Kicking along, have a few posts I’d love to put up if only they’d stop getting lost along the way.

JodieM found a periodic table online and created a shared GoogleDoc that we could work from. Then as tends to happen she got busier and I got less busy. This resulted in most of the element ideas coming from my side and taking suggestions from others. It was easy to come up with the things that I could relate to but more than a few times I was concerned that I’d missed something glaringly obvious.  I ran my ideas past a few people during the development stages and was pretty happy with the spread I’d created. Hopefully not too much of some things and missing other. A moment of quiet humour led to me add ‘Ni’ for Monty Python and that has by far been the most commented on ‘element’.

The finalised table (for now)  is able to be viewed here.  It’s been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License . I’d love to see it used in other BarCamps as I think it really does embody the whole BarCamp spirit and other geeky networking events. There are way more elements than space on the table which is no bad thing as it lets each group update the table and add the elements that mean the most to them. I’ve also deliberately left the space at the bottom blank. The element list is going to be printed up and put next to the table. On the day the bottom spaces can be filled in by Sydney BarCamp3 attendees with what they’d like to add.

I’m pretty excited that it’s been so well received. It’s also the first project that I’ve CC Licensed which is also exciting, for me at least. A couple of people have mentioned that it’d be a cool t-shirt idea. I think so too and may look into doing a run sometime. Keep an eye out here and on my twitter timeline for more details.

Thank-you to everybody for their feedback!

The rules:
1- Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2 – People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3 – At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4 – Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Things:

1. I enjoy problem solving, puzzles and challenges. I adore cryptic crosswords and sudoku in particular.
2. My personality type is ESTJ which kind of explains a lot, but not everything.
3. I was once proposed to.
4. If given the choice between dark, milk or white, I’ll take dark chocolate every time.
5. Tutoring is the most self-fulfilling job I’ve ever done and would do it again in a heartbeat.
6. I made a resolution a couple of years ago to fly somewhere at least once every 12 months for as long as I can. So far so good.
7. I’m something of a clutz and tend to drop things or trip often.
8. I often knit while watching episodes or movies at home to occupy my hands. Not only is it the ultimate in stress reliever but I find it difficult to just sit and watch something, especially if I’m alone.

I’m tagging:
~ Lauren Watson
~ Monnie
~ Fiona Henderson
~ Michael Specht
~ Della Misner
~ Donna Brown
~ Tony Buttafuoco
~ Lauren Hewitt

The point to the post is that I continually observe how age seems to be less important than your achievements, passions and outlooks. At a different event I was among a group where the exclamation of ‘I can’t believe you’re only 23′ was the response to a story about somebody and what they had done during recent years. Majority of my social and professional interactions involve people across a very diverse age group. My friends group age range exceeds 25 years between youngest and oldest. In recent years age seems to matter less when it comes to determining who you talk to and befriend, especially among technology people. What keeps us all so young? Our areas of passion are young and vibrant to many; do we tend to adopt those characteristics and to non-tech people appear much younger than our years?

What I’d like to find out is whether the age barrier breakdown is occuring amongst non-technology people. What about groups in other countries or even different parts of Australia? I think it’s great that I know and have built friendships with people of varying ages. Experience comes with age and develops into widsom. Sharing of wisdom is something that people can always benefit from.

I’ve also registered my own domain for a bargain price. Now I just need to determine what I’d like to do with it and organise a page and hosting. I’m actually looking forward to developing some more web skills in terms of basic page design and coding in addition to learning more about how domains, space hosting and creating a statement page can all come together.

It’s an interesting read and while I can’t overly identify with all aspects of it, I suspect that’s due to differences in the American and Australian school systems, difference in lifestyle and engagement with my parents and other adults.

• I chat therefore I am….. an article about a conversation held between two advanced chatbots.
• Alter Egos…. an author commentary with pictures of people and their in-game avatars. Interesting because of the research that this guy has done. He’s also written and published a book about these people.

I haven’t done anything remarkable with either of my machines lately but can report my ongoing satisfaction with Ubuntu. I’ve found even when I give my laptop to somebody who’s never used linux before they are able to navigate the desktop and menus with only minimal guidance.

In more exciting news I’ve finished my Open Source Software paper and have decided I’m going to go send it in for consideration for the Research miniconf at linux.conf.au which will be in Sydney in January next year. I’m excited, this will be my first paper submission to a conference. I do plan to go whether I get accepted or not, should be fun to go to a linux conference and I know I’ll learn a lot.

Cory has done a number of things, most notably he’s a co-editor of BoingBoing. While not as likely to take to the streets, I do agree with some of his ideas about freedom of information and the problem with licensing which tends to punish only those trying to use products legitimately.

His writing is also very good. I urge you to check out his website and the various novels and novellas he’s authored.

I’m also fairly rapt that Nostariel’s bluetooth adapter means I can easily transfer photos and clips from my phone to wherever I like. I also have a shiny new Antec Aria case for my desktop pc.