The Great Geek Manual

Certainly, the internet is the most postmodern thing on the planet. The immediate consequence in the west seems to have been to breed a generation more interested in social networking than social revolution. But, if we look behind that, we find a secondary reverse effect-a universal yearning for some kind of offline authenticity. We desire to be redeemed from the grossness of our consumption, the sham of our attitudinising, the teeming insecurities on which social networking sites were founded and now feed. We want to become reacquainted with the spellbinding narrative of expertise. If the problem for the postmodernists was that the modernists had been telling them what to do, then the problem for the present generation is the opposite: nobody has been telling us what to do…

These three ideas, of specificity, of values and of authenticity, are at odds with postmodernism. We are entering a new age. Let’s call it the Age of Authenticism and see how we get on.

- “Postmodernism is dead” by Edward Docx, July 20, 2011.
First published by Prospect Magazine.

Art

• Brilliantly designed Star Trek cat tower
• A Buffy portrait by Phil Noto. He’s drawn Willow, Spike and Dawn as well.
• GAG has posted a video of one geek’s in-game marriage proposal featuring a custom Portal 2 level.
• Mario carved as a classic statue, La Pietá.
• Portal: No Escape is an AMAZING fan film.
• What would you do if you saw a Question Block hanging mid-air?

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Being a productive geek has become even easier, thanks to advances in mobile internet and smartphone technology. Apple’s iPhone allows geeks to take care of their business wherever they have a mobile internet connection. Geeks who are always on the go and still need to get their work done should consider downloading these apps from the App Store to get the most out of their technology.

Skype

Contacting friends and clients through the highly popular voice over IP (VOIP) service, Skype, can be accomplished on the iPhone with this officially sanctioned app. Geeks can video chat, instant message and make international business calls just as they would on a desktop computer. Use Skype from any location where their iPhone receives mobile internet service.

WordPress

Updating a blog or website using the content manager WordPress is simple with this app for the iPhone. Geeks can keep their users up-to-date on the latest news while out of the home or office. This app is especially good for liveblogging events, allowing a blogger to get the information to their visitors before any other site while also improving their popularity.
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1609
Galileo Galilei first demonstrates his telescope to government officials of Venice.

1835
Richard Adams Locke blurs the line between science and science fiction when he publishes his week-long serial “Moon Hoax: Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made” in the New York Sun newspaper under in the name of Sir John Herschel, the real-life astronomer who discovered of Uranus. Read more at History.com.

1900
Constantin Perskyi presents a paper at the first International Electricity Congress at the Paris Exposition in Paris, France. In the paper, he describes a device he refers to as a “television” which makes use of the specific magnetic properties of Selenium. It is the first recorded use of the term “television” in history. The International Electricity Congress votes to endorse the term over the term “radiovision.”
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Considering the different identities we might present in different contexts, there is a significant amount of work to do to construct digital identities that present the ‘right’ kind of narratives. This labor of constant posting, commenting and uploading in order to cultivate a digital identity is termed “communicative capitalism” by Jodi Dean. In return for free use of social media sites, we provide our digital stories and online content to media companies; these companies then use this data to sell space to advertisers who then target us with personalized advertisements. In a parallel of a market economy, we find ourselves in an attention economy, tailoring our digital stories to maximize the numbers of friends, followers or replies, deploying our digital narratives in competition with other users for a share of the audience’s limited attention. Rather than engage in conversations, we can find ourselves attempting to cultivate audiences.

- “Life Narratives in Social Media” by Lyndsay Grant, August 15, 2011.
Originally posted by DMLcentral.

56
Johannes Gutenberg finishes printing what will later be known as the Gutenberg Bible, marking the beginning of “Gutenberg Revolution.” Though it isn’t the first book printed on his new movable type printing press, it is the first major literary work Gutenberg has produced, and it will be the work for which he is later remembered.

79
In the Bay of Naples, Mount Vesuvius erupts, killing roughly 16,000 to 20,000 people and burying the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae beneath ash and magma. Pliny the Elder, one of Rome’s greatest scientists, dies in the incident.

1456
The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed. Although it is not the first book to be printed by Gutenberg’s new movable type system, it will be the work for which Gutenberg will be remembered, it will mark the advent of the “Gutenberg Revolution” and the “Age of the Printed Book.”

1831
Charles Darwin is invited to travel aboard the HMS Beagle by English botanist John Henslow.
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If something becomes unimportant to people, it gets scrapped for parts; if it becomes important, it turns into a symbol and must eventually be destroyed. The only way to survive over the long run is to be made of materials large and worthless, like Stonehenge and the Pyramids, or to become lost. The Dead Sea Scrolls managed to survive by remaining lost for a couple millennia. Now that they’ve been located and preserved in a museum, they’re probably doomed. I give them two centuries – tops.

- “The Millennium Clock” by Danny Hillis, 1995.
First published by Wired magazine.

Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” by Gene Wolfe.
• Listen to “The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “Sky People” by Philip S Jones at LightningBolt Theater.
• Listen to “The Strange Affair Of The Sundered Man” by Joshua Reynolds.
• Listen to “The Thing on the Doorstep” by H.P. Lovecraft at 19 Nocturne Boulevard.
• Listen to “The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk” by Jessica Broughton.

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