heathervescent

mmmm Yummy Schnitzel

First corporate (ha ha) gig I had was at a 3D VRML company called Intervista back in 96 (which is incidentally where I got my name from - heathervescent). That's where I met this motley crew lead by Tony Parisi. When I was in SF this week, the crew got together. It had been more than 10 years since I had seen many folks - Markus included. This used to be a joke, but I can't remember what it was about. You have to download the 3D browser plug-in from Media Machines to see it, but once you do, you too can experience yummy schnitzel.  

This page has been created in an effort to enlighten the confusion of the American public about the German taste treat Wiener Schnitzel.

There is a fast food franchise in the US called 'Der Wienerschnitzel' which serves 'Wiener' (Würstchen) but no Wiener Schnitzel at all. In addition it should be 'Das Wienerschnitzel'! So the question arises, what actually is Wiener Schnitzel and how is it made? If you can't get to an authentic German restaurant the best way to try the real thing is to make it yourself.

Go. Now. Take it in the Mouth. It's yummy! Wow, I had no idea there were still so many VRML worlds around.

Personal Online Branding

If you're not able to make my presentation happening at 2pm at Web20pen, you can view it here:

Getting into the Flow

Here are my notes from the Web2Open session on Flow State by Janette Girod of That Voodoo You Do.

Flow state

aspects of flow
- attention is key (to experience)
(attention can be trained)

- make it easy for yourself
(screen out distractions)
beware the rabbit hole

9 components of the flow state

1. Clear goals (not too abstract or long term)
achievable in one single session
sit down, decide what you want to do, by end of the session, you have achieved it

2. A high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention
multi-taking is switching btwn tasks

3. A loss of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness
(work is not extention of your self image  - get your ego out of your work)

4. A distorted sense of time
(you get more out of the time in flow)
set aside a specific allocated time for flow (and block out distractions for that time)
takes at least 15 minutes to get into flow state
the power of 48 minutes (48 minute work sessions with 12 mnute breaks)
requires a timer (egg timer)
timeleft desktop widget

5. Direct & immediate feedback, behavior can be adjusted as needed.
getting something built and out there, for fine tune tweaking
practicing and doing more
pottery class example

6. Balance between ability level and challenge.

7. a sense of personal control over the situation.

8. Intrinsically rewarding action, resulting in effortless of action.
develop and refine your own style.

9. Focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself.
fully occupy the mind, the less it wanders

There will always be interruptions.

What's your Brand?

I'm presenting Online Personal Branding at Social Text's Web 2 Open next week in SF. Wednesday at 2pm I'm up. Check it out. I'll be presenting all professional and shit. Not PPT Karaoke style.

Powerpoint Karaoke - The g33k way

Powerpoint Karaoke was the highlight of BarcampLA for me. It was Tvs idea and he executed it perfectly complete with a custom built ppt randomizer and 5 minute countdown. Each competitor stood on stage, the lights dark, the powerpoint illuminated for the audience. It could have been any offsite pow-wow except for the keg of beer in the back and the fact that none of the presenters had ever seen the presentations.

Four days later I helped Danny do PPT Karaoke at eTech. It was totally different, but still fun.

Here's my recap of the two different kinds of ppt karaoke, how do them and at the end, you can watch my performance on Planet and Gravity at BarcampLA3. Anjalis was fast enough with her camera to catch it.

If anyone got Robert's Voting presentation, please let me know.

How to run your own PPT Karaoke night

1. First decide whether you want to do serious or funny presentations.
2. Find or make the presentations
3. Have a sign up sheet.
4. Acquire the following materials:

• Projector
• Laptop
• Timer/Countdown
• Screen or white wall to project upon
• Sign up sheet
• Alcohol
• Willing Participants
• A video camera (if you want to record for posterity)
• 5 to 15 powerpoint presentations (creative commons licensed please)
• A darkened room

5. And then invite your tech-geek friends to gather around the lit screen for some real fun.
6. Extra credit: Include buzz-word drinking game for the audience

Notes:
Note 1: it's best to pick presentations that you may have some basic knowledge of. Tantek's microformats presentation is a good one to warm up on.

Note 2: Serious vs Funny presentations
There are two schools of thought and I have experienced both. At BarcampLA Tv found serious presentations that had been creative commons license. That was actually Tvs point - to cc license your material. These were real presentations about products and technology. Like a Voting System, Live Journal's Backend, Identity and Planet/Gravity. The humor here was in the ad-libbing.

On the night

1. Have someone running the show. This person will be in charge of matching the presentations (if you don't want to build a randomizer - heh) and keeping time.

