Jim Barter : Digital Imagination

I’ve been called a geek in the past, though compared to some I know, I’m not worthy of the honourific - as the word has become, probably through usage amongst the developers and programmers and sys-admins who all make the internet work and all seem quite proud to be called geek.

It no longer has the nerd/loner associations it once had, instead it is a badge of rank and I.T. guys the world over rejoice to be known as geek.

The word however has origins in early 20th Century American circus/carny slang, and was used to describe a person who performed in the sideshows usually biting the heads of chickens.

True.

So, by association - who is the geek leader, the ultimate geek? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Linus Torvalds?

No….

…this chap.

Apparantly everyone has a lightside, and a darkside…

here are mine…

  

share this with everyone you know, post your darkside here

Google Maps beta has started to add satellite coverage for the rest of the world…

..woo-hoo!

I’m spending so much time reading guides on getting things done - I’m not getting anything done…

http://www.theregister.com/2005/06/18/mastercard_breach/

Well sure, not ID’s, but credit card details, not stolen exactly, but certainly compromised - almost as bad.

Imagine if this happened to a database of ID’s and the absolute stink it would cause? We’d have to bin the lot and start again (or not).

And given our governments record on the systems they have built and the security breachs that have already happened…

…would you trust them to keep YOUR data secure?

http://eclectech.co.uk/clarkeidcards.php

marvelous - a must watch.

This week NO2ID have initiated a pledge for those who will resist compulsory registration for a State-issued ID card. Our aim is to get 10,000 people to pledge that they will refuse to register for an ID card donate £10 to a legal defence fund. On the first day alone we got well over 10% of our target, ‘raising’ a legal defence fund (should it be necessary) of around £12,000 in less than
24 hours. As we go to press we have reached over 30%.

Please, if you can, make your pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse
or by texting ‘pledge refuse’ to 60022 [standard text rate].

Pass on or promote this message/link to as many sympathetic people and groups, mailing lists, bulletin boards and publications as you can *without spamming*. To spread the message further PledgeBank provide flyers and posters to print out. N.B. if you prefer to keep your online pledge private, simply uncheck the ‘Show my name on this pledge’ box before signing.
*All monies pledged will be held in trust for use in defending those individuals who are prosecuted for resisting registration.

Well its a bit weird in Sheffield at the minute, roads closed off, helicopters overhead, people afraid to go to work ‘cos they happen to be in or near a building where the G8 conferences are happening. Protesters who aren’t allowed to protest, or if they are, they are penned in like cattle and numbers kept to a minimum. Notices on the streets that say 2 or more people committing ‘social order‘ offences will be arrested or moved on…

My protesting days are long over, but this really gets my goat, WTF are they doing in shef anyway? thanks Dave you twat.

Well I wish the protest posse luck and peace - remember people - it’s a jungle out there…

more info, pics etc. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/

Apple announce they plan to open stores in Sheffield and Manchester…

…the Sheffield store being at Meadowhell Meadowhall…

(this is approximatly 6 months after I bought my powerbook…
…gits.)

Many city centre shops closed down as they were attracted to new, cheaper and better locations in Meadowhall. Empty shops get targeted by graffiti and make the city centre less attractive. New traders are not attracted to the city centre and the vicious circle continues.

They should open the new Apple store in the city centre and bring some much needed business back to where it would do some real good to our city.

Poster recently blogged on the MARC rail system in the good ol’ US of A.

some debate about whether its real, I beleive it is…

OMG! - What the heck are they thinking? doesn’t this just scream 1984?