Tag: NCSS

30 Days of Geek #14: Favourite computer conference?

I’ve decided to partake in Jethro Carr’s 30 Days of Geek challenge, so I’ll be writing a post a day on my geekiness for an entire month! You can find all the posts in one spot here.

Seeing as I’ve never been to one (yet) I can’t really have a favourite. However, I’ve been to the National Computer Science School (ie computer camp) and it was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. A week of writing scripts in Python, having access to powerful computers and a fast Internet connection, and most importantly, making friends.

During the week we had to write a search engine spider as part of a website we built for a charity. My fondest memory of the week is, along with my good friend Michael Wheeler, modifying the spider and setting it to work downloading as much of the Internet as we could before Python crashed. It took a while.

I’m looking forward to attending linux.conf.au (named after its domain name) in Brisbane in January 2011. It should be a blast.

30 Days of Geek #1: Why do you consider yourself a geek?

I’ve decided to partake in Jethro Carr’s 30 Days of Geek challenge, so I’ll be writing a post a day on my geekiness for an entire month! You can find all the posts in one spot here.

I consider myself a geek for a few reasons. Firstly, being a geek is how I spend almost all my time. My day job is as a computer technician (more on this later in the month), and most of my spare time is spent staring into a computer screen of some kind. I am trying to decrease the amount of time spent in front of a computer, because it’s starting to become quite detrimental to my health, but at the moment it’s still quite significant.

Secondly is the fact that I adore gadgets. In the past I’ve been doing the tourist thing around a foreign city, only to interrupt it to go into a department store and check for new geek gadgets. Trawling eBay for old computer junk I find fun. I upgrade my computer in some way every 2 or 3 weeks (even when I’m otherwise broke). It’s a horrible addiction, and I love it.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I consider myself a geek because it allows me to be friends with a set of wonderful people, some of whom I only know through being a geek. I’ve met several people at a computer camp who are just pure awesome, and I consider it a privilege to know them. The people you meet are always the best part of life, and being a geek is no exception.