2. Presenters sign up on the list and come to the stage when their name is called.

3. A presentation is put up on screen. The presenter DOES NOT get to look at it prior to it being projected on screen.

4. The timer goes off and the presenter starts giving the presentation. You're pretending this is your presentation and trying to actually give it, not necessarily make fun of it, or just blast your way through it. Take your time and read the slides as if you really want to communicate the information. Most of the time, the presentations give you plenty of stuff to work with, so be sure to ham it up and go off on tangents.

5. Presenter continues presenting for 5 minutes (or until you run out of slides or decide you've had enough)

6. Audience applauds.

7. Next victim arrives on stage...

At eTech we had some serious presentations and then some that were hilarious. One that was just chicken, chicken, chicken. Another was a children's story. The humor was in the presentation here.

Everyone who saw powerpoint karaoke at Barcamp thought it was hilarious. I myself was doubled over with laughter and had tears in my eyes. We are definitely doing it again. If you want to be a victim (I mean, willing participant) get in touch with me. I'll be putting together a Powerpoint Karaoke night in LA soon.

And now, here's my foolish moment on the Internet: me doing powerpoint karaoke at BarcampLA. Thanks (or maybe not-ha ha) to Anjali for her documentation.

 

Photo by cleverclevergirl.
Video by los anjalis.

eTech Magic

Hi everyone, new readers and old.

I'm down in San Diego at eTech where the theme has been magic. It's been interesting to think about magic along with technology and visa versa. I've got a lot to write about, both about eTech and BarcampLA3. So stick with me, which I continue to stuff my brain with information and coffee and these many pots bubbling on the back burners. Don't worry though. Have a spot of tea, sit down for a bit and these ideas stewing will become buffet of ideas over the next few days.

If you're at eTech, please say hi. I'm the one with faded purple hair.

Cheers,

-Heather

Insanity in the Blogosphere

This post by Kathy Sierra, who canceled her appearance at Etech, explains why - Death Threats.

As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I'm not. I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I've been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that's not what pushed me over the edge. What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs... blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers.

Really people, what kind of world is this coming too?

Barcamp3 Kicked A$$

This weekend was excellent. The extended schedule (with sessions starting on Saturday) was packed, in addition to full sessions on Sunday. PPT Karaoke was awesome. Our sponsors were awesome. There were tons of new people and lots of familiar friendly faces. It was a great time. Files and podcasts will be on the wiki eventually. But for now, I've got to pack and get down to eTech.

Thank you to everyone who came out, who mopped the floor, who went on ice runs, who wrangled and made this happen. The successful barcamp is testament to the LA Tech community blossoming here.

Chef Joanna at BarcampLA

Cooking Advise from Chef Joanna - chefjoanna.com

8 inch non-stick for eggs etc
10 inch stainless steel skillet - for it to stick
saucepan - 3 quarts
pasta/stock pot-non stick ( can sautée meat and then add the stock and use one pan)
really good silicone spatula - they don't usually melt (watch out for the handle)
I only cook with silicone spatula.
slotted spoon with a flat edge in the bottom (to scrape stuff off the bottom of the pot)

Independent markets with cheap and fresh produce: 99 branch (asian chain) 1 step up is Jons.
Never shop at Ralphs, Pavillions, Albertsons - yuck
Trader Joes - can't buy just one - must buy in a package - too much quantity + packaging

Bristol Farms then there is Golden Farms - totally good produce.
Whole foods very expensive (1.19 bunch of scallions) Golden Farms 10 bunches for 1.
Yummy golden yellow tomatoes for 69 cents.
Farmers Markets are good, but the selection is limited... unless you know exactly what you want and/or are flexible.

My background - personal chef and caterer, went to school in santa monica. worked for all the catering companies in LA. And gives cooking advice.

--
buy Pyrex. "you can bounce that stuff off lino and it won't break" try big lots or bbb w/ 20% off coupon.

"pick a protein, pick a cuisine and pick a starch to fit."
chicken + rice
chicken + Moroccan spice + couscous

make your own wholesome TV dinners.

so knives - you can spend a fortune on knives... unless you use them all the time, not good cost ration.

Buy cheap knives, and use them until they are dull and then thrown them out.
12 Wusfof knife  - the longer the knife the longer the cut.
boning knife - flexible
chef and bread knife, get longer knives - you'll get more cut out of it.
efficiency of motion -
the less you go back and forth
messaluna and a pizza cutter do the same thing.

nonstick vs cast iron - a properly seasoned cast iron is nonstick.
to season a cast iron pan - you can use Crisco. (high smoke point)
so much cast iron, that I don't go to the gym.
do have to keep seasoning it and treat it right.
put the oil in and heat it once a week.
if you wash cast iron, you must heat it on the stove, right after each washing or else it rusts.

Can't make it to Barcamp in Person, participate virtually

If you you can't make it to barcampLA this weekend, but want to participate virtually, then I have the solution for you. ooVoo is a new company that just quietly launched it's real-time video messaging application. [Disclosure: I'm currently working for ooVoo as a consultant, and I think it's hawt!] Until this week, very few folks got to experience the real-time video messaging experience with ooVoo. But now, you too can see the reaction on someone's face - not wait for the smiley.

