall Not Be Mentioned -- can blissfully ignore style. We also ignore fashion, slickness, presentability and anyone who points at us and says "heeey, straight shooter!". It's partly that yes, we have the social awareness of a leperous donkey, that cannot be argued; but for most of us, it goes deeper. There is a long standing tradition, nay, I'd say a belief that runs to the ROOT of geekiness. That is, FUNCTION, over FORM. This is not right in all cases, maybe not even in most cases, but it's a leading tenet of being nerdcore. There are many instances in which this belief is challenged and crushed. The iPod, for example. There was time when it wasn't the dominant mp3-music-video-lifestyle-media-enabler it is today. There was a time when all sorts of horrid, ugly, but reasonab...

Thanks to Hysterical Bertha for the photo. It's like the dot-bomb never happened. There were pool tables, foose-ball, bean bags, Really Cool Chair that look like they were made by Apple designers with too much free time and an advanced degree in plastics, free pop, juice, muffins, candy bins. It was a little overwhelming. At any moment I was expecting someone to walk by with a Pets.com shirt and start raving about his stock options. At lunchtime, the conference provided the lunch, in three large rooms, one for Mexi-Cali, another for deli, and another for grill (burgers etc). The opulence of it all was pretty stunning, especially for me, coming from the public sector; where the only thing that's free are the stir sticks for the coffee you had to pay a quarter for. The after party featured a band with enormous geek cred, "The Flight of the Concords". They sing songs of fantastic musical value about awkward park meetings, a future populated by ironic robots, and the te...