CoolB*log

Well, I made it home safely, although I kind of still wish I was back in Lake Tahoe, would have liked to get a chance to do some exploring and photo taking. Got to do some more talking with a friend I made at conference while we waited for the flight from Reno to Chicago, very nice guy, you can find his blog here if you’re interested in reading his thoughts on Gnomedex 4.0.

The first leg of the trip was OK, although I had a difficult time getting comfortable enough to sleep, when I finally did get in a somewhat decent position the plane was descending.

The second leg was a bit more stressful, when we landed in Chicago we were told to go to concourse H, which we did, however our flight was moved to concourse K (which is where we got off) but the people working at where we told to do were in such a bad mood due to some other people they apparently decided they weren’t going to annonce the change and by time we found out we had to pretty much run all the way to the other end of the airport to catch our flight, not fun.

But anyway, I’m home now and the adventure is over, can’t wait for next years conference.

Wil Wheaton was a great speaker, he read excerpts from his two books “Just A Geek” and “Dancing Barefoot” which were great. The books actually started as entries on his blog and from what I understand were just edited slightly and some further narration/explanation added which in my opinion is very cool.

He also said that his reading today, as well as at least one of his books, was done under the Creative Commons License which means anyone who was recording his reading in one format or another today are able to distribute it via things like BitTorrent as long as they don’t take credit for it and don;t change the content.

Afterwards he had copies of his books to sell and sign, unfortunately he sold out a few people before I got there but I did get a CD demo of “Just A Geek” read by Wil and two Star Trek: Customizable Card Game cards I’d brought signed plus a photo. He was definitely very kind and like everyone else I’ve met at this conference very down to earth.

This panel is going very well so far and some good points have been brought up so far. Some that grabbed my interest were that even with the RIAA and more than likely the MPAA soon or later suing everyone left and right there is more freedom with content today than there was a century ago since back then the only way to hear music or see a play was to go to the orchestra or theater and seeing it live, whereas today we can go to a store and buy a CD or DVD and listen or watch the content whenever we want.

Another point made was the pros and cons between whether content should be walled via registration or if content should have ads on the page or if everything should be free. Now while free would be nice I think we all know that won’t be the end result. Something Jason Calacanis I really liked was give people the option to pay a subscription fee for ad-free content or if you don’t want to pay then you’d see ads along with the content.

Something else mentioned was the fact that the established media such as printed papers are sometimes slow to embrace changes in the way things are done, and the companies that drag their feet too much will be left behind and I think will possibly either have to change their business model or risk alienating the potential readers and going out of business.

Another point made that may be slightly off the topic was should manufacturers be held responsible if a consumer uses their products in an illegal way, such as when 321 Studios was forced to pull their DVD backup software of store shelves in the U.S. because their software MIGHT be used to pirate movies. My thoughts however are that the companies shouldn’t be held responsible if their product has a legitimate use. To my knowledge automobile companies aren’t held responsible if a driver crashes and kills another person. And if the person was drunk at the time of the crash the alcohol companies don;t get sued, it is the responsibility of the drunk driver to pay the costs and do the time.

The panelists were as follows:

Chris just announced during his welcome speech today that there will definitely be a Gnomedex 5.0 next year, I’m definitely planning on going and can’t wait.

Well, i sort of lost my seat, but got a betetr one, now I’m at a table by an outlet so I have more room and can use my mouse.

Well, I’m about an hour early for the actual conference, but I managed to get a good seat near the fornt and by an open outlet, so I’ll be able to blog during the actual conference, at least until lunch anyway.

The party tonight was pretty fun, although “dinner” was more like appetizers, but anywho. They had a live band playing, the Silicon Valley Houserockers, and although I think they were a bit on the loud side they did play some good covers of oldies songs. Their performance was actually recorded and they’ll be handing out cds of them tomorrow.

Throughout the evening they also did drawings for prizes, some of which were very nice including a $600 AMD 64 bit processor, alas, I didn’t win anything.The party tonight was pretty fun, although “dinner” was more like appetizers, but anywho. They had a live band playing, the Silicon Valley Houserockers, and although I think they were a bit on the loud side they did play some good covers of oldies songs. Their performance was actually recorded and they’ll be handing out cds of them tomorrow.

Throughout the evening they also did drawings for prizes, some of which were very nice including a $600 AMD 64 bit processor, alas, I didn’t win anything.

And on a happier note, I’m not sure on all the details but apparently two of the attendees got married today and the band’s first song was their first dance together as newlyweds. I apologize to the happy couple, but I don’t recall their names, but I wish them all the best.

And on a happier note, I’m not sure on all the details but appearently two of the attendees got married today and the band’s first song was their first dance together as newlyweds. I apoligize to the happy couple, but I don’t recall their names, but I wish them all the best.

Edit: I just found out the name of the newlyweds, congratulations to Jackie and Jason Leib, may you both have many happy years together.

Yes folks, I got to meet former Screen Savers co-host Patrick Norton, and I just have to say he’s just as cool in person, if not cooler as he is on tv. He was very down to earth and friendly and easy to talk with. I even got a picture with him which I’ll put up on my gallery sometime reletively soon.

I also saw and talked with Jim Louderback a bit, he used to be on TechTV as well as a co-host on Fresh Gear. The really cool thing was that he remembered me from last years Gnomedex.

Well this is quite a few hours later than when the panel actually was but the first oppurtunity i’ve had to blog so my memories of the highlights from this panel are a bit fuzzy, but I’ll do my best to recall.

The main topic I recall was the convergence of technology, with one device doing multiple things. Unfortunatly at the present time most, if not all of the devices that have multiple functionality don’t do any of their functions that well.

The other point I recall was the fact that the embracing of technology doesn’t make a person draw away from the world in general. If a person is already an introvert than yes they’ll probably withdraw more by using the computer excessively and not interacting too much with people, but on the flip side of things if a person is an extrovert it’s very likly they’d use computers and technology to talk to even more people and be more outgoing.

The panelists were as follows:

Woz’s keynote ended a little bit ago, I can’t go into too much detail right now as to what all he said since my battery is fading again, but he is definitely an inspiration. He told of how he first got started in electronics as a fifth grader putting together kits, to designing thing sin his head and building them and all things in between, including being a ham radio.

He also told some great prank stories, the best in my oppinion involved a tv jammer at a college.

Todays keynote speaker for Gnomedex 4.0 is about to come up and speak, I’m really excited about this because the speaker is none other than Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

I would have blogged about this panel while it was going on but my battery died. Some of the things discussed were

The panelists were as follows:

The first panel of Gnomedex 4.0 is winding down, some interesting ideas and comments were made regarding who is responsible for making sure the average user’s computer is secure from hackers, viruses, etc. Should it be the actual user who may or may not know 100% what they are doing, the corporations who make the hardware and/or software, the government, the ISPs or something else entirely?

The panelists were as follows:

Chris Pirillo just finished welcoming everyone to Gnomedex 4.0: Geeks Gone Wild not to long ago and now the future of computer security panel has started.

Made it to Lake Tahoe safely and am now registered and have my nmae tag and swag and got a little bite to eat and am now just hanging out meeting some of the other attendees. More to come later.