I'll be demoing ooVoo at Barcamp, but you can experience it for yourself. Download the application at www.oovoo.com. If you need an invitation, email me and I will send you an invite. Once you are on the system, search for BarcampLA 1, BarcampLA 2, BarcampLA 3, or BarcampLA 4. (You can also search for me: Heather). At various times in the weekend I will be streaming the sessions - live. You can watch along. If you want to do a remote session, let me know and we can project you on the screen, all from the comfort of your own home. It will be fun. Try it.

See ya this weekend.

Do you <3 LA? g33k d1nner recap

That was a great turn out Tuesday night - it must have been the I <3 LA t-shirts.

We took over .... what was the name of the restaurant, again, with about 30 of us. New faces, old faces, lots of fun, good mole and who's idea was it to go bowling? I hit the arcade playing pinball, watching air hockey and I played this strange animal catching safari game. Paradigm shifting.

So anyway, save the date for the next g33k d1nner: April 17th, 8pm. We're returning to Shakey's pizza in Hollywood for Speed Geeking.

You heard me. You've heard of speed dating, well, we're doing the geek version of it. (Note this is not geek dating!) Want to know who you have what in common with? Speed geeking is just the activity. We'll spend 5+- minutes with each person sharing your geektendencies.

So save the date. Sometime this summer we'll return to uWink and I suggest polishing up on your hacking skills before we do.

BarcampLA3 Sneak Peak

G33k d1nner tonight in Santa Monica. Arrival of the I <3 LA g33k d1nner t-shirts that crystal made. For this time only there will be Web 2.0 inoculations and powerpoint karaoke. I'm gonna bust out some real-time conferencing, so if you can't attend in person and have a PC/webcam - hit me up for a free accounts to tune in.

Barcamp is in 1 week - please register

Note: I am leaving this post at the top of the list for the next week, cause I'm pimping! Scroll down for recent adventures...

So it's one week until BarcampLA#3. Some folks had some questions about what Barcamp is and Carmen wrote up a great guide.

What is Barcamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentions are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

Fears about Barcamp:

1. Fear of not being “Tech-savvy” enough.
BarcampLA is not just for coders. Though the focus is on technology, we gather people of all disciplines, philosophies and skillsets for the purpose of knowledge sharing and community building. The use of technology to connect people and improve lives is a shared goal and passion of most Barcampers. You will not be ridiculed or diminished if you don’t speak in binary, or if you have no idea who Ruby is, or why she’s on Rails, or why people would be talking about the cleaning product AJAX. People who come to Barcamp are programmers as well as users, and if you don’t understand something, someone there will be kind enough to explain it to you. Isn’t that beautiful?

2. Fear of socializing in Meatspace
Coming out from behind the screen can be daunting. Our online avatars do so much of our socializing for us. BarcampLA has a host of other things to do besides attending seminars. Food, drinks, games, engineering challenges, jell-o shots, networking for collaborative projects and jobs, free schwag. Like a trade show, but more fun, and most importantly - FREE. And you can camp overnight if you want. Or you can be like me, show up, do a presentation and lurk in the back talking to other fellow lurkers. It’s just like being online!

3. Fear of participating as a presenter
You’re not required to get up in front of people and do a presentation if you don’t want to. Participation means attendance, helping out to set up, clean up, showing up, taking photos you can upload to Flickr, liveblogging and generally being a decent, not-obnoxious attendee. Previous presentations have focused on new applications and best practices, and have included sessions as diverse as “How to Make a Digital Camera for $35″, “3D Metaverse Roadmap” , “Coder Yoga” , “XML-RPC APIs” , “GTD with Google Tools” and “Web 2.0, the pain, problems and paradoxes”.

4. Fear of “L.A. People”
No glam, fancy cars, or press passes are required, and paparazzi are absolutely invited to capture photographic evidence of technophiles in a collaboratively created weekend terrarium. And while you may fear “L.A.” people, rest assured that the Barcamp in LA is not a clusterfuck of incestuous blogerati bending over to kiss each other’s asses like the Oscars or some ____Camp up in NorCal (who are just trying to get mentioned in Valleywag anyway). (just kidding, i’m a born San Franciscan. I’m not hating. Maybe trolling. A little. Teeny bit. Skosh.)

For the uninitiated who don’t really know what the hell an “ad-hoc unconference” means - BarcampLA is a biannual weekend-long event hosted, created, facilitated and populated by people seeking to build community, share knowledge, meet, greet and make friends/strategic alliances with other motivated individuals who want to learn and get involved with using technology to connect and share personal experiences and other data sets. Organizers are unpaid. Registration is free. Sponsors who want to reach out to this “wired” demographic help pay for the event location, food, drinks, schwag, and bring info, product demos and opportunities. It’s an “open and collaborative” environment rather than a competitive one.

