Technobafflement

I've just been watching Hackers, the one and only cult movie for inspiring young technogeeks to hack bank mainframes in the mid 1990s (yeah, I said mainframe). Watching this movie just tickles me these days, although I thought it was SO COOL when I was in grade five.
It's a far cry from what we're capable of 14 years later. Have a look at Microsoft's Surface computer. It's just like using your computer, only it's touchscreen. And a coffee table. And a painting easel. And I thought Eee Pcs were cool.

I'm still scared of downloading torrents, my gran won't click on links or open email attachments. She's terrified of untraceable Internet companies charging her for opening email files. I'm scared of iinet charging me for episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

How are we supposed to keep up with the technology that's thrown at us? Every day I find out about some new gadget and think I'm on top of things - no wait, that's been out for three years already. I've been trying to find somewhere I can go to read the biz on what's happening out there. The best sites I can find are Wired, TechRepublic and Technology Review.

There sheer amount of information on the Internet makes me dizzy. I'm wondering if I can split my brain so one half can spend all its time looking at blogs and reading the news and the other half can do uni assignments and work. If anyone knows about a gadget that can do this already...

Famous Nerds

The nerd was always an enigmatic organism. A being that lurked in the bedroom shadows of social acceptability, hiding his spotty face from the light with soft white fingers. To be a nerd was to condemn oneself to a life of unattractive stereotypes and ridicule. It meant hovering at the bottom of the abyss of cool and banishment from social nirvana. It heralded exile from the Olympus of golden teenage rock and jock gods. But the nerd ignored the hasty backpedaling of mainstream society - he was oblivious to the subconscious cultural fear that the highly intelligent had the ability to dominate. Now, that fear has come alive. We live in a world where geeks crawl through the streets in expensive black cars and suave dark suits. We are stranded in an alternate reality where polished loafers* reflect the unsuspecting faces of the masses. In our age of technology, the nerd is rubbing pale hands together over the fates of economy, ecology, technology and ultimately, the future.

Earlier I was blogging about sexy young nerds. Well, here are some young-ish, not very sexy, nerds, my subjective list of the top 5 nerds that control your life, now that your life is THE INTERNET.**

Larry Page & Sergey Brin
Profile: Co-founders of Google. Presidents of Products and Technology of Google.
Facts: Larry’s first computer was an Exidy Sorcerer. The Sorcerer boasted 2 MHz processor speed and 8K RAM. That's as fast as an old calculator. Sergey liked puzzles when he was a kid.
Ages: 36
Nerd Rating: *****
Product Addiction Rating: *****

Evan Williams
Profile: Founder of Twitter, Pyra Labs, Blogspot, Blogger.
Fact: Evan likes vegetables.
Age: 37
Nerd Rating: ****
Product Addiction Rating: ***


Tom Anderson
Profile: Co-founder of Myspace. Public relations invention. Not really Tom Anderson since News Corp took over his Myspace profile.
Fact: Tom was raided by the FBI for hacking into a bank in 1985.
Age: 30-something. Not as young as he'd like.
Nerd Rating: **
Product Addiction Rating: ****

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen & Jawed Karim
Profile: Co-founders of YouTube
Fact: The idea for YouTube was created at a dinner party.
Ages: 33, 31, 30
Nerd Rating: **
Product Addiction Rating: *****

Jimmy Wales
Profile: Co-founder of Wikipedia
Fact: Jimmy lives in a 'grandma' house.
Age: 43
Nerd Rating: ****
Product Addication Rating: *****

*Not all nerds wear loafers
**May not be entirely true