Category: Geeks

Silicon Valley geek dinner tomorrow night

Shel Israel says he never comes to my dinners cause he doesn’t think he’s a geek. Let’s see, he helped launch companies from Creative Labs to Riya and he’s not a geek? Yeah, right. Anyway, here’s a dirty little secret. Our dinners are always open to everyone. Even PR people!

While I was in Europe I learned that people around the world are jealous of Silicon Valley and Seattle cause we have so many geeks in those two places. Hey, I’m jealous of Europe. You have Anina the geek model! And decent beer!

But, please feel free to tell us about your geek meetups here too!

Anyway, here’s the details (Maryam and Patrick are coming too, so the whole family is welcome). Meet at Palo Alto’s Cheesecake Factory (on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto) at 6 p.m. Bring cash so you can pay for your part. Feel free to show off your geek toys that you got for Christmas!

Paul reviews latest Windows Vista build

So, the Windows Vista December 2005 CTP (Build 5270) is here. This is a big one! Paul Thurrott said it was so big that it took four parts to properly cover it. I’ll have a Tablet PC running the latest Windows Vista and some other stuff on it at the geek dinner next week if you wanna take a look (unfortunately my Tablet PC doesn’t have a good enough video card to run the latest glass theme, but everything else is there).

Paul’s conclusion? “Honestly, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good about Windows Vista. I can see sweeping improvements across the board and, perhaps more important, a level of fit and finish that had never been present in pre-release versions of this product before.”

I agree. I’m using it more and more and it’s harder and harder to use my XP machines. 2006 is looking like it’s going to be a fun year to be a MSFTie.

Well, I’m outta here for the weekend. Have a happy holidays. Next week we’re in Santa Clara, CA. Looking forward to having a blogger/geek dinner in Palo Alto on December 30 at 6 p.m. in the Cheesecake Factory on University Ave.

CES hotel rooms needed…

Whew, harder to find than an Xbox, an iPod, or a Nikon D200 is a decently priced hotel room in Las Vegas during CES week. Anyone know of any deals? Cheapest I could find on a cursory search is New York New York for $349 per night. For Vegas! Damn, that reminds me of Comdex week.

Geek/Blogger Events Coming Up (CES plans?)

In Silicon Valley next week? Come to our blogger/geek dinner at Palo Alto’s Cheesecake Factory. December 30, 2005 at 6 p.m. All are invited.

In Las Vegas at CES? Let’s get together. First, on Friday evening, January 6, we’re looking to get something going. We’re looking to do a Naked Conversation dinner or something. Ideas wanted. Where should we meet? We’ll probably need to RSVP, so we’ll need to keep track of who is coming (leave a comment here and we’ll keep you in touch).

MacWorld? I’m gonna try to get down for a day or two of that. Anyone planning any dinners?

Anything else going on that we should join in over the next couple of weeks?

March, month of Web Conferences

Whew, everyone seems to want to do a Web Conference in March. There’s SXSW. There’s O’Reilly’s ETech. And now Microsoft enters in with Mix 06.

I’m speaking at SXSW and I’m helping out on the Mix 06 team.

My first question is “will Bill Gates let us put a back channel up during his keynote?”

After watching the interchange at Les Blogs between Mena and Ben, I’d guess not, but you never know. This isn’t going to be a PDC or a TechED.

So, why do another Web conference?

Well, my trip through Europe punctuated why. I kept meeting businesspeople who had bet their businesses on Microsoft’s Web technologies. From Reuters to L’Oreal to Heineken to dozens of other CTO’s and CEOs that I met who told me they are using Microsoft technologies and wanted a way to learn only about those (since most of the other events are heavily LAMP-focused).

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Microsoft conference is the one with both a blog and an RSS button? Next thing you know Microsoft will be adding tags, making deals with Firefox and getting along with the Web Standards Project, and figuring out how to do great maps and great search. Hmmm.

Anyway, what Web conference are you going to in March? Hope to see you there.

Geek dinner in Brussels tonight, some of our pictures from Europe

Looking forward to meeting a crowd of geeks tonight in Brussels. Maryam and I just bought a bunch of chocolates. Yummy.

Last night I had mussels. Yeah, mussels in Brussels. They were yummy, here, have some.

In Paris the other night Maryam was especially radiant. Cool trick with slow flash and spinning the camera.

Dave Sifry, founder of Technorati, and I were partying way too late into the evening in Paris. We were out with a bunch of these guys who invited us out to a Paris geek dinner. Can you pick out the VC in that crowd? Someone give us names!

Just to prove I did have dinner with a real live model, here’s a picture I took of Anina and another where I’m in a picture with her and my wife is between us. Heheh. Actually, Maryam and her became good friends. When we were leaving they were literally dancing in the aisles together. I’ll leave that image in your heads.

OK, now, some of you said I needed a soul. So, the other night, we visited Mass at Notre Dame. Even if you aren’t religious, this is a must-see experience (you can walk around the whole church while they are holding mass — the music is incredible and the accoustics must be experienced). Lighting a prayer candle is a spiritual experience.

Just to bug those of you who can’t believe I actually look at computers at famous museums around the world, here’s a picture of one of the Windows terminals at the D’Orsay. Of course, for those of you who think I have no class, we also checked out the Van Gogh’s too!

More fun stuff soon. Having way too much fun in Europe. Off to the geek dinner…