C’mon down. Don’ be skeered.

If you're coming down for eTech, stop by LA early and meet the LA Tech peeps. See you there!

 

Must not lose head

My mind has already been blown by the first two panels I attended this morning: the 4 hour work week and danah boyds interview with Henry Jenkins. Regular life does not stop for sxsw. Must keep focused.

A Wall of Fog

I woke up this morning to a wall of fog. The window to my hotel opened out on a blank slate. Full of possibilities. It's been burning off the past several hours and now I can see off into the distance.

What a strange and wonderful experience this thing called sxsw. I a loner and an introvert at that. I don't like large group gatherings. I either have my extrovert personality turned on or I'm going to leave. Everywhere I turned there were people I knew. I met more than one person who was at my Birthday party. I ran into old colleagues in the elevator. In badge line. At the bar, and then another bar, and that bar too. Wow, what fun. Having great conversations, meeting new people. I knew this was what it was going to be like, but I didn't realize it would be this so exactly.

g33k dinner / minibar = LA tech community

We had a great turnout at the g33k dinner last night. At each dinner there are a few new faces, but more and more it's a group of people who have been to a couple geek dinners or barcamp. It's really starting to feel like a community. Lot of friendly familiar faces: Michael, Crystal, Lucas, Bino, Mark, Dan, Jennifer, Zach and Danah was even in town.

Crystal showed up with some geek dinner t-shirt designs. She shared the ideas and by the end of dinner we had agreed on one.  It's so exciting to be getting geek dinner t-shirts. They look totally awesome too.

Jennifer pimped a contest one of her clients - Dare Junkies - is having. You pick a challenge (that is submitted by the users) and film yourself doing it. If you missed out on getting one of the t-shirts, I still have some. They are S, M and L.

I also got to talk with Tim from French Maid TV. I had met him at the Pulver event (I still need to write that one up). We quipped about the upcoming LA pillowfight and I suggested that some french maids might need to show up to clean up the place.

Food was good, but the margaritas needed to be stronger and we closed the place out. We're off to Santa Monica next month.

Barcamp LA Featured

Photos from LA Barcamp #2 and Barney's G33k dinner are featured in this story. Kinda cool.

g33k d1nner 007

It's time again for the Los Angeles geek dinner /mini-bar / g33k d1nn3r. First one of the year baby. Get out from behind your computer screen and eat some matza-ball soup! We're back at Canters!

Come along!

• Date: January 16th, 8pm dinner
• Location: Return to Canters! 419 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90036, (323) 651-2030 --> 2 hours free parking
• Question: When and where are we doing Karaoke?
• Regifting white elephant game. Bring a reject gift (or swag or something no more than $15) to have fun with.

RSVP here.

Why big companies suck

So I'm reformatting my thinkpad hard drive because it's been bluescreen crashing about twice a day for the past week. When I bought it from IBM several years ago it was preinstalled with XP and Office. They didn't send any discs along with it, but I have the license keys. So now that I am reformatting I need the discs to reinstall. But the thing is, IBM refuses to send me the discs and is telling me I have to buy the software all over again - and they don't care that I paid for it.

Needless to say I am livid. WTF, IBM? I guess it doesn't matter that I was a customer and paid for software. And here I have two totally worthless MS access keys, and no one willing to send me the disks of software I paid for. Fuck you IBM and Microsoft. I've got a brand new Mac sitting right here....

Annoucing G**k Dinner #8

Last month's geek dinner at uWink (I still have to write up the review) was a fabulously great time. The LA Futurists are headed there this Sunday. So if you are interested to meet them, be sure to show up between 1 and 4 on Sunday.

It's time to do it again - this time we're converging in West Hollywood at Barney's Beanery.

I'll have some cool Stormhoek Lithos and I'm definitely planning to play some air hockey. Who's game?

Details:

• Date: December 12th, 7:30pm drinks, 8pm dinner
• Location: Barney's Beanery, 8447 Santa Monica Blvd (at La Cienga) West Hollywood, CA 90069 - 323-654-2287

RSVP on the wiki. Or check out the blog.

Barcamp Recap

Well, Barcamp LA #2 is over. It was this weekend. It was a lot of work - but it totally paid off. People often wonder why I got involved. What was my motivation. I ask myself the same reason. How do I pick what I get involved with and what I spend my time doing? This post isn't supposed to be that post, so instead of waxing introspective, I'll just say, I had a great time, met lots of new people, saw lots of friends and generally had a great time once I relaxed. I especially liked building my own digital camera for $35 and Jenka's Branding of Authenticity sessions. And who could forget werewolf lead by danah boyd? Apparently my intuitive skills were sharp (especially after the jello shots) and I outed two of the werewolves one after the other until I convinced the other villagers to kill me so I could get back to the party.

