Post-BarCamp Indy 2008

Saturday 02.09.2008 04:40PM

I probably should have written more about BarCamp Indy between the first time and now, but, oh well. I certainly did plenty of word-of-mouth promotion to my geeky friends that might have been interested, so that's what matters.

So yes, BarCamp Indy 2008 was today. A BarCamp is an “un-conference”-style tech conference. All content is presented by the participants and is usually scheduled on the day of the event. It's a very open and collaborative event.

This was the inaugural BarCamp in Indianapolis and while I have never been to one before, I thought it was quite a success. We had 16 in attendance, one of whom drove a couple hours from South Bend to attend (I believe he said he left at 5:30am). Topics included: “Going Green with Technology”, “Linux Desktop: Making the Switch”, “The Future of Mobile Web”, “Graphic Web Design and CSS”, “Simplifying Your Life in Spite of Technology”, and “Information Strategy / Processing”. There was good discussion for all of these topics, and various links related to these can all be found on del.icio.us, tagged with 'barcampindy2008'. The presenters will be uploading their presentations and linking them from the BarCamp Indy wiki. I encourage them to tag these on del.icio.us as well, so they should show up on that same page above.

Brad Williams used Ustream to stream live video of BarCamp. Ustream provides chat along with the video, so we had several people tune in and interact. Pretty cool. Most of us there are on-board The Twitter, of course. Between Scott Wilder, Brad Williams, and myself posting updates, I'm sure most of central Indiana Twitter people knew what was going on. Twitter is awesome, simple, has great uses and potential; I recommend it, even if it seems silly at first.

Photos from the event can be found on Flickr, also tagged with 'barcampindy2008'.

I think it was unanimous that this was a successful BarCamp, and I am sure there will be more coming. How soon, when, and where – that's all up in the air. I'm sure we will all start working that out on the wiki soon enough. Feel free to join in!

P.S. Check out our cool lanyards and name badges, provided by SnapFoo. Scott was cool enough to use my special capitalization.

Tagged: geek / barcamp / barcampindy2008
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BarCamp Indy

Thursday 11.01.2007 12:27AM

Calling fellow geeks in Indianapolis: We have a BarCamp coming!

What's a BarCamp?
Good question. I was only passingly familiar with the concept before; I just thought they were cool conferences for computer geek types. That they can be, but they're very open and participation-driven. All content is presented by participants and is scheduled on the day of the event. It seems in many senses they are rightfully called “un-conferences.”

What are the Rules of BarCamp?

1st Rule: You do talk about Bar Camp.
2nd Rule: You do blog about Bar Camp.
3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
4th Rule: Only three word intros.
5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (Ok, you don't really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

When is BarCamp Indy?
Some time in early 2008.

Uhh?
Well, this is pretty fresh. Scott Wilder just started the idea up in the last couple days. We're both brand new at this and since it's a user-generated conference, well there is not an exact date or location set yet.

Your participation is welcomed and needed. Nevermind if you have not done anything like this before, just jump in on the wiki: barcampindy.org.

Tagged: geek / barcamp / barcampindy2008
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Scene boy?

Thursday 10.05.2006 12:40AM

Um, sorry to disappoint the emo kids coming across my page via a Google Images search for the phrase “scene boy”. I'm not one. I'm certainly not the image you're clicking on either, nor have I ever* posted it on Xanga.

Apparently Google indexed the image along with the blogring links in the Shiny Toy Guns blogring - namely the “previous” link of the person who is in the blogring right after me. Ergo, the referring URL redirects to my profile. I'm still a bit confused why it was indexed in this manner, though. (?)

Below is the image in question, and this is the image search result that's bringing people my way (third result).

This was deduced thanks to Xanga Anti-Stalker Module. Xanga Footprints cuts off the full referrer string, so it was pretty much useless for this instance.

Ergo is a fun word.

* until now, I guess.

Tagged: geek
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Avoiding Myspace Trouble

Monday 09.25.2006 11:58PM

There is a technique being used on Myspace to spread spam by taking advantage of the trusted nature of your friends list. When you receive a bulletin from a friend, you will probably not think twice before clicking any links in the message - particularly if it's something like “check out these photos I took”. The page that loads when you click the link takes advantage of the fact that you are logged into Myspace and quietly posts a bulletin from your account. Usually it will be the exact same bulletin you just read. As you might expect, this message will spread quickly as more users continue to click the links (expecting photos from their friends) and thus send the bulletins to even more people, unknowingly.

First things first
Check to make sure you are not currently a victim of this. Log in to your Myspace account, go to Mail -> Bulletin -> Show Bulletins I've Posted. If there are any bulletins in the list that you did not explicitly post, delete them.

Next, if you are still using Internet Explorer as your web browser, just stop it already. :-] Get Firefox. It's free, and far better. No it will not automatically protect you from the technique described above, but it's an important start and by the end of this post it will be helping protect you better.

What to look for
Do not open links directly if you are not sure it is a trusted site. Move your mouse over the link and the status bar at the bottom of the browser will show you the full link. If it's not a site that you know and trust, you should not open it while logged in to Myspace. You can copy the link and either log out of Myspace before opening it, or open it in a different web browser (such as Internet Explorer - since you're using Firefox now, right?) Either way, the important thing is that you are not logged in to Myspace with the browser you open the link in. This way, if it is a spam-sending link, you will not fall victim to it. If the linked page prompts you to log in to Myspace, do not do it. Never login unless the site in the address bar is http://www.myspace.com or http://login.myspace.com.

A few other points
Lately these attacks have been using Adobe Flash. If the link ends in “.swf” you definitely should not open it; that's a link to a Flash file and is almost guaranteed to be malicious. Make sure that you have the most recent version of the Flash plugin (v9). Firefox users should also probably get the Flashblock extension (added bonus: blocks obnoxious animated ads online).

Hopefully this has been helpful. Spread the word to your other Myspace friends so they don't fall victim to spammers. :-]

Currently Watching What About Bob? starring

Tagged: geek / myspace
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Google Reader

Monday 08.07.2006 01:22PM

In my last post I introduced feeds, aggregators and why I think it's worth your while to use them. I recommended using Google Reader but only touched upon the basic functionality. Here is a good introductory screencast (about 10 minutes long) that walks you through it all. Unfortunately not all of the Flash files in the presentation are working properly, so there are no play/pause controls.

Currently Listening Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap

Tagged: geek / productivity
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