Science for SEO: Free Geek

January 16, 2009

TGIF - yippie

Welcome to another installment of TGIF. I am assuming that those of you who have had a very cold week will not want to hear about how hot and sunny it is here in Thailand so I won't expand. I hope that you have all had a great week and that you picked up a few exciting projects along the way.

Without further ado...

I love Larissa Meek's 28 cakes for Geeks. Feel free to make me one and send it through. I love cake.

Check out some very cool videos called "“Accurate Scientific Visualizations of the T4 bacteriophage infection process and replication” - you'll have to go and look.

Quotes:

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation. (H. H. Munro)

The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse time. (Merrick Furst)

Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. (Donald Knuth)

Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing. (Dick Brandon)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. (A. Clarke)

Facts:

A byte, in computer terms, means 8 bits. A nibble is half that: 4 bits. (Two nibbles make a byte)

While it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users.

The Afghan capital Kabul has a cyber cafe

Wikipedia has a page devoted to toilet roll holders

The oldest surviving computer in the world is called CSIRAC and is located in Melbourne

Microsoft writes the code for autopilot systems in all major airplanes

And thank you to Steve for this nice little YouTube gem :)

October 15, 2008

Geeks fight the digital divide

This blog is taking part in Blog Action Day and this is the contribution, putting the floodlights on "Free Geek":

"Free Geek" has been around since 2000. It's a non-profit organisation that recycles computer scrap to make working machines, to distribute into the community to those who can't afford them, thus helping bridge the digital divide:

"In the eight years since its formation, Free Geek has recycled over 1,500 tons of electronic scrap and refurbished over 15,000 computer systems that are now in use by individuals and organizations in the community."

These cool new machines are loaded with OpenSource software such as Linux and OpenOffice for example, and then they're shipped out into the community. They're not called computers anymore after that, they're called "FreekBoxes".

You can apply to adopt a computer, you can volunteer and help build them, and you can donate computers, keyboards, mice, monitors,...They also need stuff like toilet roll, food and printer paper to keep the operation working, and also screwdrivers and such things.

They are based in Portland, OR. You can go to the site and donate money though. It's a brilliant initiative and maybe some of you will be inspired to do the same thing in your local community.