Mack Reed did a great job live blogging it and Carmen de Jesus has a great recap.

My only question? Where were the vloggers?! One night crashers.

Barcamp LA is tomorrow (and brain ramblings)

Well, here it is. The second barcamp los angeles is happening tomorrow and tonight I'm making jello shots.   
I don't know what it is like to have a one-track business plan these days. Today I worked on 5 different projects: writing for 2 blogs, checking user stats, checking my own stats, calls and discussions for product management possibilities, finally joining the gym, all the last minute barcamp coordination, making a video of my house to show to prospective buyers, washing my car, stressing over all the stuff I didn't get done this week (or today) and I think that's it - for now.

But anyway, back to the point. Tomorrow is Barcamp, part 2. And the geek dinner is on Tuesday and after all that is done, I am taking a break from coordinating for a while and going to eat turkey in the cold midwest and then I don't have anything planned until the end of the year and I already know what my 2007 resolution is going to be because I kicked so much ass this year. How'dya like that runon sentence?

Google Spreadsheet

Another familiar application blast from the past. It's cool to see this being developed, and I wonder if I know the developers working on it.

It's got collaborative and chat functionality. So, what is google up to after all...

Geek Dinner #6 Tonight

Tonight is Geek Dinner #6. Tonight it's downtown at Barbara's. Also at the same time, a friend is celebrating his birthday at the same place. Why oh, why do I do so much...

Drinking the other Kool-Aid

I remember the first computer I ever used. I was in 4th grade and there was Apple2 tucked away on a rolling cart in the corner. Occasionally we would get computer privileges if we wanted. Even then, I always wanted to be on it. But once on the computer, there wasn't much to do. I could write, but I didn't have much to say. I could do my math homework, but I wanted to have fun. (Math wasn't so much fun to me at that time.) A classmate had a computer at home and he would bring in and show me programs he created. He showed me a little bit of programming (I realize in retrospect) and offered to teach me. I learned as much as I could with my 4th grade brain and the tiny bit of computer time available to us. The next year I moved up in the system and none of my teachers had computers in their rooms and I got sucked into alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance and other poetic techniques. The apple had been forgotten.

Enter summer school. I have no idea how it happened, but before I went into high school, my mom enrolled me in a summer computer class - which was basically an entry level programming course. We had those tiny black and amber or green IBM screens with the huge floppy discs and our teacher proceeded to teach us programming concepts. The whole if/then statement and how you write so the computer understands you and executes what you want.

We wrote a program and tweaked it for our personal interests. It was a simple concept, you typed some commands into the computer and it would say something back and then launch a game depending on what you typed back. Or something like that. It wasn't very big, it had to fit on those big 5.25 floppy disks.

I remember my excitement of being able to take the floppy home with me to show my mom my project, but we didn't have a computer a home so my cool project because a dusty black floppy on my bookshelf.

These are my first two memories of computers. I've been passionate about learning and using them ever since. I didn't go on to be a programmer. I skirted the fine line of translators. Those able to understand technology in it's native language and translate it into the genre-speak of a particular audience.

I've always been a PC person. I rebelled against the "macs are for creative types" and got a thinkpad. I'm most certainly not going to adhere to someone's marketing campaign to express my creativity. So I shunned the silicon valley hardware manufacturer out of my principle of the opposite.

But that's all changed. Because a few days ago, I bought my first Mac. It's a black powerbook and the exterior rivals my matte thinkpad. I hate the touchpad and am forced to use it and the keys are a bit awkward, but for the most part I am getting along. I miss the little red mouse pointer button on my thinkpad (that is my favorite feature). But I dig some of the meta/individual organization techniques. The built in iSight is cool, but the quality is less than average.

The main reason I decided to get the Mac is Video. There is so much and much is done on a Mac. Plus it's about time I do my own cross-platform QA testing for projects and sites. So there. I've come to the dark side. But I don't expect to put down my IBM anytime soon. Oh yeah, this entire post was written on the new macbook.

Next LA Barcamp is...

happening the weekend of November 11th and 12th. More details coming soon, but for now - Save the Date.

Center Node

Last night was the latest installment of the LA Geek Dinner. Thanks to everyone who came out. What can I say? We rocked the house again. Canters was a great location. We started out with a couple tables and people kept arriving - even at 10pm - so we kept adding tables.

The vloggers successfully assimilated themselves. I was delighted that so many showed up - especially the two super cute brothers I have nicknamed the del Rey brothers. Their real names are Rick and Eric, but I was calling them Marina and Playa! Anyway, I've adopted them as my little brothers because they are just SO CUTE!

It was really great to see so many people come out. I'm always torn from one conversation to another. There are so many interesting people and many good discussions. If you attended I hope you got a chance to meet some interesting people, and if you didn't, well then shame on you - ask me to introduce you next time.

My favorite time was the one second I had to look around and see everyone talking and connecting. That's what this is all about. It's not just a social hour, it's not just dinner - you definitely get out of it, what you put into it. We'll be back at Cantors.

I can't even begin to talk about my interview with Ronnie, from RSSnew.tv. He made me feel things I never suspected I had in me. We'll just have to wait for the video. ;)

We'll do it all again next month. And Barcamp is coming up in a month or so. Details are coming soon. If you want more info about the geek dinner or barcamp (anyone is free to attend), then head over to the wiki.

And if you have any comments or criticism, send them my way or post them to the wiki.

Hey - they listened

They took away all the crap I hated and gave me what I wanted... Wow. Thanks SixApart. (Those big black splotches are me keeping my other blogs secret... ;)

-Heather

LA Geek Dinner Tomorrow Night

Time again for the monthly LA Geek's Eat. Last month we had a rocking turnout and it looks to be just as rockalicious this month. Details are

• Date: Tuesday September 19th, 7:30pm
• Location: Canter's Deli 419 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90036, (323) 651-2030

RSVP to the wiki here. I'll have an update on the next barcamp...

What is Barcamp?

This question came up on a discussion on a mailing list I am a participant of. Since I am helping coordinate the next LA Barcamp (sometime the end of October) I came up with this response:

Barcamp is the sum of the participants.

The basic infrastructure is taken care of by the organizers (the space, date, internet, rooms, getting the word out, etc) and anyone is invited to come. If you come, it is requested that you present/share some information.

You're an expert on something right? Put something together to share that knowledge. You don't even necessarily have to know what that is. And you don't have to do a session by yourself.

Last year there was a (what I thought) great session on GTD - David Allen's Getting Things Done style of organizing, that had 4 presentation participants. 2 of them met at the conference.

I personally like the geekiness or internet/software/techieness of the barcamp (and I've tried to keep that in the LA Geek Dinners). It's more than just a socialization hour. (Or at least, I would hope so.) It's meeting self-selected like minded people, sharing your expert knowledge (whether it be marketing, programming, organization or whatever).

BarCamp is the do-ocracy/burning man of conferences. Bring the best of yourself and an open mind. And then let the magic happen.

You will get out, what you put in.

David Markland also put together a video based on interviews from the last LA Barcamp to answer this exact question. I think he does a good job.

Looking for some bloggers...

I'm looking for a few good authors to join me at daily mantra. If you are currently a blogger and interested in metaphysical topics, I'm especially looking for someone to cover love, dating and relationships, drop me a note telling me

• a bit about yourself
• your expertise
• your blog or website
• the best or worst thing about daily mantra.

There is a small amount of pay involved. No, you don't have to be in La La Land to do this.

Typepad home page I hate you!

Typepad used to be very user friendly and have great UI. I signed up more than 2 years ago only planning to use their free 30 day plan. But is was so easy to use that I've been a paying customer for more than 2 years.

This year has been the explosion of the blog. Everyone and anyone has one. And SixApart has exploded their offerings to take advantage of the market. Part of this explosion has been packing as much crap as possible on the home page - my personal home page. It's gotten to the point I'm almost ready to leave because I have to look at the same crap multiple times a day and can't configure the page to put the information that is most important to me close to the top.

Take this screenshot, which is what I see everytime I log into to post a blog or check stats (which appear to be down more than they are up - grr).

So SixApart, will you do something about this big waste of pixel space? If I want to listen to Seth Godin I would have done that already. If I gave a shit about Skype I would already be using it.

And on another note - wtf with the overwhelming plug in options. What happened to "Don't Make Me Think", clear and clean UI and ease of use? That was the whole point I stuck with you in the first place, and now you're filling up my plate with all this crap I don't care about.

Give me back my clean simple UI - or I will go use someone else.

Heather events this week

Tonight is the LA Geek Dinner. I've got such mixed feelings about calling it "geek". Coming from the Bay Area almost everyone has some level of geekiness. But here in LA geeks are different. For one, I don't consider myself extremely technical - it's because I don't have a CS degree and don't code AJAX, client or server software. But I do know enough to call bullshit on clueless developers and enough to expect that even the best developer can explain whatever technological thing he's the master of and I'll get it.

But here's a funny story. I was at a Halloween party a few years ago when I first moved here and someone of course asked me what I did. The conversation went like this.

Guy: So what do you do?
Me: I'm a tech geek. (I wanted to be vague.)
Him: Me too!
Me: Really. Cool. What kind of tech?
Him: Sound recording!
Me: (face fallen) Oh really.

So much for my definition of tech geek, which I define as: Software, Internet and Web Application development. Any part of the development process. If you design UI, discuss HCI, write code, test or know why each part is important to the whole then as far as I'm concerned you're a geek. Hell - if you just love software, the Internet and web application you're a geek on some level.

--

And then, Tomorrow night, I'm doing my mash-up show on Theory Radio. 8-11pm pacific time. I could make this into a bigger thing than I'm doing - but I really just enjoy mash-ups, you know, bastardized, mixed up music, and I love playing it on the radio. I like to play stuff that wouldn't necessarily be played on the "radio". And then I also play stuff I like.

Tune in sometime.

Proud or embarassed?

I've finally ended up on youtube.

I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed by this demo I gave that's now up on YouTube. I'm demoing what is now known as AJAX or Web 2.0 to a bunch of AOL designers at the design summit (I think) back in 2000. At that time, the web 2.0 paradigms that we're used to - web pop-ups, mouse overs, etc, didn't exist. Pop-ups were irritating ads. The whole idea of having your design separate from the code was novel.

Anyway, it's kind of cool, and nostalgic to see the old app I demoed our stuff (the calendar along with several other apps) to over 30 groups in AOL to audiences of more than 200 people. And I all got was a couple lousy patents! :(  (Not even on this tech.)

Heathervescent goes Mobile

Everything is going mobile these days, and I am too. Now you can read this blog on your mobile phone via WINKsite. Just visit this URL (http://winksite.com/heathervesce/heather) on your mobile phone and you can read my post anywhere.

Click the link below to see how it might look on your phone. Check it out, let me know what you think.

Blogher - Getting caught up

  P1010017 
  Originally uploaded by smiely.

Here is Susan Mernit and I getting caught up after a year break. What crazy stories we had to tell. And blogher is just about to begin. Whew.

Blogs of Interest (for Bloghers)

Hello out there. It's the night before Blogher starts and I'm busy putting the final touches on my topics for discussion for tomorrow. First on the agenda is a blog tour. I want to show you some site in my blogosphere and let's talk about what technology was used to create them and how that affects the look of the site.

• Pinkyracer on LiveJournal
• Be Reckless on Typepad
• Daily Mantra - custom designed site on MT
• Blogging.la - multiple-author community site on MT
• Engadget - snarky product review
• Treehugger - green product review site
• The Candy Blog - YUM!
• and of course, our beloved Blogher site utilizing Drupal.

And of course, you're looking at this site right now which is authored on Typepad. So, let's get on with the show...

Blogher next week!

Yikes, it's just hit me, Blogher is next weekend. Well, next Friday and Sat actually. Where did this week go? Where did July go? Jeeze, where did this year go?

All Caps =

Just remember, you heard it here first (or at least, read it here first).

From now on, when I see ALL CAPS, I am imagining that you are talking to me in a Pee Wee Herman voice!

HA HA. NOW, ISN'T THAT FUNNY!

And in the technology world...

Earlier this week, I coordinated the geek dinner follow-up to LA Barcamp. I was pretty happy as 30 people RSVPed and I think everyone actually showed up and on time! Lots of familiar faces and about 30% women.

I had some interesting conversations about Tivo and contextual ads, some yummy Indian food and we ended the evening with a discussion about cultivating innovation in large companies. The full write up is here. And this is definately just the beginning.

And in other tech news, I'm speaking at Blogher. I'm on the day one schedule and will be doing a basics blog course along with Miss Zoot and Melinda Casino. It's going to be all basics, so if you don't know where to start - come to our session.

I'm looking forward to the day 2 sessions, especially the room of your own bofs.

Geek Dinner next week

I'm coordinating the Geek Dinner, the follow-up to the LA Barcamp.

If you interested in meeting fellow technologists in Los Angeles - or just passing through - get on this google group. Here are the specific details...

Logistics
When: Tuesday evening, April 18th at 8:00 pm
Where: The Electric Lotus, 4656 Franklin (entrance on Vermont) in Los Feliz
http://www.electriclotus.com/

RSVP: the sooner the better, but you MUST RSVP by Monday, April 17th at Noon
to attend. Please RSVP to geek (at) heathervescent (dot) com.

Electric Lotus is Indian and they can do vegan and veggie dishes. Come
prepared to pay for yourself as we don't have a sponsor.

What to expect:
This is an open forum to continue discussions from BarCamp. We're here to
share ideas and meet like minded geeks in Los Angeles. We're working on
getting a speaker to talk for 15-20 minutes. If you have a topic request or
would like to volunteer, let me know. Remember to bring biz cards or contact
info.

Please pass this invite to anyone you think would be interested and contact
me if you have any questions.

funky nerdophile?

So this post on craigslist missed connections (I don't read it, but my friends do) could sound like me, but I don't give my phone number out at bars (or really ever). Cause a funky nerdophile would only give out an email address (and I'd have to choose from one of about 20 to give you.)

At Barcamp

Hey, I'm at LA BarCamp this weekend. Go check out the live blogging over here, thanks to Mack Reed. I'll fill you in on what I'm doing later, but I'm hosting the e-iron chef meets junkyard wars electronics swap and helping with Mistress Chi Chi on the GTD session. It will be lots of fun.

MT overload

How many freaking MT entry forms can I have open at the same time in the same browser actively writing? The answer: 3!

favorite bushes, favorite email addresses

It's the morning tug of war. Coffee, Moki fed in his new bowls, the door to the upstairs deck open and the sunlight streaming into Gloria's office (where I have moved my office while she is gone). When Moki and I walk in the neighborhood, he has specific bushes and locations that he must sniff and re-mark. I was thinking about this and my various email accounts that are my favorites and I must check. I have over 20 email addresses, about 8 that I regularly check. Two that I generally respond with. Two that are big name web mail applications that I use for archiving or when my system goes down.

But I definitely have my favorite. When I took the heathervescent domain I wanted to go with one email address and no spam. That lasted about 2 years and the mailto:hbomb is retired and filtered away onto one of those online services. I think some people still use that as my primary mailto address, and it is by far my favorite one, but it's just too unwieldy to use. (I could actually use Spam software, but it doesn't seem to work well. And I do have spam filtering on the server.)

I've been working with two primary IDs for the past several years and one was definitely the primary, "inner circle" one. But there has been a shift in the force. And the "secondary" one that has been holding down the fort is becoming my favorite. It's the workhorse.

I'll talk more about my favorite email address in a bit. For now, it's time for Moki to visit his bushes.

kick your own ass

Get your own "kick ass" shirt at the Superviva Store.

Or better yet, create your own life list at Superviva! You can see mine in the right column of this blog (RSS feed!)

Superviva is a new site where you can create a list of the things you want to do in your life. You know, like goals. It's easy to add goals, look at other people's lists and get ideas. Then you do them and check them off your list.

I've been addicted to it since I started playing with it in it's early phases. It's fun and inspiring to write down my goals and see them all in a list. And then look at the list of everything I've done. It makes me feel like I've really accomplished something.

I'm going to write more about it, because I think it is really a great site - and because of it, I'm no longer doing my yearly goals - I've moved all my goals to Superviva.

Come on, join me in Kicking Ass in 2006! I dare you!

Redesign alert

It's about time that heathervescent gets a face lift. I'm currently on the second design of this site as powered by Movable Type on Typepad. SixApart has been great at getting out new features and I've been lax at using them. There have been a lot of things I wanted to do with the site but couldn't because of Weblog authoring UI tools. (No, I shudder to go back to HMTL coding in notepad, and for some reason IBM can not fix my CD-ROM, therefore my Dreamweaver CD remains in it's plastic sleeve.

However, working on Gloria's Be Reckless blog, which uses Typepad as well, I found there are modules that offer a lot of flexibility. That's what that "Some Stuff" mish-mash over to the left under my photo is all about. All the playing makes me think back to things I wanted to do, so now I'm thinking about a redesign.

With that in mind, I'd like to ask you, my dear readers, what you would like to see. Do you think my blog is a bunch of ego-centric ramblings? Why do you read it? Are you interested in my resources around LA? Around other parts of the world/US? Are you one of those x-friend stalkers who got written off (or wrote yourself off) a few years ago when I left the Bay Area? That x-fiancee from 10 years ago? Or just some random Google search black hole? Well, whatever. Tell me what you'd like to see. Cause I want to know.

welcome to blogher

Hello blogstalkers, I'm sitting in the atrium of the TechMart in San Jose. I'm drinking a cup of coffee, checking my email and wearing my blogstalker t-shirt that I made yesterday. I wore it to the blogher dinner last night and it was a bit hit. I ran into some old friends, Susan Mernit and Mary Hodder. And had a bunch of conversations about blogging, of course. G and I were going to hang out after the dinner but as we headed back to the hotel room, the stress of the day came down hard and it was all we could do to drag ourselves to bed. We had a 6am wake-up call the next day.

what did they expect?

Newsweek has an article about how the recent blogger attendees to the Harvard blog conference were mostly male. To that I say DOH! The Harvard conference was invite-only and of course the largest boys club would invite mostly males to their conference. Where and how did they do their research?

Newsweek is completely off, as well as Harvard in their conference. I don't think any of the bloggers I frequent were included in the invite. My blogroll and the blogs I read are more than 50% women. I would suggest a poll be done at some of the open blogger conferences and communities and see how that compares with the Harvard sample.

Grrr... the more you perpetuate the male boys club worldview, the longer it will persist.

Online Communication Behavior

This is a great article by Amy Gahran on human behavior and the Internet. Enjoy.

"Contrary to popular opinion, the Internet is not really about technology. It’s about people, specifically how people communicate. ..."